Statesmen Have Wind In Their Sails
Rochester’s Empire Statesmen will head into next weekend’s Big Sounds in Motion contest in Reading PA with plenty of wind in their sails, following a second straight victory on August 19. Statesmen scored 92.5 and swept every caption to win the Tournament of Drums in Corning NY. Syracuse Brigadiers were second, with 87.338. Rochester Crusaders were third with 76.125. White Sabers scored 72.263 to finish fourth.
The Reading Buccaneers, defending Drum Corps Associates (DCA) champions, are the only corps to defeat the Empire Statesmen this season. The two will meet for the fifth time in the Reading contest, the last of the regular season, on August 26. Empire Statesmen, five-time DCA champions, finished second in last year’s championship tournament.
Buccaneers also won on August 19, taking first place in the Parade of Champions in Scranton PA with a score of 92.788. The Harrison NJ Bushwackers and Hawthorne Caballeros also broke into the 90s at Scranton. Bushwackers were second with 91.438, while Cabs were third with 90.888. The Bucs, undefeated in six previous contests, had not competed for the previous two weekends.
Scores are also heating up in the Midwest. Minnesota Brass scored 89.788 in winning the Drum Corps Expo in St. Peter MN on August 19.
The DCA championship tournament takes place Labor Day weekend, in Rochester’s new downtown PAETEC Park Stadium. The Empire Statesmen are sponsoring the three-day DCA Labor Day weekend championship tournament this summer and again in 2007.
More than 30 competing and alumni corps have already been assigned practice fields in the Rochester area. Weekend events include individual and ensemble contests, a mini-corps contest, an old-fashioned outdoor drum corps party in downtown Rochester on Friday evening, September 1; induction of seven new members into the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame during a noon luncheon ceremony and the preliminaries for all competing corps on Saturday, September 2; a concert by nine top U.S. and Canadian alumni corps, and finals for the competing corps in PAETEC Park Stadium, the new home of the Rochester Rhinos professional soccer team, on Sunday, September 3.
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
