Coffman graduate gets to dot ‘i’ Sept. 11
Imagine getting to dot the “i” on the pin-striped turf of Ohio Stadium before 100,000 cheering fans. h The dream will become a reality Sept. 11 for Luke Isler, a fifth-year band member at Ohio State University and a 2017 graduate of Dublin Coffman High School. h The 22-year-old graduated at Ohio State’s spring-semester commencement but is a fifth-year band member and will dot the “i” at the Buckeyes’ home-opener against the University of Oregon on Sept. 11 at The Shoe.
“On top of not being allowed in the stadium to play for fans or football players, we were unable to dot last year, as well, stripping us of a dream we’ve all been working towards for most of our music careers,” Isler said.
Marching band members have five years of eligibility regardless of how soon one graduates, but a sixth year of eligibility was provided to account for the season lost to the COVID-19 pandemic, Isler said.
Dotting the “i” is something Isler said he continues to prepare for, including receiving tips from the marching band’s drum major on how to “strut” but also in recognizing the humility that comes with being one of few to have the opportunity to dot the “i” in the famous Script Ohio formation, a decades-old honor traditionally reserved
for senior sousaphone players.
“I will soak it all in. I am grateful for the opportunity and for the next seven games this season,” Isler said.
In addition to dotting the “i” on Sept. 11, Isler will dot the “i” during a pregame performance at Ohio State’s final game of the regular season Nov. 27 at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
After playing the piano as a young child, Isler first picked up a tuba as a sixth-grade student at Karrer Middle School.
“It was big and shiny, and I wanted to show off a little bit, I think,” Isler said about choosing the tuba.
As is often the case for tuba players, he transi
tioned to the sousaphone while playing in the marching band at Coffman.
“It is a privilege to see your students continue on and further their studies in music after high school. Knowing that Luke is getting a chance to dot the “i” in such an iconic moment is truly exciting,” said Jeremy Bradstreet, Coffman’s director of bands.
As a freshman at Ohio State, Isler said, he was among an unusually large and talented rookie class and was required to win a not-so-common “dot-off” for the opportunity to join the ranks of Ohio State’s dotters.
After Isler and another senior sousaphone player each achieved the highest ratings in a number of metrics and avoided any such demerits as failing a music check, it was up to a group of past dotters to judge the two contestants on intangible qualities and choose which one would have the choice of games to dot the “i.”
Seven senior sousaphone players each will have the opportunity to dot the “i” this season, but Isler had his choice of games and will do so at the Buckeyes’ first game of the 2021 season – and the first expected to host a full complement of fans since the 2019 season, assuming COVID conditions don’t worsen.
“I am looking forward to experiencing that energy again,” Isler said.
It was more than four years ago but still like yesterday for Isler, when he first marched out of the tunnel at Ohio Stadium and onto the field Sept. 9, 2017, when the University of Oklahoma visited.
It was an 8 p.m. game, “so we had all morning and afternoon to get excited,” said Isler, recalling that day’s “skull session” and marching to Ohio Stadium.
“I remember hearing all the noise, just the roar, and then going up the ramp, seeing the sky and then the crowd. It was just a sea of people, all with their phone cameras out. It was pure adrenaline,” Isler said.
Isler said the sheer awe of that experience wanes a little after four years, but it lives on just as intensely in a vicarious way, as he observes underclass band members absorbing the experience for the first time.
“I’m just as excited every time (walking up the ramp), but it transitions to watching how incredible it is for those who are experiencing it for the first time,” Isler said.
Meanwhile, Isler will experience his own excitement of dotting the “i” on Sept. 11 but also recognizing the significance of the day on a national level.
“I’ll be part of day bigger than any one of us,” said Isler, alluding to Ohio State’s halftime show that will recognize the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
That day, nearly 3,000 people were killed after four commercial airliners were hijacked and flown into the each of the World Trade Center towers in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and into a field southeast of Pittsburgh after its passengers wrested control of the plane and caused it to crash before reaching its intended target, believed to be the White House or the Capitol.
Isler, who graduated this spring with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, is a financial analyst for the Cleveland Clinic. kcorvo@thisweeknews.com @Thisweekcorvo