we began spring training very late, so the staff was quite intent on sean and i hopping in the drill as soon as possible. we collected all the drill pages from the box, and put them neatly in our notebooks. the next day the head marching tech, darryl, told us “get out there, and try not to die.” anyone who has ever tried to hop in to a cadets show knows how dangerous such a proposition can be. we managed not to kill, or seriously wound anyone over the next week and a half, but I learned all about pants.
the cadets hit the road, and headed immediately toward the southern part of the united states. i was unprepared for the heat, to say the least. i remember feeling absolutely exhausted everyday during the last thirty minutes of rehearsal. simply surviving rehearsal each day was a task, let alone the run-through, and the show later on. those first two weeks were the hardest part of the summer for me. the first day that i actually felt like a human being after rehearsal was july 11- dci atlantic championships in hershey, pa. it was a morning show, and we had the rest of the day off in hersheypark. while wandering around that afternoon, i realized that i was going to survive the rest of the summer. It was comforting to say the least.
the 1998 cadets contras waiting to enter the field for retreat in hershey, pa.
i am the third one from the front.
i hadn’t really been aware, but while i was busy trying to survive, the 1998 cadets were becoming one of the cleanest versions of the cadets ever. i was unaware of what was going on until marc sylvester gave us a speech one morning during rehearsal that was reminiscent of famous speech from american history:
"you guys know you are pretty good, right?
i had a dream last night…
it was a good dream…
i dreamt that you scored 100 at finals.
you can be THAT good, if you work your asses off until august 15. i promise.
now set it up on page 81.”and so began ‘the push’…