TUSCUMBIA, Ala. — Meet Colbert Heights High School junior Tristan Hamm. Some students play football. Some play in the band. Hamm does both.
Throughout the week, you can see him on the field, practicing with the band, carrying a heavy load. "I play the last bass drum. The big one. The heavy one." Tristan's been playing it since the 7th grade. He says it's pretty fun, and it's the people that make it that way. "I just kind of fir in here, too."
But when Hamm's not marching, he's playing ball. He says he's been into the sport forever, "like, since I was three!" Right now he plays defensive end, and when needed tight end. And in high school, he's done both band and football at the same time. He says it gets rough sometimes when his schedule overlaps. "Yeah, usually, like, on days, like Monday. I just, like, go to football after school, and it's easier because this is the seventh period, so it's fine. But then on Tuesdays I usually go here about 30 minutes and then I walk down to the football field and show up a little later."
And on game day...
"Usually I have seventh period here and if it's an away game, I'll pack all my stuff up and then, like, my friends will, they'll put my stuff up on the bus for me. We play the first half, and I'll do the halftime show. I don't change. I just do it in my pads."
Number 33, with his football gear on, says, "Well, I find it fun doing both, things, and the people like my peers I like. I enjoy doing it with them. It makes it so much more fun."
And Tristan's band director, Jill Kirk, backs him on it. "You can do both. That's a huge saying in the band director world is you can do both. I encourage everyone if a kid is able to do it and wants to do it, have them do it."
His head coach, Tyler Jeffreys, is a fan, too. "It's been good so far for us. So I'm proud of him for being able to juggle all the things that he does."
And Hamm's not going to quit. He plans to finish out high school doing double-duty. "Just been playing it for ever, and I found it fun, so I'm not going to quit it."
