Kate Allison is a senior here, at George Ranch High School. She has been playing the alto saxophone since 6th grade. Although this is her first year as drum major, Kate has been involved in the band for 4 years.

The Wrangler: What prompted your interest in band?

Allison: My dad played the alto saxophone all throughout high school, and his biggest regret was that he didn’t play in college. So he pushed me to be in band because he has a lot of musical talent and he knew I did because I play piano as well.

The Wrangler: How did you feel when you found out that you received the position of drum major?

Allison: Well first my best friend Shekinah Coloma’s name was called, and I was extremely shocked but extremely excited. And then there was a lot of pause because everyone was like “What, what” and then he called my name, and just the thought of doing what you really, really have been working for with your best friend, was so, I don’t know how to describe it, I was so excited. All I could remember was right when they said my name I literally jumped on my feet and hugged my best friend. And we were like crying together, it was fabulous.

The Wrangler: What are you most looking forward to this year as drum major?

Allison: I’m looking forward to how much our band succeeds. We want to beat Foster; we want to put Foster down the drain, (laughs), in the nicest way I can say. But… no, we just want to beat Foster. We have a LCISD contest, which they call the Foster Cup because Foster has gotten it for 7 years, and it’s time we took that away from them.

The Wrangler: What is your biggest fear as drum major?

Allison: My biggest fear as drum major is that I will mess up during my routine as I am conducting because the whole band relies on me or that I’ll slow down too much so everyone like crumbles down or that I speed up. So, I am a little nervous but I am excited to see what happens.

The Wrangler: As drum major, how much extra work do you have to put in each week?

Allison: Each week, I try to get with the other drum majors and come up with the routine for our conducting like [a] show. And we try to add new things in that could help with the band. And we have this thing called prizes, which is like freshman of the week, sophomore of the week, etc., stuff like that, and we have to go out and buy the prizes, we have to have a meeting, to figure out who won the prizes, so that takes up a lot of time, but it’s totally worth it.

The Wrangler: What is the energy like during a football game or during competition?

Allison: The energy is insane. We have this saying that we yell right before we go onto contest or the football field. The football games, before we go onto the football field, we yell ‘get some’, which is like a battle cry that they use in the war before they would charge, and so we’ve used that since the day we opened, since the very first football game and that totally makes the energy, just like, when they say their first vocalization, which is duhd-duhd-duhd, squeeze te touch, you know, like when they say that it catches your attention. Especially when you are on the podium in my position, when they first say that, you’re just like ‘Holy crap’, like ‘Woah’. So it’s ridiculously insane.