Disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, who has been accused and convicted of sexual abuse by 265 young women and men, will spend the rest of his life in jail. But for years, Nassar’s incessant abuse was enabled by a toxic culture of success above all else, lack of questioning authority (and at times almost godlike worship of it), and an environment where gymnasts’ basic health and wellbeing was routinely ignored.

Nassar is out, but questions still remain regarding the conditions and practices that enabled his abuse for so long. Those questions are also easily applicable to drum corps, where the long- celebrated grueling culture of perfection desperately needs to be acknowledged as toxic.

As an activity that mostly stays out of the public eye and media scrutiny, Drum Corps International, the Indianapolis-based umbrella organization of an activity that can only be described as extreme marching band, has fostered a culture eerily echoing the toxicity that enabled Nassar’s abuse within USA Gymnastics.

In an activity where the daily standard is perfection, and directors are seen as gods to corps members, the culture cultivated within 10-time world champion corps the Cadets was the perfect environment for the sexual harassment and assault now being alleged against former director George Hopkins, The Inquirer found.

Nine women are accusing Hopkins of harassment and assault ranging from inappropriate sexual comments to rape. The accusers ranged in age from 16 to 37 at the time of the incidents, which span four decades from 1980 until a few years ago, according to The Inquirer.

Like elite gymnastics, the constant goal drum corps is perfection, which fosters an environment where personal sacrifices are often made to be the very best. Both DCI performers and elite gymnasts have been expected to work themselves to the breaking point under sometimes abusive conditions.

The parallels between the toxic environment of USA Gymnastics and the Cadets as described by Hopkins accusers continue.

“It was like Hopkins was God,” Kim Carter told The Inquirer, who alleges being forced into a sexual relationship with Hopkins in order to keep her job when she worked for the corps in 2006. Within USA Gymnastics, Marta Karolyi, former head of the women’s program, who led the U.S. team to unprecedented success from 2001 to 2016, was that god-like figure. Another Hopkins’ accuser, Meg Toth, told The Inquirer that at the time, drum corps was “my religion.”