BATON ROUGE, La. — Capt. Dale Dicharry, the commander of Homeland Safety for the East Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Workplace, has heard loads of unusual calls in his time in regulation enforcement, notably right here in south Louisiana. However this one beat all of the others.
Somebody had referred to as in a couple of wounded animal, and the decision was coming from proper in his personal neighborhood.
“He stated, ‘A wounded moose,'” Dicharry stated. “I stated, ‘We ain’t received no moose round.'”
Then it struck him: That might be Kent.
Kent Broussard, Dicharry’s new neighbor, was a retiree who had simply moved to Baton Rouge decided to satisfy his life’s dream: to hitch the Golden Band from Tigerland at LSU. And he was studying to play, of all issues, the tuba.
Dicharry tells the story within the Broussards’ lounge, alongside his spouse Daybreak, Broussard’s spouse Cheryl and fellow neighbors Lynette Wilks and Barry Searles. All of them instantly leap to Kent’s protection. He wasn’t so unhealthy on the tuba that his enjoying was confused with moose noises, they are saying. It was simply that confusion was pure; no person within the neighborhood was anticipating somebody to be enjoying a tuba in any respect.
They are saying it takes a village to lift a toddler. Nevertheless it seems it takes this neighborhood, on the southern fringe of Baton Rouge, to lift a 66-year-old tuba participant. It was right here that Broussard serenaded the neighbors from his porch, marched across the streets in a weighted vest to get his stamina up and averted the warmth by enjoying early within the morning and late at night time.
Leaf blowers may be annoying at these hours. However no person was ever bothered by Broussard’s brass. He was bringing a bit little bit of Tiger Stadium into everyone’s properties.
He quickly turned the envy of the neighborhood. He had a lifelong aim and made it occur. He’s now a member of the LSU band, enjoying the battle songs on Saturday nights at Tiger Stadium. Welcome to the Tiger Tuba Kent Fan Membership.
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“I’ve had ’em in my head for 60 years and now I am getting the chance to play them,” Broussard stated of the tunes.
It is a quintessential Louisiana story. The Broussards have been among the many first Acadian households (later shortened to Cajun) to settle in Louisiana two centuries in the past, arriving from France through Canada the place they have been expelled after rebelling in opposition to the British. Kent Broussard, born in Cajun nation in Lafayette, received an accounting diploma and MBA from Southeastern Louisiana in Hammond and performed trumpet within the band for 2 years. He went to work for Sazerac Spirits, named for a cocktail first invented in New Orleans, then was instrumental within the creation of the Sazerac Home on town’s Canal Road. He and Cheryl lived in LaPlace alongside the Mississippi River, however after two floods and Kent’s retirement, they determined to select up and transfer to Baton Rouge so he may do essentially the most Louisiana factor attainable: Be part of the LSU band.
“You may’t get way more south Louisiana than that,” he joked.
Because the Nineteen Sixties, Broussard had gone to LSU soccer video games and beloved listening to the band play. Within the Eighties, when he and Cheryl began courting, he would take her to LSU video games and make her keep after the sport and watch the band play. So 5 years in the past, earlier than he retired, he emailed the band director and requested what he must do to hitch the band.
There have been challenges. First, he must be a scholar. Second, competitors was going to be tight, and he must study to march, which a lot of the college students had executed for years in center and highschool. There would probably be an excessive amount of competitors on trumpet, he was instructed. However the world has fewer tuba gamers than trumpet gamers and the LSU band loves having a sturdy tuba line — after having 24 sousaphones final yr, they determined to just accept 32 this yr. In order that’s the place Broussard determined to direct his energies.
“It began actually 30 years in the past once I made a dedication to myself that I wished to do one thing that basically nobody else had ever executed,” Broussard stated. “I simply love the band. And I did not take a look at it like, due to my age, I do not assume I ought to check out. That has actually by no means crossed my thoughts. I am younger at coronary heart.”
To apply at house, Broussard purchased a $3,000 tuba off Fb Market — a good friend jokingly referred to as it a “Temu Tuba” — from a member of a mariachi band in Los Angeles who collects sousaphones, repairs them and sells them. An LSU scholar who helps the band restore devices helped him assemble it and get it arrange proper. Dale Dicharry gave him the concept of strolling round with the weighted vest. Over dinner conversations with neighbors, he would reveal his plan.
“We have been all like, are you critical?” Daybreak Dicharry stated. Somebody joked they thought that they had all had an excessive amount of wine. However Broussard was so smitten by it that all of them realized they may stay vicariously by way of him.
“To observe that man practice and persevere by way of this warmth and do what he does on the each day has simply merely been wonderful,” stated Lynette Wilks, who lives behind the Broussards. “My granddaughter is 11 and was out using the bike within the neighborhood. She got here in and threw the bike down. She stated, ‘Lulu, there is a man marching round on the street enjoying a tuba.’
“Yeah, that is Tuba Kent,” she stated.
He began out enjoying inside for a yr. The primary audition was mainly a screening, simply to guarantee that the candidates may play. Kent needed to carry out assigned music and add it to YouTube for the band administrators to assessment. After he cleared that hurdle, he began going exterior to get acclimated to the grueling summers as a result of the LSU band practices exterior every single day. So he would play early within the morning or later within the night. One morning, at about 7 a.m., Broussard stated he was out marching by way of the streets along with his tuba and two cyclists rode by. As they handed him, one seemed on the different and stated, “That is not one thing you see every single day.” Broussard shot again, “Go Tigers,” and he may hear them laughing as they rode away.
At a neighborhood occasion, a neighbor two doorways down instructed the Broussards that her 12-year-old son was going to mattress at about 9:15 one night and instructed her he thought it was so cool that he was going to mattress serenaded by one of many biggest battle songs within the nation.
Kent thought it was superior. Cheryl had one other response: “I put him on a 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. curfew,” she stated, laughing.
In mid-to-late August, Broussard was invited to the band’s preseason camp, a four-day lengthy audition the place he stated they “study the LSU method of enjoying,” together with their marching kinds and do some sight-reading of music. Largely, he stated, it was a method to ensure the tradition match was proper for band members.
There are 325 members within the LSU band, together with the colour guard and the Golden Ladies dance line, with roughly 275 members who’re strictly musicians. There are all the time extra freshmen trying to be a part of the band than there are spots. There aren’t any ensures.
So your complete gang waited anxiously for the ultimate band roster to be introduced. As soon as they received the information, everybody went loopy. Tiger Tuba Kent was formally a Tiger.
“Barry and I grabbed us a cocktail and we ran down the road,” Daybreak stated. She texted Cheryl, who instructed her Kent wasn’t house, however everybody may come over. Then all of them celebrated collectively within the Broussards’ house.
“It makes us all really feel good,” Searles stated. “You get to a sure age and then you definitely really feel such as you’re executed, however we actually do not feel like we’re executed. So it feels good to be accepted on the earth.”
Broussard turned a media darling. He did TV appearances on “Good Morning America” and the SEC Community, did interviews with NPR and PBS, and appeared on “The Kelly Clarkson Present” simply this week. Daybreak stated she was by no means bothered by the tuba; it was the notifications on the group chat and the neighborhood board cheering Kent on that will wake her up at night time.
So Cheryl has needed to share her husband with everybody. To start with, he is taking a full class load with 13 hours as a “non-matriculated scholar,” or with out being in a level program. He is solely taking courses that he finds fascinating. He loves American In style Music as a result of it explains how all of the music of his life is intertwined. His courses in Louisiana Historical past, Fundamentals of Emergency Administration and Comparative Politics all work collectively to clarify the present LSU soccer state of affairs, it appears. Then he has band apply after which the video games. Cheryl stated she misses seeing him are inclined to the yard as a result of he was so meticulous about it, however she has picked up some ideas and brought care of it in his place.
“We had gone from being collectively on a regular basis, which was a bit an excessive amount of, to all the way in which over right here,” she stated of Kent’s retirement. “I will see him 20 or half-hour, after which he’ll have to go research.”
They go to dinner on Fridays and benefit from their time. However seeing Kent get to stay his dream and develop into an inspiration for others has been price it. She stated she has already instructed him it’s very as much as him and he or she’ll assist him if he needs to do it once more subsequent yr.
Each time they present Broussard’s picture on the video board at Tiger Stadium, the gang erupts. Daybreak, Barry and Lynette cried the primary time they noticed it occur.
“I am one in all nearly 400 [in the band],” Broussard stated. “The overwhelming assist has been humbling. Perhaps I used to be naive about the entire state of affairs. I feel it is a good story. Hopefully it is type of pushing folks my age or older to say, ‘This man’s doing one thing actually bodily and mentally difficult. He is going again to highschool.’ So I am hoping that message is resonating with some of us.”
However one place the place it has already made an enormous distinction is within the Broussards’ neighborhood. They’re simply comfortable to be alongside for the journey, serving to encourage their native movie star/tuba participant.
“This has simply been unimaginable for all of us,” Wilks stated.
The yr hasn’t gone in accordance with plan for the Tigers on the sector. However within the stands, they’re top-of-the-line tales of the season. And Tiger Tuba Kent likes to maintain the positivity.
“Come to cheer on the band,” he stated.