Drum-bugle corps player with broken leg still loves marching

For kids who march in the smaller drum and bugle corps throughout the country, they often see the World Class Division corps and dream of someday marching and performing in them. Those kids all have a favorite corps and if they get the opportunity to march in their favorites, they jump at the chance.

For Ryan Brannan, 20, a 2008 graduate of Mt. Spokane High School, his chance came last spring when he and his best friend, Nathan Gaulke, 20, tried out for the Carolina Crown Drum and Bugle Corps from Fort Mill, S.C. The corps – much like a marching band, but more intense, with only brass instruments and no woodwinds – placed fourth in August during the 2010 Drum Corps International Championships in Indianapolis.

But after a summer of long days practicing in the hot sun, nights sleeping on gym floors and cramped buses and a summer away from home, Brannan broke his leg, during the last song in their show, just moments before the end of his final show of the summer.

“Marching finals night, that was my dream,” Brannan said.

The duo’s journey to finals night began when Brannan and Gaulke, another 2008 graduate of Mt. Spokane, traveled to South Carolina to try out for the corps. Gaulke plays the trumpet and Brannan plays the mellophone, the marching version of a French horn.

It was Brannan’s fifth year in the activity. He and Gaulke had marched with the Spokane Thunder and the Seattle Cascades in the past. The two used to watch Carolina Crown from the sidelines and dreamed of someday marching with them.

“(It was) always our favorite corps,” Brannan said.

The two sent in their audition tapes and received a call to come and audition. Brannan said there were about 15 to 16 people trying out for each spot, but he and Gaulke were chosen.

Gaulke said he learned a lot from his experience with the corps, and was very excited to be there.

“I wasn’t used to playing with that kind of brass presence,” Gaulke said. “It was a completely different ballgame.”

It was a challenging show, both physically and musically. The corps hired choreographers for the horn line who incorporated many dance moves into their performance and there was even an athletic trainer on staff.

“It pushed the limits of what I thought I was capable of,” Brannan said.

But the activity took its toll on Brannan. He said he developed tendinitis in his right leg and was supposed to wear a walking boot, but most of the time he didn’t.

At the beginning of finals week, he started to have some pain in his left leg, just below the knee. The staff kept him off the field during many rehearsals while he kept ice on his leg. The night of semifinals, he stayed on the bus and Gaulke, who wanted to attend the ceremonies, stayed with him on the bus.

“Everyone knew something was wrong with me,” Brannan said. The staff even discussed his options the day of finals. They had the option of putting an alternate performer into his spot, but Brannan had his leg taped up from the knee down. He hoped the adrenaline of performing would take his mind off the pain.

He made it through most of the show, despite what he describes as a “whole new level of pain.”

During the last song of the show, just moments before it ended and the crowd went wild, Brannan fell down.

His first thought was, “I have to get back up.” He tried and even tried to use his instrument as a crutch, but he went down again. He had to be carried off the field.

He was taken to the hospital and needed surgery. Brannan said doctors think it was probably a stress fracture.

Today, Brannan is still on crutches and said his doctors think he’ll be on them for another month or so. Once he can walk on his own, he can start physical therapy – he plans on marching again next summer.

Gaulke wants to march next summer, as well. It will be his final year marching in drum corps, since he will age out at the end of the summer.

This fall, the two have working with the marching band at Mt. Spokane.

Brannan is also very grateful to his best friend. He said that Gaulke stayed four days while Brannan was in the hospital.