Dakota drumline finishes season as world finalists

MACOMB TOWNSHIP — Building steam upon last year’s fire, the Dakota High School winter drumline team has continued its run of percussive success with a world finals appearance to finish its 2025 season.

“I know a lot of the kids throughout the season made it a goal of trying to make finals, so to not only make finals but come in fifth place was quite surprising and surreal,” said Kurt Reyes, percussion director for Dakota High School.

The appearance at Winter Guard International’s finals at the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio, on April 11 marked the program’s highest performance in a series of seasons marked by a steady buildup of success. The program scored its first Michigan Alliance for Performing Arts state finals win in 2023 and continued its form in 2024, making the WGI world semifinals both years. The team managed a fifth-place finish at the 2025 WGI world finals with a judged score of 91.938/100.

The drumline’s performance, structured around the concept of “the fundamental forces of music,” came about as a result of lessons learned by watching other teams succeed over the last few seasons. This year’s routine is built around a simpler concept — “talking about music; melody, harmony and rhythm,” as Reyes put it, versus concepts like were embraced in 2023, where Mozart and Beethoven dueled in a clash of composers — giving drummers, dancers and the group’s suite of musicians an easier time explaining the theme through their performance. Other changes to the formula include technical tweaks like building up intensity rather than beginning with a full ensemble and working out how each section of musicians would interplay with each other.

“There were some elements from higher-level groups that we tried to institute into our own program,” Reyes said. “And with that formula, probably from the beginning to mid-February, I already knew that we were already much better than what we were at finals a year prior. I think we’ve finally figured out something.”

The feeling from the drumline staff was quickly picked up by the students. Spencer Brong, senior and a fourth-year member of the drumline, found an energy present among the team from the beginning of the season.

“We could tell we could make it from the very beginning of the season, because we came into it with a very different energy than we had in previous years,” Brong said. “We’re one of the younger programs within the state, so there is a bit of an underdog energy … I feel like all the kids had something to prove and I personally felt going into it we had something to prove with this.”

As the season was underway, the reaction from crowds and judges at events across Michigan fueled the team’s sense that this year was going to be different.

“We got a little more notoriety, and we got a little more energy with that than we’re used to,” Brong said. “Throughout the entire time, it was a really interesting experience.”

That “underdog energy” had new vigor to it upon the team’s arrival in Dayton. They would have to face around 50 other programs from across the county and make it through multiple rounds of competition to have a shot at even making the finals.

Even with the high stakes of the competition, drumlines at worlds found time to come together over their shared experiences. Jason Daniels, a junior and a third-year member of the drumline, found the interactions between teams to be one of his favorite parts of the whole WGI experience.

“It was really awesome getting to see everyone else that had come from all over the country and were supporting each other, even though we’re in different competing groups,” Daniels said. “It was great to see what shows everyone else had and their uniforms and stuff. I think it was great to get Dakota at that level so other groups could see us there.”

That camaraderie between teams is reflected within the Dakota program itself. Adam Akabli, a senior who transferred to Dakota after being a veteran of the Chippewa Valley drumline, discovered this first-hand.

“I was very humbled in the beginning to say the least, but none of the guys over here were ever put-downs,” Akabli said. “I only got better over here, and everybody encouraged me to get better … It’s a drumline first, but in my experience it’s way more than a drumline. We went to Dayton, and it was more than just drumming 24 hours; I’m hanging out with all the dudes, and I know everybody personally. You have a connection with everybody.”

Making the WGI finals this year sets a new standard for the team’s success. Returning members like Daniels are excited to see how much further the program can go.

“I’m hoping for this next season … I can get everybody else to try and, right from the beginning of the season, just push the staff to do their jobs even better,” Daniels said. “We can try and get everything they’ve supplied us as good as we can so they can go out of their way more to prepare us for a high level. If we can make that a culture of every student knowing what to do all the time and getting it done and pushing the staff, we can probably in a few years move up to higher (competition) classes. I hope that will be soon in Dakota’s future. Probably after I’m gone, but I just want to see the future students succeed.”

Beyond the changing performance culture of the drumline, members of the team are hoping for the culture surrounding the drumline to change as well. The performing arts have a long way to go to reach the popularity level of Friday night lights, but seeing the large teams of supporters that showed up for other programs at worlds makes Reyes believe the drumline can attract more of a crowd to events than the odd teacher and friend of the ensemble — and not just for Dakota.

“From my perspective as director, it’s really nice that we have politicians and higher-level members of the community reaching out and congratulating us, but also being a representative for Michigan as well is very nice,” Reyes said. “You don’t get a lot of groups in Michigan that are successful. There are a lot of groups that try, but something about the state makes it hard for the marching arts to grow while our neighbors down in Indiana have some of the best marching bands in drumlines in the entire world … Hopefully, where we’re at, we can be the start of that change. Not only for our community locally, but for the community at large in Michigan.”