OU's marching band, The Pride of Oklahoma, announced its newly elected drum major for the 2019-20 academic year.
Engineering sophomore Paxton Leaf was announced on Feb. 1 as the Pride’s next drum major, succeeding music education senior Julie Siberts. Siberts was the Pride’s first female drum major.
Leaf said Siberts set the standards high for the next drum major, but he looks forward to “filling in her footsteps.”
“Julie left some pretty big shoes to fill — she was an excellent leader, an excellent person and really went above and beyond the call of the organization,” Leaf said. “It’s really humbling to get to be the person who gets to succeed her.”
The drum major position consists of leading the marching band and facilitating structure to the larger organization, Leaf said.
Several male and female individuals applied for the drum major role, and all were competitive candidates, Siberts said.
While Siberts was the first woman in the position, she said she has no doubts that Leaf was the right choice to succeed her and looks forward to seeing him excel in the position.
“He absolutely is the right person for the job,” Siberts said. “No one was sitting there and trying to helicopter me while I was doing it, so I think he deserves the same kind of ability to do it on his own and figure out what’s going to be best while he’s doing it.”
