In the first week of November, the drumline will be traveling to Marcus High School to compete in the annual LoneStar Classic Drumline competition. Last year, the group took home 4th place in what is considered one of the biggest drumline competitions in Texas.

“The competition is hosted by Marcus High school,” Rich Zhou said. “That school has one of the best drumlines and marching bands in the nation.”

Band and drumline are both groups that perform alongside the football players on Friday nights during halftime. The groups share many different responsibilities but are both alike in the desire they have to perform.

“Band is already a group of its own, but being with drumline is kind of like being in a band within a band,” senior and captain Will Hopkins said. “We have extended rehearsals and our own separate week of band camp. Band is already a close knit group of people, but I treat drumline like my second family.”

The competition involves solo performances as well as drumline performances. There are three judges that determine scores based off of music and technique. The highest score a member could get is a score of 100.

“The competition is a lot more state-wide,” Hopkins said. “We brought in almost every school in the DFW area. There were some groups from Austin and Lubbock, so we treat that one as one of our bigger competitions.”

Future drumline members that come from both Jasper and Shepton look up to their fellow peers and look forward to becoming apart of the hype and meeting new people. They also participate in several team-bonding activities during the summer to help prepare them to compete together.

“We try to treat the band program as one big cluster,” Hopkins said; “not just West drumline, Shepton drumline and Jasper drumline.”

The group has already begun rehearsals and they are more than excited to represent the school in hopes of bringing home another award-winning title. Members believe in taking full accountability for any preparation that could be acted upon.

“We take it upon ourselves to prepare our music, because it really does get competitive,” Hopkins said. “Preparation entails a lot of extended rehearsals after school and sometimes during lunch.”

The long hours devoted to ensuring a victory help further their passion for music as well as allow them to meet people who share their hobby. The number of members in drumline and band continues to increase with each passing year.

“The past few years we’ve been trying to get the hype for drumline,” Zhou said. “This year was a big step up where we’ve had to go up a division in our competitions because we’ve gotten more people coming in.”

After the games and rehearsals, the group still has a desire to be around fellow bandmates. They enjoy other interests that range outside of band, but are still school-related. They are all involved in other school clubs and help each other out in those activities as well.

“Finding this band of people that share the same interests as me has almost been like a blessing to me,” Hopkins said. “Being involved in drumline is probably one of the best choices I ever made.”