The booming beats of drums that chant after every touchdown, completed pass, and every notable play has become an exciting sound to the attendees of a regular home football game.

The familiar music that has become so popular is courtesy of the DGN drumline.

The DGN drumline is the percussion section part of the marching band and is comprised of four types of instruments: snare drum, tenor drum, bass drum, and the cymbals. Each instrument appeals to different musicians. 

“Me being only 5’2”, this was daunting at first because that would mean carrying about half my body weight while trying to keep up marching with people playing instruments barely a fraction of that weight,” senior and tenor player Georgia Kowal said.  “So if you see the tenors ever holding their drums up or taking them off, you know that it’s because those drums are exhausting to wear.”

The notorious percussion section of the marching band has received high acclaim for their performances at home football games, both on the field and in front of the student section.

“[The student section] feeds off a lot of our energy,” sophomore and cymbal player Edie Pawlak said. “The more jumpier we are, the more we move, the more we groove, the more the student section gets hyped up, which hypes up the team and makes them do well.”

This season the drumline will introduce new aspects to their performances, such as added visuals and added choreography.

““We have choreography, we have a lot more different formations from last year which makes it so much better. We a lot more visuals that we’ve all worked on.”  Pawlak said. “It just gets the crowd more into it and more hyped up.” 

The drumline started their season in the beginning of August to  prepare their music and student section performances ahead of the regular season.

“It’s not always about rehearsals. Over the summer, there is just so much to learn and to memorize for the upcoming season,” junior and tenor drum player Emmett Flannery said. “it really takes a lot of taking time out of your day to sit down and practice.”

Along with the new features, the marching band added a new front ensemble, which would still have student musicians involved but in a different way with different performances. The drumline is now smaller and comprised of 21 people.

“Most of us are returning members to our respected subsections. I think it really made us a lot better. Everybody was familiar with content,” Flannery said. “it’s more of us putting on a show rather than us just sitting there.”

The drumline will also continue traditions from past years, such as playing the same cadences.

“[The cadences] been passed on for who knows how long and it’s become tradition.” senior and snare drum player Eli Pfotenhauer said, “We’ve changed our student section for the past few years because we’ve felt it’s become stale.”

The drumline is so popular among North students that an Instagram account, under the username “Sloche”, received and posted a video of their underground track performances and received almost 10,000 views. 

“When [Sloche] posted that video, that’s when it really started to take off,” Pfotenhauer said, “[The drumline Instagram] has gotten 300 followers in 2 weeks.”

The drumline’s growing recognition gives the members a new sense of confidence by having a key role in the game other than participating in the sport. 

“We have such a good relationship with the football team and the student section,” sophomore and bass drum player Jake Rhode said, “you’re recognized for drumline and everyone says, ‘Oh, drumline is so cool’ and all that stuff.”