Chipman Cadets


Good to the Corps


Kathleen Malloy
Photo by Lori A. Cheung

" Each One Teach One” is written above the doorway. As I entered the room, I heard someone say, “Adult on deck,” and every student in the Chipman Middle School Cougar Cadet Corps snapped to attention. The director, Lester Dixon, paced before students, checking for proper positioning and posture. Push-ups are handed out like candy for infractions. Dixon may sound gruff, but his bark is worse than his bite.
    Some of the kids call him Uncle Lester, and others say Mr. Dixon. Either way, he demands their best. The corps responds to all adults as ma’am or sir, and members always say yes, not yeah. “It’s just a matter of respect,” Dixon says.
    Dixon spends nights driving the AC Transit bus on line 51 and is also the campus supervisor at Chipman. Those are his jobs, but what he loves is being the volunteer director of the Chipman Cougar Cadet Corps, which he started in 2001.
    “I wanted to give the kids that aren’t jocks something to do.”
    The CCCC is loosely based on a Reserve Officer Training Corps model, but because it is not affiliated with the Army or any other military institution, it can be more flexible. The corps includes a drum line, a rifle team, a flag team and color guards.
    “I’m not training them to join the ROTC or the military,” Dixon says. “The guiding rules of the Chipman Corps are discipline and kuumba. Kuumba is Swahili for creativity. The creativity comes in because the kids teach each other and create their own routines. I’m just here to help them organize themselves. I don’t play the drums, and I don’t know any fancy marching steps. Like it says above the door, ‘Each One Teach One.’”
    Jessie Quiroga is at practice, even though he can’t participate until he brings up his grades. Quiroga had never played drums before joining the corps but loves learning their artistry “little by little from the other students.”
    “It’s the one thing I’m good at,” he says. “If I put as much effort into math as I do into the drums, I’d probably be an A student.”
    Erwin Lopez, who worked his way to lead drummer for the corps, knows that being in the corps has changed him. “It helps me think clearer, and it’s given me more confidence in myself.”
    The corps teaches teamwork and allows the kids to assert themselves positively. Each corps division has a student leader. Master Sgt. Charli Fadin is the head of the flag team, and performing is what she likes best. “A lot of people see us as ghetto kids that don’t know anything. Then they’re amazed when they see what we can do. We’re better than what they see,” she says.
    Cadet Capt. Daiana Uceta is a vocal corps advocate and beams when talking about it. “I’d recommend this to anyone. It’s a wonderful experience. It will help me all through my life,” she says, adding that she can’t get enough of competitions.
    Judging from the lists of performances and by the overflowing school trophy cabinet, the CCCC members are very good. They’ve earned many awards, including first place at the West Coast Drill Team and Drum Corps Competition in Phoenix in 2004 and the May Day Competition in Oakland. They also earned three awards at the 2004 San Francisco St. Patrick’s Day Parade. But even more important are the feelings of pride and accomplishment members of the group gain.
    Larry Goosby, who plays the snare drum, started at the request of his grandmother, who hoped the corps would help him with discipline and respect.
    “It was her idea to start it, but it’s my idea to stay in it,” he says with a grin and a rhythmic tapping drum roll.
    You can see the Chipman Cougar Cadet Corps at the Mayor’s Fourth of July Parade and the Crab Cove Concerts.