Students aging out of cancelled marching band competition given second chance

CINCINNATI (WKRC) - Hundreds of the country's best marching band members won’t get the chance to show off this year despite having already been preparing for months.

COVID-19 brought the Drum Corps International competition to a halt, and for some, they may never get the chance to play in it again.

If you’ve never heard of Drum Corps International, or DCI, UC student Jake McClain summed it up pretty quickly:

“The best way to describe it is professional marching band. It’s pretty much what it is.”

The dozens of marching corps had been practicing since December.

Next month they would’ve started a month-long session to prepare for the competition season, which Lakota East grad, and also UC student, Hannah Durman said is the equivalent of a full-time job.

“You wake up and eat together, sleep together for 85 days,” Durman said.

“You’re going through the good and the bad and everything in between, all together. So, by the end of the summer, this is your family,” McClain said.

Because of the coronavirus pandemic there won’t be any competitions, no 14-hour days.

“Just a lot of emotions at once. A lot of sadness and the thought, at one time, that I wouldn’t get to do my last year,” McClain said.

But McClain will get to do his last year: everyone who would’ve aged out of the program are being given a break and will be allowed to participate next year.

Despite the reprieve not everyone will get to march next year, including Durman because she’s already scheduled a full slate of online courses next summer.

“So, it was kind of disappointing for me to realize that all of this music and the people I’ve met get to march again next year, and I don’t,” Durman said.

But for those who do get to, McClain thinks it will be a show you won’t want to miss.

“I think this coming summer, 2021, could be one of the best in the activity, just because of the amount of time that the groups and drum corps have to react to their situation,” McClain said.

There had been performances scheduled for Hamilton and Centerville.

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