Three years ago, Winter Drumline was cut, causing percussionists to seek ways to get more performing time in the off season of marching band. This year, a few percussion students will go over to FHHS to play on their Winter Drumline. They will meet at Howell from 5:30-8:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays.

“I’m pretty excited,” senior August Wise said. “They had a really good percussion section in the marching band season, so a lot of that I hope transfers over to the Drumline season. There’s a lot of new elements obviously, with North members and others that don’t usually play percussion, but I think it’ll be a pretty successful season. The music and concept is interesting too.”

Band director Rob Stegeman wishes to reintroduce Drumline at FHN in the future, but he currently focuses on building the programs already established.

“I’m one of those people who likes to build what we have and then add when what we have is built properly,” Stegeman said. “We need to get our heads wrapped around our situation financially before we can kind of take care of those things and that’s not necessarily a bad thing to do. I need to get here a few years and get everything else settled before we add anything else to the plate.”

Although there will be some time before Drumline is reintroduced, it’s not over for those who want to be on Drumline this year. Not only do they have the opportunity to play with FHHS, they also have the option to join percussion ensemble for the extra practice and playing time. Percussion ensemble is a concert-style form of performing for solely percussion instruments. They meet at FHN once a week with director Jeff Barudin and practice different pieces. They will then perform on Feb. 16 at school.

“There’s something about playing percussion,” Barudin said. “It just seems like it attracts a certain kind of person. Everyone is very friendly, just very easy going, kind of goofy but fun to be around. I feel like that describes our current group. It seems like we’ve got a little bit of a mix of personalities which, for the most part, are people who are fun and a little quirky and who just keep things interesting. When you need to get right down to it, they’re interested in music and very looking forward to being a part of it. It’s a very fun environment. It’s very inclusive, very open to people with different personality types.”