McCarthy places second with Cadets in DCI
By Caitlyn Kelleher JOURNAL REPORTER

Joe McCarthy, of Westminster, helps the members of the Oakmont-Overlook Marching Band learn the drill to their show on Friday. McCarthy spent a week helping with music and drill at the high school camp the week after coming in second during the Drum Corps International World Championship. JOURNAL PHOTO/CAITLYN KELLEHER

This weekend Joe McCarthy will spend his first free weekend in more than three months.

He won't be marching drill. He'll be sleeping in his own bed as opposed on a high school gym floor. And he won't be playing the trumpet for more than 13 hours a day.

But the trumpet player will carry with him the knowledge that he marched with a group of 127 musicians to come in second place in the World Championships of Drum Corps International just two weeks ago.

McCarthy, 21, of Westminster, spent this summer marching as a member of the Allentown Cadets, which is a Division I Drum Corps.

Over the last five years McCarthy has marched with the Spar- tans, a Division II Drum Corps based out of Nashua, NH.

"I like playing outside and really loud," McCarthy said.

The Cadets placed second, only .075 points behind the top performing California Blue Devils on Aug.11 in the World Championship at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif.

"You have 40,000 people cheering for you," he said of the experience he considered a musician's "utopia."

McCarthy, who originally tried out for Phantom Regiment a Division I DCI corps based of Illinois but was cut from the group, spent one weekend a month from February until May driving six hours down on Pensgrove, Penn., to practice with the Cadets.

He wasn't interested in the Cadets originally because the group is known for its slightly different style of performances. McCarthy said the group works a lot with electronics and "is pretty out there with a lot of what they do."

During the three month season McCarthy traveled up and down the East Coast a couple of times and then traveled west across the country. He marched at Giant's Stadium in New Jersey, the Georgia Dome, the Alamo Dome and Mile High Stadium as well as at a number colleges.

"You just travel all summer," he said. "We see the high school we are staying at and the area around it."

Early in the season the group would get up by 7 a.m. and have an hour for breakfast, practice for four hours and then get an hour for lunch before practicing for four more hours with a dinner break and a final four-hour practice.

"It's an experience. You are sleeping on gym floors or on a bus. It's practicing all the time for performances," he said.

During the competition part of the summer the afternoon and evening practices would be replaced with performances.

After six years of marching in a DCI group he has been to 42 of the 50 states. Just this summer he traveled 13,000 miles.

The Cadets is comprised of 135 members of brass line, drum line and color guard; 50 staff members; and 20 volunteers.

"Every day you see the same people," he said. "It's one big insane family."

The group traveled in four buses, two tractor trailers, an Explorer, a minivan and a couple of other vehicles.

This is his last summer performing as part of the DCI corps because he turned 21 years old in March. DCI caps the age of its performers at 21.

"I don't think it has quite hit me yet," he said.

McCarthy has been marching since the summer before his junior year of high school.

McCarthy, now a senior at UMass-Lowell, is majoring in music education. But he plans to send a couple of years playing in concert bands and other ensembles before settling into a teaching position.

He spent his first week home after joining the Cadets' camp on May 18, teaching music and assisting with drill at the band camp of Oakmont and Overlook. This is his second year helping at the group's band camp.

McCarthy was a member of the Oakmont Overlook Marching Spartans for six years after starting to play in third grade.

"I originally wanted to play the saxophone," he said. "But my mom said there are way too many sax players."

He says Kris Lucander is the reason that he even marched at all. The music teacher asked him if he was going to go out for the marching band and McCarthy said no. So Lucander asked again and McCarthy, a middle schooler at the time, said no again. Lucander asked a third time and this time McCarthy changed his answer to "okay."

"This is really all thanks to Mr. Lucander," McCarthy says.

McCarthy said he hadn't wanted to march because he was afraid he wouldn't be able to play Little League, a notion he was dissuaded of by his mother and Lucander. Although he says, he doesn't remember if he ended up playing baseball or not.

Today, he is a member of the UMass- Lowell Marching Band, which does mostly exhibition performance at area high schools. He is also a member of the college's pep band, which plays at hockey games; the school's jazz rock ensemble, and both its concert band and wind ensemble.

The DCI Championship performances will air on Sept. 5 on ESPN2 at 10 p.m.

The two-hour program will be rebroadcast on ESPN2 in two one-hour episodes on Tuesday, Sept. 25, at 2 p.m. and on Thursday, Sept. 27, at 2 p.m.