A RETIRED ACCOUNTANT REALIZES A LIFELONG DREAM OF JOINING THE MARCHING BAND AT LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY (LSU)
It’s never too late to pursue your dreams; not even if you’re retired. In reality, retirement was the ideal opportunity for Kent Broussard to realize his longtime ambition. Since going to his first football game at the age of eleven, the 66-year-old man had developed a deep affection for the Louisiana State University (LSU) marching band. Despite the passing of decades, he never truly gave up on his dream of playing the sousaphone with them. After a rigorous year of training, Broussard has finally made it.
“As you get older, you start thinking about the future,” Broussard told the LSU blog. “My wife calls it the fourth quarter of life. I didn’t want to just sit at home and watch Netflix. I needed to do something I always wanted to do, and what kept coming back to me was LSU and the Tiger Band.”
When Broussard initially received his degree, he played at Southeastern University, where he had studied the sousaphone, a kind of tuba, as a child. But unlike the 325 members of LSU's band that march down the hill before every football game, they were a much smaller band that didn't march. Since he started working as a full-time accountant forty years ago, the man had stopped playing the sousaphone. For the tryouts, he had to retrain his instrument playing and music reading skills. For fourteen months, he practised, frequently until midnight. He also got in shape because participating in a marching band requires excellent physical condition.
“I developed a regimen of lifting weights for about six months before the tryout,” he told NPR. “The second thing I did was, I have been running or jogging since I was 50, and I run between 20, 25 miles a week. And then, thirdly, I bought a weighted vest that I carried around on my chest for about four months.”
He also needed to be enrolled at LSU to try out for the band. The retiree, therefore, turned into a student, adding homework, studying, and exams to the mix.
When his name appeared on the list of people who had been chosen, his story moved both his fellow applicants and seasoned band members, who applauded him. Broussard made his debut on September 6, when he marched before the game and joined the half-time performance, where he played songs from The Wizard of Oz, The Wiz, and Wicked. He and his bandmates used precise stepping choreography to create words and images that only the people in the stands could see during the amazing performance.
While his story has caught the eye of many and even landed him on the jumbotron, Broussard says he just wants to be one of the group. “I stress about it: it’s not about me, it’s about us. All about the team. We’re all one unit,” he says.
Even so, he’s using his time in the spotlight to send a very important message: “If you have a dream, don’t just put it in the bottom drawer and never pull it out. The only failure is not trying. And for young people, if you have an idea, take a shot. You’re never going to know until you try.”