by Lydia Crownover, staff photographer

Every year around this time, band members who are motivated by hope and admiration fill out section leader applications. A section leader is sort of like a captain for a certain instrument in the band.

Jerrod Schmidt, saxophone, says “a section leader helps their section improve with hard work, determination, and patience, a lot of patience.”
The hopeful students fill out an application, get interviewed by Mr. Dean, the band director, and then wait in anticipation for the announcement on the last day of school. Each student has a different reasoning behind why they want to be the section leader of their instrument. Some want to inspire the underclassmen to work as hard as they can, some want to earn a letter for participating in band, and some just want to boss the rookies around.

Jennifer Bohr, clarinet, says “I want to be section leader because it means that I can help the school in the music program and I can be a leader for underclassmen in my section.”

Other than section leader, several students are applying for drum major, which is like a section leader for the whole band.

Madeline Petersen and Kolbe Peloquin were the drum majors last year and had a lot of fun representing the Bishop Carroll marching band. Peloquin graduated this past Sunday and his little sister, Lisa Peloquin, is hoping to follow her big brother’s footsteps and be next year’s drum major. Other than Lisa Peloquin and Madeline Petersen, Anna Caps, Crystal Nguyen, and Chris Gregg are also trying for the drum major position for the upcoming season.

For the multitude of instruments, Mr. Dean has to interview each and every one of the students who applied; that also includes the students applying for drum major. “The hardest part is choosing from all of the talented students that we already have,” Mr. Dean says. “The applicant has to obviously be a good musician, but more importantly, they have to have good leadership skills.”