Major Leaguers of Marching Band Stay Over in LG for Some Practice

The Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps of San Antonio stopped in La Grange for a couple days last week. They’re currently on tour with Drum Corps International, which bills itself as the “Major League” of marching band competition.

The Crossmen are one of 26 teams that compete in Drum Corps International. The Corps includes over 200 musicians and staff. They travel in multiple tour busses and two 18-wheelers across the country each summer. They’re now in their 52nd year of competition.

“We were in Des Moines, up to Chicago, then back to Kansas,” said David Borland, chairman of the Crossmen organization. “Our next show is in Houston on Friday. Then on Saturday is San Antonio. On Monday we’re in McKinney. So we call it the Texas Tour part of the season.”

The Crossmen were in La Grange last Thursday to practice their show in between performances. They set up at La Grange ISD for the night. Borland said members of the Corps range in age from 16 to 22. The average age is 19. They’re all elite musicians in high school and college, and all of them are in prime physical condition. They practice 16 hours a day when they’re not performing – all for a show that lasts about 11 minutes.

One of the 18-wheelers they travel with is a mobile kitchen.

“We feed 220 people four meals a day because they use so many calories,” Borland said. “It’s one of the hardest things we do – feeding all these people.”

After the Texas leg of their tour, the Crossmen will travel to Atlanta and Pennsylvania with some stops in between. The DCI World Championship takes place in Indianapolis on Aug. 6, 7 and 8.

Borland said the Crossmen are very selective. More than 800 musicians tried out for a slot this year. Of those, 165 earned a spot. Most of them are from Texas, Borland said. But a few members hail from as far away as Columbia and the United Kingdom. The rest of the group includes support staff such as sound technicians and medical personnel.

“The music and the marching and the artistry is really, really nice,” Borland said. “But what we’re really doing is teaching them perseverance, teamwork, character, and excellence that they can use for the rest of their lives.

“Anything they do after this, unless they go into basic training in the Marines, which we’ve had some do, is going to be easier than this,” he added.