In 1984, Chad Bowman began the Tenino Motorcycle Drill Team with six friends who wanted to do something special for the community parade in Tenino.
They decided they would try replicating maneuvers they saw from horse drill teams on their motorcycles and see how it went.
“We had no idea what we were doing,” Bowman said. “We just started out and it just got bigger and bigger.”
Now, more than 30 years later, the team performs at 20-25 events each year with its 10-12 member team. More than 50 riders have joined them over the years with Bowman, the captain, being the only original member left.
The all-volunteer group starts rehearsing twice weekly in April for their 20-25 performances each year that begin in May and go through the Christmas season. According to the non-profit’s bylaws, all riders must ride a 1200 cc or larger Harley-Davidson or American-made motorcycle. While each find their own motivation for riding, most say it is giving back to the community that they really enjoy about being part of the team.
“When you ride through that crowd and you’re doing high-fives with all of the 10-year-olds, man that’s cool,” said member Gary Young.
“We’re always first in the parade and we get the bikes cranked up and the crowds cranked up and it’s really fun,” added rider and sergeant at arms Scot Haskell.
Riders must spend at least a year practicing with the team before they earn their “patch” that entitles them to perform with the group in a parade or at an event. Learning all of the different moves is the hardest part for new members, Rakestraw said. He said they don’t really have a manual to study so members begin their training slowly — sans bike.
“We call it the duck walk,” said Dave Rakestraw, 72, a “retired performer” with the drill team whose job is usually walking along and handing out stickers at parades. “We’ll all walk through the movements. We’ll do one, two or three a night until they get them all.”
The noise of the motorcycles topped with the sound of a cheering crowd makes communication tricky. Besides learning the different maneuvers, members also learn a system of communication through whistles (Bowman blows a referee style whistle to signal the next upcoming movement) and hand signals.
“Most other teams use headsets,” Rakestraw explained.
The key to a good performance, Rakestraw said, is pretty simple.
“Don’t fall down. Don’t crash into somebody else,” he said with a smirk.
But when you’re performing live, sometimes accidents happen. Thankfully in 31 years they have never had a rider or crowd injury in a parade but they have had a couple spills. Often, though, their mistakes are only noticed by the riders themselves. One of the more spectacular ones was in a parade when Bowman’s bike fell over but the throttle stayed on.
“He picked it up and jumped on it like Roy Rogers and the crowd goes wild,” Rakestraw recalled.
“A hop skip and a jump and I’m back on the seat,” Bowman added with a laugh.
The Tenino Motorcycle Drill Team is an all-volunteer non-profit organization. Their biggest fundraiser, which helps pay for their travel and performance expenses, is the Do-Wa-Diddy, which will be held July 11 at Millersylvania Park in Maytown. The adults-only event, which draws bikers from all over the area, also helps fund the group’s participation in events that promote motorcycle safety as well as their scholarship fund for local high school students.
