New Haven Independent

After practice Monday evening, it was another story. Bethea shifted gears and boasted about the team he whips into shape in Dixwell. He expressed complete confidence that the Nation Drum and Drill Squad is ready to capture another trophy for New Haven at a national competition to be held next Tuesday in Kansas. The bus leaves on Saturday.

The Dixwell-based Nation squad, a fixture at New Haven’s annual Freddy Fixer Parade, has been competing nationally in drill and drum competitions for 21 years. The team has captured first place 11 out of those 21 years, and at least a top-three finish in the other years.

Last year it took first place in the Fancy Trick division at the national championships in Detroit.

Drum and drill squads join rapid-fired syncopated drumming with fancy footwork influenced by both military parade marching and hip-hop dance. Nation’s eight-minute routine requires hours upon hours of practicing and memorizing steps and rhythms. Leading up to the nationals, the team practices seven days a week, and twice a day on Saturday and Sundays.

For Bethea, the founder and head of the Nation squad, the team is a way to keep young people busy, off the streets and out of trouble. For the drillers and drummers, the squad becomes a family. It gives them a chance to travel and see other parts of the country.

Monday evening found the squad hard at work in the Dixwell community substation on Charles Street. Crammed into a too-small function room, the sound of five drummers was deafening as the drillers went through their moves. Bethea, an ambulance driver and street outreach worker, stood with his arms folded, legs spread wide, shouting orders and criticism over the music.

Bethea had the team repeat its routine over and over, taking it apart and putting it back together again, step by step. Communicating almost exclusively by yelling, he repeatedly took his to team to task for getting lost in the routines’ intricate maneuvers due to having missed practices.

After two hours of going over the routine inside and outside, making adjustments, and re-choreographing what wasn’t working, Bethea sat the squad down for a final pep talk. The message: Pull together, learn the steps, and help each other out.

Responding to complaints that one of the drillers didn’t know her steps, Bethea shouted back, “Not a damn soul is helping her!”

“We’re going to do nothing but practice!” he continued. “I hear nothing but excuses! The bottom line is, you’ve got to be tight.”

As the drillers filed outside into the parking lot, 17-year-old Kassy Brumell expressed her frustration. Asked if she thought the team would successfully defend its championship, she said, “Yeah we’d better. This hard work better pay off sometime.”

She said that Bethea gets more worked up as the competition approaches. “You think he’s yelling now, wait ‘til Saturday.”

Despite the frustration and the shouting, Brumell was one of several drillers to express their love for being on the team, which they said is like a family. Other top steppers, like Toyanda Harris (at left in photo above) and Monet Lowery (at right), both 18, have been on the team most of their lives — since they were 4 years old. They rattled off a list of all the places that the nation has allowed them to visit over the years, including Atlanta, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Missouri, and Detroit.

“I got ‘em where I want ‘em,” Bethea said moments later. At this point, it’s all a mental game, he said. “You’ve got to get ‘em frustrated a bit, then things come together.”

“It’s all strategy,” he said as joked and laughed with his drillers after practice. “I start trouble with everybody, just to get their motors running.”

The strategy seems to be working for Bethea, given his team’s winningness. He said that Nation has a reputation at national competitions. “When we walk in the building, it’s like, ‘Ooh, Nation is here,’” Bethea said. “Our motto is ‘Take No Prisoners.’”

The Nation leaves by bus on Saturday for the drive to Kansas. Team members are asked to pay a portion of the cost of the trip. The squad is supported by local organizations and businesses including the United Way, the New Haven police department, the Board of Education, and Mid-K Beauty Supply Store.

Bethea predicted another victory for his squad at the nationals. But there’s a lot of practice still to be done, including “Boot Camp,” on Thursday, when the team will practice until midnight, making sure members know all the moves before they step in front of the judges on Tuesday.