Statesmen Break 90 In Kingston

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Rochester’s Empire Statesmen are keeping pace with the thermometer this summer, breaking into the 90s while finishing first in the March of Champions in Kingston, NY on August 12. The Statesmen are the first Drum Corps Associates (DCA) corps to break the 90 barrier this season, scoring 90.925.

The Bushwackers of Harrison, NJ finished second in Kingston, with 89.513, slightly ahead of Hawthorne Caballeros, with 89.138. Syracuse Brigadiers scored 83.638 to finish fourth, while Connecticut Hurricanes were fifth with 81.663. New York Skyliners scored 76.363 to finish sixth. White Sabers on Danville, NY were seventh with 67.250.

The Empire Statesmen have now won three contests this season and finished second to the Reading Buccaneers four times. The Bucs, undefeated in six contests, have not competed for the past two weekends. Statesmen and Buccaneers will not meet again until the Big Sounds in Motion contest to be held in Reading, PA on August 26, the last weekend of the regular contest season.

The DCA championship tournament takes place the following weekend, in Rochester’s new downtown PAETEC Park Stadium. Buccaneers are the defending DCA champions. Statesmen finished second to the Bucs in last year’s DCA finals, in Scranton, PA.

The Empire Statesmen, five-time DCA champions, are sponsoring the three-day DCA Labor Day weekend championship tournament this summer and again in 2007. Weekend events include 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 concert by nine top U.S. and Canadian alumni corps, and prelims and finals for the competing corps in PAETEC Park Stadium, the new home of the Rochester Rhinos professional soccer team.

Audience members at this year’s preliminaries and alumni exhibition will be able to vote on a ballot in the DCA program to choose their favorite competing corps and their favorite three alumni corps. Results will be announced during the Sunday evening finals.

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 and other events on Labor Day weekend, call (585) 266-2232 or visit the Empire Statesmen Web site at: www.statesmen.org

Posted by on Tuesday, August 15th, 2006. Filed under DCA News.