It’s a Friday night football game and high school students crowd the stands. Right now, they are not watching a football game; students are watching the marching band’s halftime show. They look up to see two people conducting the show. Having good drum majors is essential to having a good marching band. Drum majors are responsible for leading the band and conducting the show. The drum majors ensure that the band works well together and that there are no problems on and off the field. As one can see, choosing a drum major is a crucial task for a band director. Good drum majors possess strong leadership skills, such as problem-solving and time management. Senior, Raul Ivan Flores is the Shadow Ridge Marching band’s head drum major for the 2023 season. He has a passion for helping a group to succeed. He was selected based on his performance ability and leadership capabilities by the director Mr. Hartley.

“Who became drum major was heavily judged by how the person acted in the year prior. At the beginning of my junior year I was pretty annoying,” Flores expressed, “but I improved my behavior a lot through the year which helped me get the role of head drum major.”

During his junior year, Flores was maybe not the first image of what a drum major should be. He is a people person who would mess around a lot with his friends in the band. Despite this, Flores wanted to become a drum major. He worked throughout his junior year to improve his leadership skills. By the end of the year, he became a lot more responsible, and people respected him more as a leader. When selected as drum major, his hard work paid off.

“The most important part of being drum major is being able to lead a group, which can be a big responsibility when the band has 80+ members,” Flores said.

Dealing with the effects of the pandemic, the number of players in the Shadow Ridge Marching Band has dwindled, but in the recent 2023 2024 school year, the band has seen immense growth in numbers and performance. This year is the biggest band they have had since the pandemic.

Having to lead a big group of people, like Flores has to do, one needs to have good leadership skills. In a high school marching band, there are many different people with different levels of playing abilities. Flores has demonstrated the importance of treating others equally no matter their experience level.

“I found that the best thing to do was to treat everybody as an equal in the band, “Flores explained, ”whether they had a leadership role themselves or they were a new freshman, everybody in that room was there for the same reason, and there was no reason to put yourself above anybody else.”

Melissa Minervini, senior and alto saxophone section leader, remarked, “Through the year and marching season he stepped up while also making the band enjoyable for everyone.”

Minervini has collaborated with Flores to make the band successful and remarked how he has grown to become an incredible drum major. He has brought the Shadow Ridge Marching Band to the top of their division in marching competitions and has been an outstanding leader.