The buzz of the alarm clock at 7:00 in the morning. The hustle and bustle of loading instruments and water onto the bus. The tension of 87 students getting into their mindset to compete. These feelings are what members of the GRC marching band live for on competition day.

The drum majors, Jaycie Raney and Molly Wright, take these early mornings very
seriously.

“There’s much more to being a drum major than waving your arms,” says Raney. “We’re cheerleaders. Whatever example we set, they’re going to reflect. We have to give 130 percent if we want their 110 percent.”

Both Wright and Raney are juniors, an extraordinary feat, as drum majors are usually seniors.

For Raney, achieving this goal has been her dream since freshman year. It was her first year marching and she looked up to the drum majors, hoping to become one someday.

She didn’t make it that year, but she continued to train and put in work until it finally paid off in 2016 as she climbed up onto that podium for the first time.

Wright’s story is a bit different. She didn’t start marching her freshman year.

“Throughout my sophomore year, I’d always kind of watched Jaycie and how she’d conduct,” Wright explains, “I knew she was really good at it, and I was like, ‘I want to do that!’”

Despite being only a first-year marcher, she auditioned anyway.

“I remember the day we made it,” she said, “ I remember seeing my name and I literally screamed and ran.”

After the excitement subsided, the challenges of being so young began to set in.

“It was an adjustment for all of us,” Raney said while describing the challenges of being younger than some of the people she must lead.

Wright adds, “The hardest part is that you can’t make everyone happy.”

However, despite these struggles, marching band is still everything to the drum majors.

Raney recounts her favorite moment of the marching band experience. “I know,” she says, “that when I come off the field and I’m so exhausted and I’m so tired that I did my best.”