Nathan Vlcek, Chelsea High School Class of 2008, is expected to perform with the Chicago Bears drumline when the team takes the field Sunday to play the Cleveland Browns at 1 p.m.
Vlcek auditioned earlier this year and made the line, which plays during the team’s home games.
He’s studying music performance in the School of Music at Western Michigan University and until he aged out, Vlcek competed with the Legends Performing Arts Academy’s drum corps and the NorthCoast Academy’s indoor percussion ensemble.
In addition, Vlcek is teaching percussion at South Haven High School, works with the indoor percussion ensemble in Goshen, Indiana, and will join the staff at NorthCoast this winter.
“He credits much of his love of percussion performance and drum corps activities to Phil Jones, former Chelsea High School teacher and color guard instructor, and Rick Catherman, current high school band director,” according to a press release.
“He was a terrific band member and a hard worker,” Catherman said, adding Vlcek overcame some heath issues early on and never let them deter them.
Vlcek’s success, Catherman said, “doesn’t surprise me. He has very supportive parents (Ed and Cathy Vlcek) and he’s a very determined young man.”
“I’m very proud that he went here,” Catherman said of Nathan Vlcek’s time at Chelsea High School.
