Empire Statesmen Win In The Square
Rochester’s Empire Statesmen took top percussion score, and every other caption as well, in sweeping to first place in the Drums In The Square contest with a total score of 82.325. Syracuse Brigadiers were second, with 75. 388.
Rochester Crusaders were third with 66.513 points, while Dansville White Sabers finished fourth with 59.275 points in the contest held on Saturday, July 8 in Central Square High School Stadium. The town of Central Square is located a few miles south of the eastern tip of Lake Ontario in upstate New York.
Empire Statesmen had top color guard score, top visual composite score, top percussion and brass, top music composite score, and were tops in both visual and music effect scores.
The win was the first of the season for Empire Statesmen, after finishing a close second to Reading Buccaneers twice. The Statesmen will take a week off the contest circuit on Saturday, July 15 for a return visit to Salem, Ohio for a parade and special performance.
The Statesmen return to the field of competition when they sail down the Susquehanna River on July 22, to meet the defending Drum Corps Associates (DCA) champion Reading Buccaneers again, in the Cavalcade of Champions at Bucknell Stadium in Lewisburg, PA. The Cavalcade will also feature the Bushwackers, of Harrison, NJ, in the first contest of the 2006 season to feature the top three corps from last year’s DCA finals. Empire Statesmen finished second to the Bucs last year, and Bushwackers, six-time DCA champions since 1981, were third. Bucs have won all three of their contests this season, while Empire Statesmen and Bushwackers have each won one contest.
The three corps account for all the wins in the current DCA contest schedule. As expected before the season began, the Bucs and the Empire Statesmen are the front running corps. They will meet three more times before the DCA final tournament on Labor Day weekend.
The Empire Statesmen, five-time DCA champions, are sponsoring the three-day DCA Labor Day weekend championship tournament this year and again in 2007. The schedule of weekend events includes individual and ensemble contests, a mini-corps contest, an old-fashioned outdoor drum corps party in downtown Rochester, induction of seven new members into the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame, a field concert by nine top U.S. and Canadian alumni corps, and prelims and finals for the competing corps in PAETEC Park Stadium. More than 40 mini-corps, alumni groups and competing corps will participate in events over the weekend.
Nine of the 42 DCA championships from 1965 to 2005 have been held in Rochester: four from 1968 to 1971; four from 1973 to 1976 and one in 1996.
The Empire Statesmen drum and bugle corps is a self-supporting independent group that represents the city of Rochester across the United States and Canada and as far abroad as Europe, the Caribbean and South America. For ticket information about the DCA championships, call (585) 266-2232 or visit the Empire Statesmen Web site at: www.statesmen.org
