On the whole, drummers are not a happy bunch. It’s right there in the job description: you have to enjoy hitting things. In the words of Garfield drumline member Max Shalitmontagne, “Most of us are just passively aggressive.”

This year, however, Garfield’s drumline is more troubled than usual. Drummers clash with the leaders, who quarrel amongst themselves; long-time members are threatening to quit. The sense of unity that has held the line together for the past five years appears shaken.

Based on drumline’s performance in the 2006 – 2007 season, its current struggles are hard to account for. Last year, it dominated Roosevelt in an inter-high school drum-off, played to a crowd of 1000 at the Puget Sound Marching Band Festival, and was often the sole source of Garfield pride at sporting events. It seemed poised to conquer the world, or at least the Seattle area.

But at the end of the year, drum coach Eytan Nicholson departed, and Clarence Acox retired as marching band director. Adjusting to their replacements, Zach Para and Tony Sodano, hasn’t been easy.

“Basically, there was strife between people,” said senior Ian Butler. “With Zach, we’ve kind of had to adjust, ‘cause we lost Eytan … Working with him, it was built up to this really great thing, and it’s been hard to continue that.”

According to Butler, drumline already “got together as a group and ironed things out.” But the reaction of senior Clark Rinker when drumline’s internal drama is mentioned casts doubt on this statement: he laughs, sarcastically and perhaps bitterly.

“I was going to quit, because my spot as head of it was sort of given away to a sophomore,” he said. “[Para and Sodano] said I can’t quit.”

Para and Sodano don’t always present a united front. “Because Mr. Sodano has his master’s in drumming, he wanted to be in charge of that,” Rinker explained. “There’s a power struggle between Zach and Sodano.”

However, the two leaders are unanimous in their high expectations of the drummers. The problem Rinker identifies most readily is that students can’t devote as much time to drumline as Sodano and Para would like. “There’s some issues with a few people who just want to be in the class and don’t want to have such a commitment that we have to practice every lunch and on Sundays for four hours or so,” he said.

This is also Para’s major talking point, but he’s coming from the opposite perspective. “It’s been tough, ‘cause half the drumline are new kids who don’t understand the commitment… It takes 100% commitment, and if one or two people don’t show up at a rehearsal, then we’re all sitting there just saying, “Where are they?” and it hurts the whole line. So I hope this year I can sort of pound it into the minds of the young guys that if they want to be on this line, it really takes a lot of commitment.”

Once they’ve played a few successful shows, Para believes, people will be more devoted. “After the show, the feeling of how well we performed and how it was worth it — I think the new kids need to experience that before they really will be committed and understand that aspect of it,” he said. “You just have to be patient and put in a lot of work.”

The revelation those kids need might be coming soon. “We’re gonna try to be off the hook for homecoming,” said Para. “And we will make the homecoming game a great experience, even if the football team doesn’t win.”