Wesley’s passion for the Spartan Marching Band comes from her father, an alum from the 1970s. Although she’d spent the first ten years of her life in northern California, Wesley’s father often played old records and tapes of his time at MSU. According to Wesley, he’d occasionally interrupt with "That’s me!" or the inevitable "You have to go there."

Once she began taking drum lessons at eight, playing for MSU became her dream. 

In 2025, 50 years after Peterson, Wesley would become the first woman to be appointed drumline section leader for the Spartan Marching Band. 

"To get in at all was really exciting for me," Wesley said. "And then to work my way up, I was really excited. I think a year ago, I thought maybe I’d be going for it, (but) I didn’t think that I would get it or anything." 

When the decisions for section leaders came out, Wesley had been folding laundry in her bedroom. The TV was still on when her phone lit up with the email notification that confirmed her new role.

Wesley wasn’t even the first to break the news to her loved ones. No, cymbal section leader Anna Scholes had been the first to text a groupchat with Wesley and cymbal squad leader Brooke Ringstad. Scholes and Ringstad had both been on the same email Wesley received that confirmed their own positions. 

The email had instructions to not share the news, but the trio ended up telling each other before Wesley even told her parents.

"Every now and then I’m like, this is history," Scholes said. "There’s never been a woman drumline section leader before, and it's really cool to have that be one of my best friends."

Scholes also comes from a line of Spartan Marching Band alums. However, unlike Wesley, Scholes didn’t realize she wanted to continue the "lineage" until January of her senior year of high school. 

She’d attended one of the marching band’s help sessions over winter break. There wasn’t a specific moment where Scholes realized she wanted to join, instead there were multiple.

"Seeing all the people that were already in the band, the way they interacted with each other, they had all these jokes," Scholes said. "It was such a family community that I was like, I don’t know where else I’m gonna get that."

Maintaining and nurturing that sense of community is one of her main objectives for the upcoming marching season, Scholes said. She hopes that having more female representation will help newcomers feel a "sense of comfort" and like someone is "vouching" for them. 

As squad leader for the cymbals, Ringstad will be working closely with Scholes to bring that vision to life. 

"I want everyone to get what they came there for, which is not only having fun, but also being really good at what they do," Ringstad said. "I want to make sure … that they have the resources they need to make it as less stressful as possible."

While there have been female cymbal section and squad leaders before, Scholes and Ringstad have become part of the greater movement toward more female leadership in drumline.

"There’s plenty of women in marching band, but drumline specifically just always seems to have the majority of men," Ringstad said. 

Scholes recalled being told "Welcome to the fraternity" by a Spartan alum upon making it into the band. 

"I was like, I’m not a guy, but thanks," Scholes said. "It’s really weird mix of I feel accepted but also it’s not quite the same."

For drumline, Scholes said guys are the "expectation." There’s a tendency to expect someone bigger to carry the weight of the instruments traditionally used. 

Wesley doesn’t think the wait for a female drumline section leader has been "intentional."

"I don’t think that sex has a lot to do with it, but for us, it’s just harder to make it to this level," Wesley said. "Not that they make it harder for women at all, but there’s not that many of us that go for it."

Regardless, Wesley said it was "bound to happen."

The drumline isn’t the only part of the band to be making progress on the leadership front. Criminal justice junior Holly Bertram has also been named the first female tuba section leader. 

"It’s heavily guy-dominated and there is some history of it not being the most polite to women, as history goes," Bertram said. "It feels good. We (have) finally gotten over this barrier and I can finally, hopefully keep this going."

Bertram had learned she could be the first woman to lead the tubas before the audition process began last fall. The realization was borne out of personal curiosity while acting as squad leader for the tubas. 

Like the others, Bertram hopes the 2025 season will mark the beginnings of "a great shift."

"I’m just hoping that people aren’t afraid," Bertram said. "People can look at me and won’t think they’re too small for tuba. That’s a big thing. We always get 'They’re too small for tuba.'"

Bertram is also the first lesbian to be section leader for the tubas. Her co-section leader for the upcoming season is also part of the LGBTQ+ community, a shared trait that she hopes will also be part of a "shift" in the band’s demographics. 

"I want to make it known that that’s another thing we don’t have to be afraid of," Bertram said.

Although it took effort to achieve their new titles, they were not immediately recognized for their collective accomplishments. 

The Spartan Marching Band, including Wesley, had been unaware that Wesley had made history until she became curious and asked. It was then announced that Wesley was the first woman to become drumline section leader during the band’s banquet in January. 

"You should know if you’re going to be the first woman, the first whatever," Scholes said. "If you’re going to be the first of something, you should know, and other people should know too."

"This is important, this is cool, this is history."