PITTSBURG, Kan. — During summer, most college students take on part-time jobs or spend time with family and friends, but for Jack Stefanoni, Pittsburg State University junior, and his girlfriend, Athennah Jones, Missouri Southern State University junior, the summer months were about pushing their skills to the limits.
From May to early August, the duo spent countless hours rehearsing, traveling and competing, often on minimal hours of sleep, with Drum Corps International, a nonprofit group known for organizing top-tier marching music ensembles among students from ages 13 to 22.
Although they were a part of different groups, Stefanoni and Jones shared the same experience of extreme hard work, which paid off. Of the 50 Drum Corps groups in the United States, Stefanoni’s corps the Colts finished 11th in the nation and Jones’ group Music City finished 17th.
The Colts are based out of Dubuque, Iowa, and is one of the longest running Drum Corps groups. It is also the closest group to the Pittsburg area. Music City is based in Nashville, Tennessee, and is one of the newer ensembles.
Stefanoni played as a front ensemble percussionist, which consists of large drums, cymbals and gong, and Jones performed as part of the Color Guard, waving and dancing with giant flags and wooden rifles. Both Jones and Stefanoni competed in the World Class division, the most intense, competitive division.
Stefanoni and Jones both said getting to hone their skills alongside the other members and put everything they have into each performance was special.
“It was incredibly challenging, but also incredibly rewarding,” Jones said. “Because everyone's pushing themselves as hard as they can to achieve this one common goal and see how well we can do with our show.”
“Every single person in the group is putting in 100% of their effort all of the time,” Stefanoni said. And there's rare instances in life in which you get to be a part of a group where everyone is putting in 100% of their effort to that one thing for three months straight, non-stop. Everyone was 100% dedicated to what they were doing, to their job and their responsibility. Everyone was paying to be there for the same reason, and so to be a part of a group in a competitive activity with that amount of drive, while also getting to do music and learning about music and perfecting my craft and making amazing friends was my favorite part of it.”
While many people believe members are paid to perform and compete, each student pays $6,000 to participate in the Drum Corps. Each stadium show can cost up to a million dollars to produce, Stefanoni said, when factoring in gas, semis for transporting instruments and equipment and the 200 staff including medical personnel, trainers, cooks and instructors that travel with them. Stefanoni joked that he paid $6,000 to sleep on gym floors, play music and get really tan.
The Drum Corps groups travel thousands of miles each year to compete in many different states. Stefanoni and Jones performed in Texas, Oklahoma, Iowa, Tennessee, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and several others. Stefanoni said the group would wake up and begin practicing in whatever city they were in, rehearse for three hours, pack up all the equipment, go to the show site, perform, pack up everything again, drive to the next housing site, sleep for a few hours and do it all over again. The housing sites were typically at a high school, and the students all slept on the gym floor.
The hours of strenuous activity often took a toll on the students, which is why a medical team traveled with each group.
“We had a lot of people go home because of injury," Stefanoni said. “There's stress fractures, concussions, which are surprisingly common because of the nature of unloading equipment, and just the amount of equipment we use, props on the field, the drill that you know they're running around the field, holding big drums and big horns.”
Due to the amount of physical activity involved with marching ensembles, members are tasked with completing exercise regiments once they are accepted into the Drum Corps.
“You learn a lot about how to keep your body functioning well in order to play your instrument,” Stefanoni said.
Luckily, Stefanoni was expecting the challenge as he had performed with the Drum Corps before.
Being introduced to the Drum Corps performances at an early age sparked a passion in Stefanoni. His family often took him to shows in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, and he began his drumming journey around age 11. He continues to learn more about the Drum Corps throughout middle and high school.
In 2023, after graduating from Pittsburg High School, Stefanoni auditioned for the Colts, but was placed in the Colts Cadets, open class, which is the division below World Class.
“I fell further in love with the activity, because it just let me push myself to places that I didn't think I could be or doing things I didn't think I could do, just performing at another level and living at another level,” Stefanoni said. “Most of the difficulty comes from just the schedule and the rigors, the daily rigors, you know, of living that life for three months.”
Jones showed her support for Stefanoni by attending his performances. As a former Color Guard member at Pittsburg High School, she was fascinated by the Drum Corps Color Guard dancers.
“Whenever I was watching the shows, just seeing all the different things that the color guards in those Corps did that were unfamiliar to me, such as more dancing stuff and like body movement under tosses and just new unique tricks, really sparked my interest, because I really love pushing myself, especially in Color Guard, because there's so much that you can learn,” Jones said. “And I personally really struggle learning stuff from videos and whatnot. So be able to get this in person experience was very cool.”
Jones described performing for long periods of time in extreme heat as one of the most challenging parts of the performing.
“But, at least for me, in my Corps and Music City it was extremely rewarding, because we had the best Music City season that Music City has ever had, which was really, really nice to experience, and it made those hard days less hard whenever you're spending it with your friends and everything, and just having fun while also struggling sometimes,” Jones said. “Because you know you're not struggling alone, and that makes it a lot easier.”
For Jones, being a part of Drum Corps taught Jones helpful life lessons, she said, and other social skills like how to connect with people who were not feeling their best.
“Drum corps also just taught me the life lesson of how hard work does pay off,” she said. “Even though you learn this in other aspects of your life, it really showed me how showing up every day and putting my 100%, even though each day you're 100%, feels different, because each day you have a different amount of energy you can give, but still giving my 100% every day, it really helps show me how that can get me somewhere.”
Stefanoni’s family traveled to see his shows when they could and were honored to see both he and Jones perform at the finals held in Indianapolis, Indiana.
After returning from months of traveling in early August, Jones said she is ready to audition for Music City again. She said she will get her packet of information in October, and the first round of camp auditions will begin in November. Jones was recently hired part-time as a color guard coach by Neosho High School Wildcat Marching Band. She is majoring in environmental health and safety. Jones said the experience also gave her a chance to introduce new skills to her Color Guard team at Missouri Southern State University.
“I think DCI is an incredible experience, just not for musicality and learning new tricks, but also the life lessons that you learn from it and the different connections that you can make with just all different sorts of people that you meet there,” Jones said. “It's incredibly valuable, even though it's hard, but you learn a lot through it, and so it's definitely worth it, and worth every penny that I paid to be there.”
Although Stefanoni agrees it was an incredible experience, he said he isn’t going to participate in Drum Corps next summer, despite being invited back personally. He was recently hired to work as a percussion technician by Webb City High School Cardinal Pride Marching Band. Stefanoni is majoring in music at Pittsburg State University and is involved in the university’s Pride of the Plains marching band, PSU Wind Ensemble, PSU Percussion Ensemble, and has been a member of the PSU Jazz Band and the SEK Symphony. He is also the drummer for The Little Green Men, a local jazz and funk band.
This reporting is made possible, in part, by the Support Local Journalism Project Fund. Learn more at: southeastkansas.org/Localnews
