She's a Trooper

Jay County High School has housed The Troopers Drum and Bugle Corps for a couple of days for each of the last four summers. When the group’s caravan rolled into the parking lot at 7 a.m. Thursday, it brought along a familiar face.
Katy Smeltzer, a mellophone player who graduated from JCHS earlier this month, is in her first season with the Wyoming-based group that spends the summer performing and competing across the country.
As she headed to a camp in December, she wasn’t sure if she was interested in becoming a member of the group. But by January camp she had earned a contract, and she joined The Troopers full time in mid-May.
“It’s been a journey, that’s for sure,” said Smeltzer, whose father Kelly is Jay County’s band director. “It kind of started in December camp for me and not really being serious about marching … I’ve seen it progress. It’s very cool to just … not be serious about it and then be like, ‘OK, I’m going to do this.’
“It’s been so much fun. … Spring training was hard, but now it’s worth it because tour is a lot of fun and now we get to show off all our hard work.”
The tour started June 19 in Louisville, Kentucky, but preparations have been ongoing for months.
After missing February camp to swim at the IHSAA Girls Swimming and Diving State Finals, Smeltzer had attended March and April three-day camps in Texas. She departed Jay County with several weeks still left in the school year to join The Troopers for camp in Lebanon.
The early departure involved taking all of her finals in advance and especially making sure she had all of her work completed for government class, a requirement for graduation. Though she missed that time with her classmates, she was able to return home for graduation June 7.
“I think mostly it was hard missing out on the senior stuff,” said Smeltzer.
Instead of heading to graduation parties over the course of the last few weeks, Smeltzer has been practicing and performing.
Rehearsal days generally include three practice sessions for a total of between five and 12 hours.

The slate for today included marching/movement drills from 9 a.m. to noon, instrumental practice from 1 to 5 p.m. and then a full ensemble rehearsal from 6 to 9 p.m.
In addition to those sessions, members of the corps are assigned to teams that handle other duties.
Smeltzer is part of the group than handles what is considered the most important job — laying out the lines of a football field at each practice site. The field-lining crew generally wakes up an hour earlier than the rest of the corps in order to get its job done.
The long hours have seen her grow, both in her skills and in her connection with The Troopers.
“She’s definitely shown a huge growth in terms of playing and marching. She’s been a really core component of the section and also in terms of how the corps works,” said Jared Webber, a University of Central Florida student who is one of Smeltzer’s section leaders. “She’s been a huge asset to the corps. She’s very productive and a very hard-working member.”
She’s also taken some good-natured ribbing since arriving at her alma mater, including taking blame for the fact that rain was falling when The Troopers’ four buses and two semis arrived in Jay County.
“Everything is Katy’s fault,” joked Roni Fraser, another mellophone section leader from San Antonio.
Webber and Fraser are representative of the group that includes members from all over the United States as well as three from Japan.
But while Smeltzer has made a lot of new friends this summer, she also departed knowing there would be at least one familiar face on tour.
Pete Vogler, East Jay Middle School’s band director and teacher, is in his fifth year working as a bus driver for The Troopers. He met Rod Owens, now the group’s tour director, while his daughter Laura was marching for The Glassmen and began driving regular vehicles for that group. When Owens shifted to The Troopers, Vogler joined him.
Jamie Smeltzer, Katy’s mom, is volunteering for the group during its time in Jay County. And after finding out a couple of volunteers had dropped out, she decided to step in for a week beginning Sunday in Bowling Green, Ohio.
“It’ll be fun to be able to see more of it, because at this point we’ve just seen it a couple times,” said Jamie Smeltzer. “It’s just fun. We’ve always stressed volunteering, so it’s nice to be able to have that opportunity to help out.”
The Troopers will leave JCHS tonight to begin traveling for a Saturday performance of their show — “Wild Horses” — in Madison, Wisconsin. They will then head back through Indiana on the way to the Drum Corps International All Star Review on Sunday in Bowling Green.
From there it’s on to Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Monday and visits to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Iowa, Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Ohio and New York before returning Aug. 6 through 8 to Indianapolis for the DCI World Championships. The finals of that event falls on the same day as Indiana State Fair Band Day, where her dad will be directing the Jay County Marching Patriots.
“It’s exciting, mainly just because this was her strictly pursuing this,” said Kelly Smeltzer. “It’s been neat to see her perform at the drum corps level and to see her happy and enjoying the experience. I’m glad she has a chance to see the country this way and being able to perform at some major venues in the United States.”
Katy Smeltzer hasn’t yet decided if she will try to join The Troopers for a second year next summer. Before then, she’ll head to the University of the Cumberlands, where she will be a member of yet another Patriot swim team.
For now, she’s focusing on having fun with the experience.
“I just enjoy the people,” she said. “That’s what makes this program, and the staff too. Everybody is just so friendly. Everybody is just there to help each other. It’s such a family atmosphere.”