Spirit of JSU Begins Sessions

By Sherry Kughn
JSU News Bureau

The 135 members of the drum and bugle corps Spirit of JSU, plus the 20 to 40 staff members who will serve them, are headed to Jacksonville State University Saturday to begin four weeks of practice for their summer tour. Members are from several different states. Spirit will begin their summer tour on June 21 and will travel throughout the nation performing for hundreds of thousands of fans.

Spirit is the only drum and bugle corps in the nation that is affiliated with a university. Its outstanding reputation and dazzling performances make it a recruiting tool for JSU and the music program.

Headed by Ken Bodiford, who is also band director for the Southerners, Spirit members will practice for an exhausting number of hours and will eat a special diet that replenishes their energy output. The summer tour ends at Drum Corps International’s World Championship event in Foxboro, Massachusetts during Aug. 9-13.

The excitement builds as JSU prepares to welcome students from all across the country who take part in the Spirit of JSU activities, according to Bodiford.

“We are proud of the work these young people do and they way they represent the university,” he said.

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