Wichita Northwest High School is home to a variety of clubs and activities. But one of the largest ones  is the Northwest Marching Grizzlies. This marching band puts hundreds of hours into halftime shows, pregame marches, parades, and more. The band is without a doubt an essential part of our school spirit, and without them Northwest would be a much blander place. Most notable out of the Marching Band is the Drum Majors. These are individuals who command the marching band, and instruct individuals during marches, parades, and warmups. Without them the marching band wouldn’t exist, and thanks to their extraordinary efforts we have an excellent marching band. Ben Shaffer is  a career member of the marching band.

 Okay. So, first question, why did you decide to become a drum major here?  

I really like being in band and wanted to be more involved. And also, I kind of knew that not many other people wanted to do it, and then they needed someone who could do it 

 Can you tell me more about your previous band experience overall?  

I was in band. Played marching. I played flute freshman year, then I played piccolo sophomore year, and it was piccolo section leader junior, and played piccolo again, and now I’m gonna drum major.  

Okay, and do you still play Piccolo even after starting Drum Major?  

Yes. 

What kind of tasks do you usually perform as a drum major?

Leading stretches, moving things around, doing really, whatever Dr Leopold wants us to do, and conducting the band and calling up cheers and leading the stands. 

What kind of training did you have to become a drum major? 

What we had to do? Are you asking a question about auditions?  

No.

Ok, we had to do auditions at the end of last year, and then once we were selected from there, we had to go to a drum major camp at Kansas State University, and then we had band camp here. 

And that kind of leads in my next question, what kind of practice do you have to do to go for drum major, like outside of school, practice? 

Knowing what the songs are, how they go, conduct practice, conducting by yourself. And just like thinking through here, going to run stuff and like, at the games and working through a routine on, like, pregame and everything.  

What’s your favorite part about being a drum major?  

Definitely, either, probably playing in the stands, being able to lead the band and, like, set the kind of set the tone for the whole game and the student section.  

Okay, here this one’s, what’s your least favorite part about being drum major? Is there anything you don’t like doing having to deal with? 

Like, you’re like, higher up on the command of like, that is my problem to deal with. So like, I said, like, essentially you’d be like, “Oh, just go talk to the drum major”. But now you’re actually drum major. You’re giving people like you have to solve problems and your challenges and stuff with being a drum major.  

That leads me right into my next question, what do you think about the fresh freshman band this year? 

I haven’t really seen them much. I know there’s some really good ones. There’s some really bad freshmen. I have some really good freshmen. So I think, I think it’s promising. A lot of them are catching on pretty fast, so I think, I think they’re gonna be good.  

Okay, how do you feel about this year’s halftime show?  

I think it’s really good, as long as people can get the freaking drill down and learn how to march halftime and how to point their part to one point their toes. But the drill looks cool, at least for Breadfan. And I think, I think the songs are good.  

Okay, so are there any specific challenges this year that we’re gonna face as a marching band? Do you think there’s anything different this year? 

Oh definitely have to do with homecoming and how we’re gonna what we’re gonna do for that, because we’re not doing the big parade this year, and also with the uniforms, because they’re so new, and there’s so many more buttons and parts that you know people don’t lose them, and how they know what they’re doing when they’re putting them on.  

Big concerns with uniforms this year?  

Yeah, people losing stuff, because there’s when you’re taking them off, you have to take at least undo the breastplate a little bit and flipping it, and then you have the cape that you can take off on that you don’t have to take off. But when you’re when you’re changing stuff, people are likely to lose stuff. Hopefully they don’t but it’s definitely a possibility. 

And last question how do you think we’re going to do it Arkalala this year? 

We’re going to beat Enid and we’re going to win the whole thing. Okay, first place this year. 

Yeah, okay,  All right. That’ll be all for the interview today, Ben, thank you very much.