The students who are apart of the Wildcat Marching Band perform under the Friday night lights, providing music and entertainment for the crowd. For many band members, football season is the highlight of band.

However, just like anything, marching season comes to a close in the first few days of November. Each year at the beginning of August, Clear Creek’s band students hit the hot pavement to learn drill, choreography and music. Around the same time of year, the band hosts an annual DCI night, in which the band directors show the band members a series of award winning marching shows from previous DCI championships.

Yet this year, junior French horn, Alec Miranda, will continue to march with the extremely successful Crossmen Drum and Bugle Corps, which is a member of the Drum Corps International. Former member of the Clear Creek High School marching band, Alex Wahl, has also been signed to Carolina Crown.

It is no wonder that Miranda was signed, considering his musical talent, as he is a member of the Wind Ensemble and has advanced to Region band several times. Some of the other well known world class dmm corps include Blue Devils, Blue Coats, Boston Crusaders, Carolina Crown, Phantom Regiment, The Cavaliers, The Cadets, and the Blue Knights. Based in San Antonio, Texas, the Crossmen drum corps performed their first show in 1975 and since then has been a Drum Corps International World Championship, or DCI, finalist more than 20 times.

At the 2014 the DCI World Championships World Class Finals the Crossmen ranked twelfih with an over all score of 86.225 out of 100 with their show titled Alma Gitiana- A Gypsy Soul. Recent years’ shows include Protest, FRA GILE, Renewal, Full Circle, Forbidden, PlanetX, Metamorphosis, Changing Lanes, Crossroads, E Pluribus Unum, and Colors Unlike high school marching band, dnrm corps begin practicing several months before most high school do in August. In fact, most world-class drum corps never really stop practicing. After the DCI season ends in mid November, corps begin practicing for next year’s show only a few weeks later.

This  is also true for the Crossmen corps. Corps do this in order to remain at the top of their musical and performance standards year round. The audition for Crossmen is a tedious one. Candidates must have incredible endurance both physically and mentally. They are expected to be extremely musically capable, as well as strong and fit in order to perform at the level that the Crossmen do. According to the Crossmen website, their consistent mission is, “ Family, honesty, perseverance, dedication, interdependence and excellence are taught and practiced by each and every member of Crossmen. We are committed to teaching our members the life skills they need to succeed.”

Miranda is not the only member of the Wildcat family to advance into the world of DCI.

Former Wildcat and French horn, Alex Wahl was recently signed into the extremely popular and successful drum corps, Carolina Crown. Founded in 1988, Carolina Crown is one of the best drum corps in the nation and has advanced well into the Drum Corps International World Championships many times.