At an Auburn football game, you might catch a glimpse of familiar faces on the field during the halftime performance.
This year, three former local students have risen through the ranks as leaders of Auburn University’s marching band. From Reeltown, Bella Nonales is an Auburn drum major and Jillian Heaster is the Tiger Eyes flagline co-captain. From Tallassee, Natalie Henderson is the majorette section leader with Tiger Eyes.
Bella Nonales
Nonales started in the band playing the baritone. Then in her sophomore year at Reeltown she became an assistant drum major and by junior year she was a full-fledged drum major. This is her first year as drum major for the Auburn University Marching Band.
Former Reeltown Rebel, Bella Nonales is now a drum major for the Auburn University Marching Band.
This season, there’s a lot of big games with the stadium selling out. Nonales said she feels both a lot of excitement and nervousness. Going from Reeltown’s stadium to Jordan-Hare is quite a leap size-wise.
Her fellow drum majors all come from different schools with different experiences — making it easy to bounce ideas off of each other.
“They have been really great mentors and I have come to really enjoy hanging out with them, inside of the band and outside,” she said.
As for the drum major auditions, they have sessions going over fundamentals where the directors look at individual’s conducting patterns. Then, there is an interview portion, and they perform two prepared pieces.
Six to eight finalists are selected, and they perform for the whole band. There also is a test where a football play comes on the screen and the finalist must call out an appropriate cheer for it. From there, the drum majors are selected.
Nonales said as a drum major you need to be adaptable and flexible with any situation that might come up. Fellow former Rebel, Brianna Jarvis — who also was the first Black female drum major for Auburn — inspired Nonales.
“Just seeing that it's possible,” she said of Jarvis. “No matter where you are from, no matter how small the school is, you can make waves wherever you go.”
In school, Nonales is studying biosystems engineering in the bioprocessing track. She hopes to help manufacturing industries make product development more eco-conscious and aid in alleviating environmental issues. Outside of band and classes, she also enjoys crocheting.
Natalie Henderson
Henderson started her twirling career in 10th grade at Tallassee High School, where she served as majorette captain for two years. She said being a section leader at the collegiate level is completely different.
However, taking on a leadership role early on and having instructors mentor her, gave Henderson the confidence to step into her first year as an Auburn section leader. She said going from high school to college marching band, there’s an extra pressure of accountability.
For instance, if you don’t show up on time to practice, you risk losing your spot for the next performance. The audition process is also extensive.
Tallassee High School graduate Natalie Henderson is now the majorette section leader for Auburn University's marching band.
To be in Tiger Eyes, individuals turn in a fundamentals video, create and perform a solo routine, learn a group routine in 30 minutes and perform traveling techniques such as jazz runs, toe-heel marching and prances.
“It’s definitely nerve racking, especially in the beginning, but ‘practice makes perfect,’” Henderson said of the performances. “It’s second nature (at this point). Instead of getting nervous, I try to have fun. But it does still get nerve racking sometimes.”
As a section leader, she choreographed the performances, and she said it is encouraging seeing her work be performed. She is also glad the girls feel comfortable coming to her for guidance.
At the end of the day, the best part is the friendships and knowing you can depend on each other.
“I actually met my best friend from majorette,” she said. “I live with her; we have been friends ever since we met. That’s definitely the most rewarding part is building friendships and also looking up to our instructors that give us so much motivation and encouragement.”
Outside of band, Henderson is majoring in Business Management with a minor in Human Resource Management. The business field gives her opportunities to connect with others and human resources offers her path to also help people. She previously interned at Sonic Tools in their marketing department and now works there part-time.
Jillian Heaster
Heaster’s journey in flagline started in 10th grade at Reeltown, where she later became captain. She said one of the big differences between high school and college bands is the number of shows.
Jillian Heaster is a former Reeltown High School graduate who is now the flagline co-captain in the Auburn University Marching Band.
In high school, there’s just one show, but at the collegiate level they have five different shows, and it rotates around depending on the game. Then for the auditions, it comes down to stamina with the multiple performances individuals put on during the one-day tryout. One of the hurdles she had to work on early on was marching toe-heel rather than the traditional heel-toe.
Overall, Heaster said it's a fun time. The pre-game performance is always exhilarating and half-time is enjoyable too, but it can be a little nerve-racking because there’s a lot more to remember.
Like Henderson, Heaster enjoys the creative liberty of choreographing for the performances and being someone the girls can come to and ask questions.
“With Tiger Eyes on your specific lines, we have 28 girls and that’s 27 people you are about to spend the next five months with,” she said. “You have to get to know each other and you become friends. I’ve met some of my best friends on flagline. I can tell they are going to be at my wedding; I’m going to be at their weddings.”
As a first-year co-captain, there’s a couple things that helped prepare her. For one, her major is English and language arts education, which has helped her understand how people learn and how to teach people new things. Also, being flagline captain in high school helped as well.
“My band director in high school was a big influence for me and I think I owe a lot of that to him,” she said. “With mentoring me and always being there for his students.”
Outside of band and her English classes, Heaster is also part of Kappa Kappa Psi — a service-oriented, co-ed band fraternity.