Drum Major takes advantage of unique opportunity

NOTRE DAME, Ind. - No game day experience is complete without hearing or getting a glimpse of Notre Dame's Marching Band. It's an experience that can't be described, not even by the members leading the charge.

"It's a surreal experience. There's no thought. It's just action, you just have to go and do," Danny Martin said.

On game days, you find him dressed in white, the mere separation between him and the band.

"I feel more comfortable there than I do anywhere else on campus," Martin said.

But head drum major Danny Martin doesn't let a title go to his head.

"It's not about you, it's not about me being a drum major, it's about everyone else, which is really important," Martin said.

Each performance brings a special meaning.

"What I'm doing is so unique and what we're doing together, as a family, is even more unique," Martin said.

Up on the ladder, he's a leader.

"Leadership is more than just standing on a ladder in a white uniform," Martin said.

Martin says it's serving the band, making it sound good, and treasuring every little moment.

"We only have two more times on the field at Notre Dame Stadium, and that's crazy," Martin said. 

And when he finally steps off the ladder for the last time, Martin says he's not sure what he'll think.

"I hope that's a day of kind of like thank you to the last four years, that would be my ideal senior game, just be grateful and find those little moments in the day and treasure them," Martin said.