during our junior year of high school band, my friend sean looked at me one day, and asked if I wanted to try out for the cadets with him. I knew who the cadets were, and how good they were. I was always open to new things, so I told sean I would fly to jersey with him, even though I didn’t think I was good enough to make the line. we went up to camp in december of 1997. I remember being absolutely intimidated and so scared that I was visibly shaking. what a horrible feeling. I went in to audition for donnie vandoren. i played horribly. donnie looked at me and asked if I could physically carry the horn for an entire summer. i answered yes, of course. he told me to practice, and to come back to the next camp. wow. i didn’t get cut. Imagine my surprise. over the course of the winter camps, sean and i became more and more comfortable with the corps. it was time to move in, and neither of us had been told if we had a spot or not. we went to giants stadium to learn drill. we both got drill numbers. i was c6 and sean was 3b7. i guess we made it. desire and attitude are 98.2% of what it takes to be a cadet.

so there I was. a sixteen year old high school junior, a mediocre player at best- the newest member of the cadets. sean and i finished up our junior year, and moved into allentown college on 5 june 5 1998: two weeks and 58 pages of drill late.
 
 

the 1998 cadets moving from page 90b to 90c at dci finals in orlando.

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