By ABBY TYSON

Illusions. As children, we were all tricked by a relative or a friend or even a neighbor that could pull a quarter out of our ears. Money could just be pulled out of thin air. The Bellefonte Area High School Indoor Percussion group is leaving their audience with similar wonder with their indoor show this year, “Masters of Illusion.”

Bellefonte Area High School has the honor of hosting a variety of indoor sports and activities for students to partake in. These indoor activities allow students to develop and improve upon their skills in a certain area, such as with Bellefonte’s Indoor Percussion team. It is with this program, as with others, that students who strive to be a part of a drumline, or desire to simply improve their skills in the field of concert percussion, can go to spend time with fellow percussion members. They can learn, improve, and have fun in the process.

“I would definitely recommend others joining indoor percussion as it teaches many different things such as time management, preparedness, teamwork and cooperation. Bellefonte’s teams are different than other groups around here because we are very well known as one of the top schools with an amazing fine arts program and we strive to make our groups and teams the best of the best, working hard all the time to get better and better each and every day,” senior Brandon Snook said.

This year the team is average in size. Compared to other schools, some of which around Bellefonte do not even have indoor teams, there is a difficulty level unlike what may be present at any other school. Our team not only learns to play certain pieces of music to match a designated theme, but comes up with and follows through with marching drills. What does this mean? Well, instead of standing in a single spot playing a memorized piece, they must also move around on their “stage” and remember the spots where they are supposed to go and stop, to create the wonderful show that they all want.

“Indoor [percussion] is essentially Marching Band. We take the outdoor setting of marching band and just put it inside. We can have really cool shows that we just can’t do in outdoor as a whole. So, it’s really a time to express our performing sides. We can be performers and we can be actors at the same time,” senior Andrew Sharp said.

The team is lead by four seniors: Bryce Fisher, Mason Keeler, Andrew Sharp, and Brandon Snook. Each of these leaders having their own experience with the team and with their instruments. Each of these members has participated in the marching band outdoor season and has contributed to the indoor season with the skills they had learned during the fall.

Furthermore, the indoor team is gratefully accompanied by two senior dance members, Katelyn Auman and Avery Abersold. Due to their lack of a team this year due to complications, the indoor percussion instructors had happily invited these two girls to add just a little more magic to the show.

“Getting the chance to be a part of the drumline’s show means the absolute world to Avery and I. We are beyond grateful that Joe [the indoor percussion instructor] asked us if we were interested because of not having a team this year. It’s amazing to still be a part of TIA and still do what it is that we love to do,” senior Katelyn Auman said.

There are some difficulties that the team has to overcome. For example, they are not allowed to use any sort of audio piece when they are performing. They have their instruments and their practice to guide them through the entire performance.

Though it may be too late to join the team this year, there is always a chance to try out and perhaps join the team next year. There is always a chance to a part of a growing team that is currently beginning to lack in numbers. Be a part of a team and explore the passion of percussion instrumentals.

“We easily work around schedules. We have swimmers in indoor that have to go to practice right after school. What we do is that we accommodate them and our practices go later in the evening. It happens, and people still have time to do homework and stay involved in extracurricular activities on top of indoor. It’s not a big waste of time, and there’s only practice two times a week,” Andrew said.