Empire Statesmen Sweep Jamestown
It was no vacation for Rochester’s Empire Statesmen at Buglers Holiday in Jamestown, New York: hard work paid off again with top score in every caption, for a first place total of 82.850. The Statesmen opened their Drum Corps Associates (DCA) season on July 4 with high score in every caption to win the Vince Bruni Preview of Champions contest in Rochester.
Syracuse Brigadiers were second at Buglers Holiday on July 25, taking second in every caption for a total score of 78.288. Rochester Crusaders were third with 69.400. White Sabers, of Dansville, New York were fourth with 61.000. Excelsior, representing the greater capital district of New York and Pittsfield, Massachusetts finished in fifth spot with a score of 50.000.
Empire Statesmen showed consistent quality in visual and music captions, with almost identical scores in both areas: a visual composite score of 25.15 out of 30 and 25.500 out of 30 in the music composite caption. The totals in the visual effect and music effect sub-captions produced a total effect score of 32.20 out of 40.
The highlight of the regular contest season schedule will take place August 1 when Empire Statesmen and the other corps from last year’s top six finishers at the DCA championships compete in the Parade of Champions in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The lineup in Scranton includes: defending champion Reading Buccaneers, undefeated so far this season; Minnesota Brass, second in 2008; Empire Statesmen, third; Connecticut Hurricanes, fourth; Hawthorne Caballeros, fifth and Harrison, New Jersey Bushwackers, sixth.
Regular season DCA contests will continue on every August weekend, before Empire Statesmen, for the fourth year in a row, will be the local host for the DCA weekend tournament to determine the 2009 champion. Events begin the Friday evening of Labor Day weekend, September 4, with individual and ensemble competitions and mini-corps contest in downtown Rochester, with free admission to all events and an old-fashioned outdoor drum corps street party.
Events on Saturday, September 5 include the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame induction ceremony during a noon luncheon at downtown Rochester Plaza Hotel (formerly the Crowne Plaza) and class A and open class preliminaries beginning at Rhinos Stadium (formerly Paetec Park stadium) at 2 pm.
Sunday events include the Alumni Spectacular field show at 10 a.m., featuring nine of North America’s most popular alumni drum and bugle corps: three from Canada and six from the United States, with the DCA class A and open class finals beginning at 5:30 pm.
The DCA championship tournament will be held in Rochester again in 2010 and 2011, with DCA acting as the host organization.
The Statesmen are five-time DCA world champions and have also won four American Legion national titles, and the triple crown: the DCA and American Legion titles and the World Show Band championship in London, England in 1998. Empire Statesmen have finished in the top four during DCA championship tournaments for 21 consecutive years. In addition to winning five championships, the Statesmen have finished in second place six times; in third place six times and in fourth place four times. The World Drum Corps Hall of Fame chose the Empire Statesmen as the senior (all age) corps of the decade for the 1990s.
Formed in 1983, the Statesmen won the International Corps Associates (ICA) championship before joining the ranks of Drum Corps Associates (DCA) in 1986. ICA was founded by the late Vince Bruni of Rochester, who also founded the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame, to provide performance and competition opportunities for small drum and bugle corps.
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, Mexico and South America. The corps also sponsors the Empire Cadets marching band for city and area youngsters, as a community outreach program.
For more information about the Empire Statesmen organization, visit the website at: www.statesmen.org
