For over half of the Caballeros fifty years, Jim Russo has been at the head of the corps on the field. Jim started his drum corps "career" at the age of 7 as a soprano bugler with Our Lady of Lourdes Cadets in Paterson, New Jersey. He later switched to French horn bugle, and played with the Dumont Police Cadets and the Fair Lawn Police Cadets, finishing his junior corps years as drum major of St. Lucy's Cadets in Newark where he won his first state and national junior titles.