First place, Sports Picture Story - Joshua A. Bickel / The Columbus Dispatch, “Austin Bowman Leads the Way”Austin Bowman makes his job look easy. As the head drum major at Ohio State University, he darts, struts and bends backwards until his plume touches the field turf, all to raucous applause from the crowd of 100,000 each week during the football season. Ohio State University Marching Band Drum Major Austin Bowman looks out to the filed as he runs down the ramp for his pregame entrance on Sept. 25, 2021 in Columbus.
First place, Sports Picture Story - Joshua A. Bickel / The Columbus Dispatch, “Austin Bowman Leads the Way”Ohio State University Marching Band Drum Major Austin Bowman, left, and assistant drum major Dalton Cararo, right, run alongside Ethan Kelly, center, as they practice the drum major's entrance during rehearsal on Monday, Sept. 20, 2021 at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Aside from preparing and performing a different show each week, one of Austin’s responsibilities is helping teach the next generation of drum majors.
First place, Sports Picture Story - Joshua A. Bickel / The Columbus Dispatch, “Austin Bowman Leads the Way”Austin Bowman listens during a lecture in his intermediate microeconomics theory class. Along with his full slate of classes, Austin has to balance about 20 hours a week of dedicated band rehearsal time along with extra time spent choreographing his performance, planning practices for the other drum majors and his own physical conditioning.
First place, Sports Picture Story - Joshua A. Bickel / The Columbus Dispatch, “Austin Bowman Leads the Way”Austin Bowman hangs out with bandmates Sean O'Brien (left) Blake Hassay (top right( and Jeremy Parr (bottom right) after the group had lunch at Chipotle near campus.
First place, Sports Picture Story - Joshua A. Bickel / The Columbus Dispatch, “Austin Bowman Leads the Way”After class and lunch, Austin Bowman returns to his studio apartment, and takes off his socks, soaked from the rain, before starting some homework for a few hours before band rehearsal later that afternoon.
First place, Sports Picture Story - Joshua A. Bickel / The Columbus Dispatch, “Austin Bowman Leads the Way”Carrying a backpack full of batons, Austin Bowman walks over to rehearsal from his apartment.
First place, Sports Picture Story - Joshua A. Bickel / The Columbus Dispatch, “Austin Bowman Leads the Way”Austin struts out onto the practice field as the band rehearses its ramp entrance during one of the week’s last practices before gamely.
First place, Sports Picture Story - Joshua A. Bickel / The Columbus Dispatch, “Austin Bowman Leads the Way”During rehearsal for their halftime show, Austin leaps into the air in an attempt to catch his baton, but ends up dropping it, his hands cold from the air and still sore from his fall during the game a week earlier. "Mistakes happen to everyone. It's just not always in front of 100,000 fans and a million people on Twitter," he said.
First place, Sports Picture Story - Joshua A. Bickel / The Columbus Dispatch, “Austin Bowman Leads the Way”Members of the Ohio State University Marching Band's trumpet section cheer as drum major Austin Bowman does his third signature backbend during the "Three Knocks" tradition signaling the arrival of the band to the stadium. During this tradition, Bowman bends backwards until the plume in his hat touches the ground, then bangs on a metal plate affixed to the wall in front of him. After doing that three times, the band lines up in formation, ready for their pregame performance.
First place, Sports Picture Story - Joshua A. Bickel / The Columbus Dispatch, “Austin Bowman Leads the Way”Ohio State University Marching Band Drum Major Austin Bowman waits to run down the ramp for his entrance as pregame starts. "Austin will be remembered for putting on a damn good show," former drum major Konner Barr said. "When his time comes to an end, he will have left an impact not only on the fans, but he will have inspired so many kids to become future drum majors themselves."
