Cloverdale twirler 'Bucket' sidesteps stereotypes

Aaron Goodman, aka "Bucket," performs with the Cloverdale High School color guard and band during the 2014 Indiana State Fair competition. This is the first season for "Bucket," the only male twirler on the team.

INDIANAPOLIS -- "He wears this orange hat and it's a bucket hat," Angela Raisor, Cloverdale High School color guard director said.

"Like Gilligan," interjected her husband, David.

"Like a '60s hat," another parent noted.

"So he's 'Bucket.' That's his nickname," finished Angela.

The adults of Cloverdale Community School's marching band sat underneath an awning just outside their equipment trailer at the Indiana State Fair, discussing Aaron Goodman, the only male member of their 15-student-strong color guard.

For a relatively small marching band -- between 30 and 60 members in a school of 400 -- a teenage boy willing to slip on the black gloves of a color guard member is rare, according to Raisor.

"I think in some cases the directors don't seek that out. They don't want that type of diversity," she said.

But she thinks that, far more often, the lack of male involvement might have more to do with stigma than establishment.

"We've had one boy quit this year and he said he quit because his friends at school were calling him names," she said. "They ended up robbing him of something he really would've enjoyed doing. It's a shame."

Despite this, Cloverdale boasts a surprising tradition of male twirlers. In Raisor's past seven years working for the color guard, she has only experienced one without a single guy willing to participate.

Bucket, the most recent student to crush stereotypes, auditioned for the guard in April after spending one year playing trumpet and bass drum in the same program.

He said his older sister used to show him how to handle the flags when she danced in color guard. Those grade-school lessons finally inspired him to try out for the team six years later.

Clad in a crisp white shirt and black tie, Goodman resembles the musicians more than his fellow twirlers during his performances, but the proud swoop of his flag to the swaying sounds of the band banishes any lurking doubts.

Tatiana Raney, a Cloverdale High School senior and one of the three color guard captains, said Bucket fits in well with the tight-knit collection of color guard twirlers.

Raisor notes that a certain type of male student usually gravitates toward the flags.

"The guys that have done it have definitely been the stronger personalities who don't really see or care what the other ones think," she said.

Bucket said his family and friends digested the news of his hobby easily. And if anyone around him ever doesn't, he has a few words for them.

"I'd probably take it one of two ways. I'd probably say because it's fun, I want to do it and I can do whatever the heck I want. Or I'd pull out whatever they like doing most and I say, 'What if I think that's dumb,'" he said. "That's what I've always been taught from my dad. Always defend yourself and always defend others. If you think it's what you want to do, do it."

When he sees the rippling motion of his flags as he tosses them into the air, he knows he made the right choice.

"It's just one of those feelings," he said. "You just like it. There's no excuse why."

Danielle Grady is a writer for BSU Journalism at the Fair, a Ball State University immersive-learning project placing 25 student journalists at the heart of the Midway to tell stories of the 2014 Indiana State Fair.