116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Day in the life of Cyclone drum major Renae Hasselbusch
Eastern Iowa women serve as drum majors for 350-member marching band
More than seven hours before kickoff, Renae Hasselbusch meets the two other Iowa State University Cyclone Varsity Marching Band drum majors on central campus to get started on everything that needs to be done before the band takes the field for the Oct. 7 night game against TCU.
11:45 a.m. Pick up sousaphones and drums from the music building and extension cords and speakers from the communications building. Place coffee orders — after all, these musicians won’t be done until after midnight.
“There’s one person who goes and gets coffee for us and all the professional staff,” said Hasselbusch, 21, of Lisbon.
The daughter of Andrea Hasselbusch, a flutist, and Eric Hasselbusch, a trombonist, Renae Hasselbusch started playing piano at age 5 and added trombone in 5th grade. She was a drum major at Lisbon High School before joining the Iowa State University marching band as a freshman.
“She is a tremendous young lady that has had a positive impact on many at Lisbon and at ISU,” Joseph Arch, Lisbon High School band director, said of his former pupil.
1:45 p.m. The 350-member marching band arrives at Bergstrom Indoor Training Center for rehearsal. Songs and marching formations are learned at 80-minute practices five times a week. One of Hasselbusch’s jobs at practices and games is attendance.
“I run around to make sure everyone is checked in,” she said. “If someone is not there, I make sure they are there.”
3:30-5:15 p.m. Half the band eats at the Alumni Center while the other half plays at tailgate parties around Jack Trice Stadium. Then they switch.
5:20 p.m. The full band performs their Step Show on the steps of the Alumni Center. Tailgaters gather for the performance, which also includes twirlers and the cheer squad.
The band helped choose Hasselbusch and the two other drum majors, Andrew Winters, of Rockton, Illinois, and Cassidy Carolan, of Decorah. During auditions last spring, drum major applicants first interviewed with professional staff. Then they conducted the national anthem.
“They chose some people to do a public audition, which consists of the whole band packing into the band room, where we conducted the men’s basketball pep band,” Hasselbusch said.
They had to answer situational questions and teach a member of the drum line how to do the high step, a tricky marching style.
“The band does get a little bit of input,” she said of the drum major selection. “They try to build a team that is different and will represent different parts of the band. It's definitely a little scary, but it's character building.”
5:45 p.m. The band parades from the Alumni Center to the Jacobson Building with the drum line playing cadences that have responses from different sections of the band. Once at Jacobson, they go through the tunnel to the field, arriving about 40 minutes before pregame.
6:45 p.m. The band takes the field for the pregame show, which features favorite fight songs, cheers and anthems along with popular formations, including one where the band spells “ISU” for the west stands and then floats into “ISU” facing east.
7 p.m. Kickoff: The drum majors rotate conducting the band from the end zone throughout the game.
“If you're on the top ladder, you also have a headset,” Hasselbusch said.
Athletics officials tell the drum majors when there are upcoming commercial breaks. “They might say ‘you have one minute and 15 seconds to play’. We think about what songs we have that are that length and what the tone of the game is right now,” Hasselbusch said.
The band’s repertoire includes about 10 offense cheers, 10 defense cheers and 20 to 30 songs to play during time outs or other breaks, she said.
“We're there for support, not to be detrimental to anyone,” she said.
8:30 p.m. (approximate) The Cyclone Varsity Marching Band prepares for the halftime show. Drum majors handle any last-minute issues. Hasselbusch remembers one time this season somebody’s hat — called a Shako — broke.
“I was about ready to climb up onto the ladder,” Hasselbusch said. She fastened a hair tie to the end of the chin strap and put the band around the girl’s ear to keep the hat in place. “That's all I had time to do. I went up to her afterward and it worked. It stayed on her head.”
The band plays new music for each halftime show. For the Sept. 23 game against Oklahoma State, the Cyclone Marching Band played all Metallica songs. The show was ISU’s submission to the metal band’s national marching band contest, For Whom the Band Tolls, for high school and college bands to win musical instruments and equipment.
The University of Iowa Hawkeye Marching Band also had a Metallica halftime show.
10 p.m. (approximate) When the game is over, the center drum major dismisses the band with a rhyming poem. The drum majors clean up the end zone where the band has been sitting. They load up the trucks, take all the equipment back to the music building and put everything away.
“Marching band is a lot of work,” Hasselbusch said. “There are times when we're on the field and it’s cold in November and it's no fun.”
But there are more good times. Like when the Cyclones went to the Cheez-It Bowl in Orlando in 2021. The band went to Florida to support the team and got to do a lot of fun activities, including a battle of the bands with Clemson.
“The game on Saturday night (Oct. 7) or the bowl game is when you realize "This is why we're doing what we do’.”
Hasselbusch plans to graduate May 11 with a degree in kinesiology. The next day she’ll marry Joseph Jonasson, a percussionist. Then she plans to go to physical therapy school.
Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com
Daily Newsletters