LOWER LAKE >> Lower Lake High School has drummed up a little excitement this basketball season with what it calls the “Drumline.”
Obviously it’s something to cheer about because the Trojan “cheer team” has teamed with the drummers and is in rhythm with them on a number of routines.
The hook up was created and is being overseen by Angie Wade, a mom who was once a cheerleader and is now the emissary of Jessica Taliaferro, who is in her third year as Lower Lake High School principal.
“I came from the south, where there was a lot of spirit,” said Wade. “It was an area where every football game was packed and every basketball game was standing room only. We had a great cheerleading squad and the school spirit was more entwined with the community. Little elementary kids were at the games on Friday night and that’s what I want to get back to.”
There are eight percussionists in the Lower Lake Drumline — one of them is Angie’s son Eli Wade — and 15 cheerleaders on the Trojan Cheer Team.
Drummers, besides Wade, are Elijah Nicholson, Jeremy Dwinell, Gabby Jauregui, Rafael Rodriguez, Maribel Bautista, Luis Orozco and Nakiesha Parlischek.
Cheerleaders are Gladys Lopez, Layla Pearson, Haylee Wade, Taylor Ogulin, Mariah Bickham, Roxana Olivares, Willow Goldtooth, Mackenzie Kilkenny, Emma Mitcham, Alejandra Horan, Callie Lambert, Dallas Kuckowicz, Kylie Lampela, Becky Chavez and Bryan Rodriguez.
But think again if you figure you could easily join in pounding a drum or the sis, boom, bah of cheerleading. Wade runs a tight ship.
“Students must remain eligible by having good grades,” she says. “I think we carried an average GPA of 3.5. It was very high. They have to go to study groups two days a week and tutoring meetings. I make sure someone is there to help them. They have to bring me a grade check from their teachers every week.
“If they begin to fall behind they have to go to study groups,” Wade adds. “Fall below a 3.0 they go on probation; then they have to actually step out. There are so many kids it’s a huge job for me to watch them all.”
Taliaferro adds: “We want to get the community involved. If (students) are in school performing activities they’re not going to be out on the streets. The kids are really focused on academics, athletics or something that combines both.”
The drum-cheerleader program is just one of the activities Taliaferro and her staff are driving. They’ve come a long way from two years ago when a couple of student-musicians met and jammed under the bleachers at Gordon Sadler Field.
Within three years she projects the Lower Lake ensemble will be a marching band at football games and the like under the direction of Katie Wiley, who is described by Taliaferro as “excellent.”
Right now Lower Lake’s cheerleaders are getting ready for interscholastic competition in Las Vegas. A dance team of six cheerleaders, says Taliaferro, has been created and hopes to dance its way into competing at a regional level.
Of the drummers, Taliaferro says, “They are cheerleaders with instruments.”
To use a once-popular expression, since Taliaferro became the Lower Lake principal school activities have been jumping as students pursue their interests such as recreation, child development, animal science and arts, media and entertainment.
“The kids take drama and the drawing arts,” she said. “We have a radio broadcasting class and television.”
Culinary-minded students can participate all four years if they choose. Another pursuit offers the opportunity to design flower arrangements and sell them for the holidays. They can also learn to weld.
This is not to say that Lower Lake is the only Lake County high school with a band. Kelseyville and Clear Lake both have bands, but not like the drumline and cheerleaders at Lower Lake. And maybe not as loud. The volume hasn’t been a source of criticism.
“I think it’s great,” said Scott Conrad, Kelseyville’s athletic director and varsity boys’ basketball coach. “I love seeing kids involved in things like that. We haven’t seen them this year, but last year we saw them a couple of times and I thought it was great for the atmosphere.”
Middletown varsity boys’ basketball coach G.J. Rockwell said he had no complaints about the volume of the Lower Lake aggregation. ”I never felt they were doing anything wrong. I thought it was well done,” he said.
Out of courtesy Lower Lake doesn’t play until other host school bands are finished with what they do.
“The only rule was that we could not drum while the other band is playing and we’ve had a good response from everybody,” said Wade.
St. Helena High School went so far as to inquire about the Lower Lake routine.
Wade wants it understood that her cheerleaders are not just students whose sole function is to fire up the crowd.
Perhaps the best part of the Lower Lake program is that it is sustainable.
“Our band has really expanded this year,” said Wade, “and we already have kids in training for next year. We’ve been to camps and clinics. And the students get so much exposure.”
