Local grads grind toward DCI Nationals

The Sentinel-Record/Richard Rasmussen DCI TRAVELERS: From left, Lake Hamilton graduates Tyler Mattox and Tanner Armstrong, and Lakeside graduate Taylor Cotroneo, prepare for rehearsal Wednesday with the Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps on the Lakeside campus. The Cascades, a DCI corps from Washington state, also rehearsed in Hot Springs on Wednesday at Cutter Morning Star.
The Sentinel-Record/Richard Rasmussen DCI TRAVELERS: From left, Lake Hamilton graduates Tyler Mattox and Tanner Armstrong, and Lakeside graduate Taylor Cotroneo, prepare for rehearsal Wednesday with the Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps on the Lakeside campus. The Cascades, a DCI corps from Washington state, also rehearsed in Hot Springs on Wednesday at Cutter Morning Star.

Local students in the renowned Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps practiced in Hot Springs and performed in Little Rock Wednesday as their summer builds toward the Drum Corps International World Championships next month.

Recent Lake Hamilton graduates Tanner Armstrong and Tyler Mattox joined 2012 Lakeside graduate Taylor Cotroneo and the rest of the Crossmen in May for the ensemble's 40th national tour this summer. The tour will stop in more than 20 states from Washington to California to Georgia to Pennsylvania.

The tour will culminate next month in Indianapolis when the 2014 DCI World Championships return to Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Indianapolis Colts. Cotroneo said it was a surreal experience in 2012 when he watched the championships with "thousands and thousands of people up in the stands."

"It was my favorite show and that's what really encouraged me to try out for this corps," Cotroneo said.

Last year provided valuable experience for Cotroneo, but the Crossmen finished just outside of the top 12 teams that advanced to the finals. The Crossmen placed 13th in the preliminaries. Cotroneo said the ensemble is sitting firmly in 12th place this year and the gap has shrunk with the corps ahead of them, while the gap has grown between them and the groups below.

"We are striving harder this year," Armstrong said. "We're working harder."

"It is working a lot better this year for us," Cotroneo said.

Cotroneo attends Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. Armstrong will attend Arkansas State University in Jonesboro and Mattox will head to the University of Arkansas at Monticello after the summer tour.

Each performer was responsible for a membership fee of more than $3,000 that includes uniforms, equipment, travel, contest fees, food, and medical coverage. They spend much of the tour sleeping on buses, floors and air mattresses along the way.

A typical day for a member of the corps begins with breakfast at 7 or 8 a.m. depending on when they reached their destination. The group will work for several hours on visual work, practice music, take a 45-minute lunch, more music work, ensemble practice, perform that night, pack up, travel to the next location and "rinse and repeat," as Mattox said.

"It gets more comfortable, but it is just as hard," Cotroneo said of his second year. "It's still just as fun, actually."

The physical grind can take a toll. Armstrong is already wearing a knee brace.

"I'm digging it; it's fun," Armstrong said. "It is not as tough as spring training."

Crowd size and enthusiasm can vary at each performance, depending on the demographics of the area and the size of the venue. Cotroneo said stadiums and attendance in Texas are noticeably larger.

The Crossmen returned to Arkansas last Tuesday for "Music on the Move" at the Bentonville Tiger Athletic Complex. They were joined by other World Class groups like the Blue Stars out of Wisconsin, the Cascades of Washington and the Colts of Iowa. Cotroneo said interest was higher for the show in Bentonville this year.

"It was definitely one of the best performances I have had this summer," Mattox said. "It was one of my favorite performances.

"The crowd ate it up and loved it. It just felt good to be home."

The Crossmen did not head directly to central Arkansas from Bentonville. They next performed in Round Rock, Texas, at DCI Austin before the DCI Southwestern Championship in San Antonio. The group then performed at DCI Dallas on Monday and DCI in the Heartland in Mustang, Oklahoma, outside of Oklahoma City.

The Lakeside School District hosted the ensemble on Wednesday as it prepared for DCI Arkansas Wednesday at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock. The Cascades also stopped in Hot Springs for practice at Cutter Morning Star.

Armstrong referred to War Memorial as "our home stadium" for himself and Mattox. The Lake Hamilton High School Power Band has won each of the three state Championship at the Rock competitions since the event began.

All three local graduates said they were excited to be able to perform in front of their friends and family Wednesday evening.

"For them to be able to see in person what I have been working on for two and a half months -- it's really special to me that they get to see it," Mattox said.

"This is the home show and I know there are a lot of band kids going," Cotroneo said. "A lot of people I know from college are going to be there, and my family. (Lakeside) is taking around 150 kids to go watch this show."

The Crossmen will perform seven more times in six states before preliminaries begin on Aug. 7 in the DCI World Championships.

Local on 07/24/2014

Upcoming Events