Statesmen Win In New Haven
Rochester’s Empire Statesmen are heading home for the Drum Corps Associates (DCA) world championship tournament on Labor Day weekend after sweeping to top place in Fanfare 2007 in New Haven, Connecticut on August 25, taking 13 out of 14 captions on the scoresheets.
Statesmen scored 93.388, with top marks in field and ensemble visual, field and ensemble percussion, percussion total, field and ensemble brass, brass total, music composite, visual and music effect and effect total. Second place Bushwackers had the top color guard, and tied Empire Statesmen for top visual composite score. Bushwackers scored 90.813.
Connecticut Hurricanes scored 86.875 to finish third. Sunrisers were fourth with 78.738. Fusion Core was fifth, with 76.075.
Empire Statesmen, five time DCA champions, wound up the regular contest season with four wins in 10 contests. Only Reading Buccaneers, undefeated in eight contests, had more wins. Hawthorne Caballeros topped the Statesmen twice to record their two wins this season. The top three corps on the DCA circuit haven’t met on the same field since July 21 in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, where Buccaneers were tops, Cabs second, and Empire Statesmen third.
The three meet again next weekend, when the DCA championship preliminaries take place in downtown Rochester’s PAETEC Park stadium on September 1. In addition to competing, the Statesmen are also sponsoring the DCA world championship tournament.
The schedule of events in downtown Rochester includes the popular Individual and Ensemble competition on Friday evening, August 31, the 32nd annual banquet and induction ceremony of the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame at noon on Saturday, September 1, the DCA Class A and Open Class preliminaries beginning at 2 pm and running through the evening of Saturday, September 1, the Alumni Classic field show exhibition starting at 10 am on Sunday, September 2 and the DCA finals beginning at 5:30 pm on Sunday evening to determine the 2007 DCA world champions.
Eleven of the 43 DCA championships from 1965 to 2007 have been held in Rochester: four from 1968 to 1971; four from 1973 to 1976; in 1996, 2006 and again this year. Statesmen have sponsored the tournament three times. Ticket information about the 2007 championship weekend is available through the DCA website, at http://www.dcacorps.org/
The Empire Statesmen organization offers opportunities for involvement beyond participating as a performer or support staff volunteer in one of North America’s most popular drum and bugle corps. The Statesmen also operate the Empire Cadets marching band for area boys and girls as a community outreach program. Both groups regularly perform in winter concerts, at no cost to organizers, to help support various school and community music programs.
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. The organization kicked off a major capital fund raising campaign during the 2006 DCA tournament. Funds will be used to support the operations of the Empire Statesmen and Empire Cadets and other charitable and education activities.
For information, call (585) 266-2232 or visit the Empire Statesmen Web site at: www.statesmen.org
