Bang the drums Lowes-ly

If you attend a typical Cedar Creek softball game, the first thing you’ll notice is the sounds from the dugout.

Not that hearing boisterous cheers, synchronized calls for teammates or an occasional whistle is out of the ordinary at any softball game you’d visit, but a distinct beat can be heard from inside Creek’s dugout. It takes over the senses that are otherwise accustomed to the screeches of high school girls caught up in the thrill of the action.

Look a little bit closer and sharpen your ears, and you’ll catch the emphatic notes of a drummer, slapping away on a plastic bucket.

It’s no Ringo Starr, but the Lady Cougars have their own rhythm when it comes to cheering on their teammates.

This isn’t just some uncoordinated hits on the rim of the plastic bucket and hoping a sound emerges to spook the opposing team. It’s a tradition that’s been literally handed down from one generation to the next.

“I started playing varsity in seventh grade, and I was still used to middle school cheers and all that,” Creek senior Chloe Brashear said. “You do all the girly cheers and that stuff. And then when we started playing varsity, it was like another level. It was what connected our team. I had never seen cheering like that.”

Julie Riser, head coach of the Lady Cougars, believes the drumming debuted in the Lady Cougars’ dugout close to eight years ago, and she still remembers the initial bristling against the DIY drums when Creek had made its way to the state tournament in Sulphur.

“I remember they wouldn’t let us do it because it’s considered an artificial noise maker I guess,” Riser said. “They didn’t take our drumsticks, but they said we couldn’t do it. But since then, they haven’t said anything. A lot of teams do it now.”

The longtime head coach of the Lady Cougars initially laughs at the idea of a story being centered on a pair of drumsticks and seemingly ordinary buckets from Lowes. When something is as ingrained in the culture of the Creek softball family as the drums, it’s easy to overlook and take it for granted.

But for Riser, it doesn’t make the impact less special.

“It brings a lot of energy to our team when things aren’t going well or we’re tired and it’s game three of a tournament. It really does help,” Riser said. “I think when you have a dugout that is that energized, it really brings them into the game too, so they’re involved in the game and don’t feel like they’re less important than the ones on the field or in the lineup.

“Something I don’t always think about it because I kind of take it for granted.”

Riser understood the gravity of the drums’ importance to her team at one point, even going so far as to buy a set of buckets to act as the drums for the season.

They didn’t last long. “I don’t think there’s one that’s not cracked,” Riser said. “One year, I bought pink buckets just for that and I was like, ‘These are your buckets,’ and they’d turn them upside down and it didn’t take much time for them to be busted.”

Brashear, along with fellow seniors Allie Furr and Lizzie Mc-Adams, enjoy the drumming inside the Creek dugout for its ability to rally the team while also providing a flair to cheers that most of the group has known since they began playing the sport.

Brashear and Furr jokingly admitted they aren’t allowed to be in the designated rotation of drummers but said sometimes a good ‘ole fashioned cheer will do.

“I have no rhythm with it, so I really don’t do it,” Brashear said standing next to Furr. “But we yell, we yell.”

Furr may not be the one to take part in drumming either but agreed with her teammate that the drums aren’t common for teams in the area, and it can be an important tool in winning the mental battle.

“I feel like if you’re the other pitcher, it gets in your head a little bit, and we like to emphasize that,” Furr said. “If we see a pitcher or team struggling, we’re not just going to let it go.”

So, if Furr and Brashear aren’t ‘qualified’ to lead the drums, what does it take?

Well for starters, you have to learn how to play the real instrument, according to McAdams.

If all that was required was someone to slam the sticks into the hollow bucket for a game, it wouldn’t carry the same weight.

McAdams learned over the years how to play, and the senior classes before her took her under their wing to learn. Now, she’s one of the main members of the Lady Cougars’ mini drum line.

“I think we’ve always been good at cheering, ever since we were in middle school,” McAdams said. “But you actually have to learn all the different beats and stuff and cheers they go with. It’s pretty fun.”

When seniors of years past bid goodbye to Creek, individuals would pass down their specific drumsticks to a teammate, sign them, and leave the pair with the team.

It hasn’t taken place over the last year or two given the smaller size of senior classes, but McAdams has her own pair and plans to pass them down to carry the tradition forward.

The Cedar Creek softball team’s tradition of dugout drums has given the Lady Cougars a unique spark of energy over the years.

Photo by Darrell James