With a combined 27 summers of drum corps as performers, Jay and Erika Coy have spent more time on the road than they probably care to remember. And, even though their paths crossed in 1994, it wasn't until 15 years later that they realized they loved each other.

Erika and Jay’s journey together began all the way back to 1994, when Erika began marching color guard with the Phoenix Drum and Bugle Corps from Waltham, Massachusetts. Jay had already started his career marching in 1988 with the Citations Jrs. Drum and Bugle Corps from nearby Burlington.

In 1990, Citations went inactive and Phoenix Drum and Bugle Corps was founded. Jay joined Phoenix alongside his older brother and sister and continued marching there until 1993. He then decided to take the summer of 1994 off.

However, Erika decided to marched with Jay’s siblings at Phoenix and became close friends with Jay’s sister. Erika continued to march winter guard with Jay’s sister and even spent a lot of weekends during the winter season sleeping over at the family's house. 

"I actually didn't really even like Jay that much back then." Erika claims. "[Jay] was dating my freshman college roommate so he was always around and it was really annoying. It's really funny to look back on."

The following four summers, Erika and Jay competed against each other in the local drum corps circuit but weren't really that close. Jay marched quads for the Citations, while Erika continued to march with Phoenix.

In 1999, Erika went to the Spartans Drum and Bugle Corps from Nashua, New Hampshire, and Jay followed the next year, when they finally began to interact. Oddly enough, they marched Spartans together for three years but still weren’t that close. They both dated other people and were in the same social circle but just didn’t really talk to each other.

Erika and Jay, circa 2002

The following year in 2003, Erika went to march with the Cadets, where she would march for the last three years of her drum corps career, aging out as color guard captain with a DCI World Championship at her home field in Foxboro, MA, in 2005. Jay went on to march with the Crossmen in 2003 but could not finish out his last two years due to an injury.

"Drum corps was and always will be our lives," Jay said. "We owe so much of who we are to this activity. I know I for one, could've ended up in a very dark place if it wasn't for my drum corps family.” 

Fast forward to the fall of 2007, Jay joined the Reading (MA) High School Marching Band staff, where Erika had already been teaching. This is where they started to actually become close friends.

Both were in other relationships, but because they were on staff together they were able to hang out more. The following two summers they taught together at Citations. 

Then, in the summer of 2009, a spark happened between them and that’s when they started looking at each other differently.

After coming back from a Disney band trip, the two got really close and leaned on each other during the summer to help get them through both of their relationship troubles. After things calmed down, it was like a switch went off. 

"We each could just tell one day that we were meant to be more than just friends," Jay said. "We made sure to take it slow so we knew everything was right."

They started dating later that year and continued dating until they eloped to Hawaii in May 2016.

Today, they live happily in Massachusetts with their adorable pet chinchilla, Dobby. Erika is a successful registered nurse, while Jay is a professional engineer.

Erika and Jay, 2016

The Coy's Drum Corps Journey