Riley Carver performs with Bluecoats in undefeated season

Riley Carver, a graduate of Heritage High School, has loved music and dance since she was a child. She grew up watching her mother, Leza Carver, coach color guard.

Carver began her performing career at Van Metre School of Dance, where she danced for the Appalachian Ballet Company. In middle school, she began playing the oboe. During her time at HHS, she played mellophone, was a drum major and performed with their color guard.

“I love performing; I just think the roar of the crowd is the fun part,” Carver said.

Carver has spent this past summer performing with the Bluecoats Drum & Bugle Corps.

According to their website, The Bluecoats are “One of the most widely-celebrated and competitively successful drum corps … made up of 165 young brass and percussion musicians, and colorguard performers.”

It all started in November of her senior year when she went to a Bluecoats audition camp in Ohio, where instead of being offered a contract, she was offered a callback. She returned the following April to audition again and was offered a contract to perform.

A week later, she was moving in with her new cohorts and preparing for competition.

“Nobody from where I graduated from (HHS) had done anything like this before, so it was kind of a big deal,” Carver said.

Carver was attracted to the style of music the Bluecoats play and the shows they produce, as well as their level of professionalism.

“When I think of drum corps, I think of — it’s the top of the league. So this is like the NFL of marching band,” she said.

Making the group was a big step for Carver.

She explained that in high school, there can be a lot of emphasis on the social aspect of marching band, but Carver said that could also come without that drive for excellence that she was seeking. She found it in the Bluecoats.

“When you get into this world of drum corps, everybody is striving to achieve the same goal. Everybody wants that medal at the end of the day,”

Carver said she was nervous at first, not knowing anyone and being thrown into the mix, but quickly found lifetime friendships.

“When you come in and you don’t know anybody, it’s a little nerve-racking and you meet these people and by the end of the season my first year, I had just found a family, a home.”

The group toured and was undefeated that season, winning all 18 of their competitions, which Carver said is a rare occurrence.

These days, Carver is coaching color guard at her alma mater, HHS, as well as Alcoa High School.

“I like when they get something and it — just the lightbulb goes off,” she said with a smile.

Carver said she would like to coach for a while and eventually wants to get to the point where schools will hire her to come in and set choreography on their color guard teams.

Carver also hopes to expand AHS’s color guard program.

To do that, she said, the interest needs to be cultivated from the ground up, starting at the elementary level.

There may also be more performing in Carver’s future. When asked if she thinks she will always perform, she replied, “As long as I can.”