Empire Statesmen Rebound To Second Place In Kingston

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Rochester’s Empire Statesmen scored top marks in both the music composite and music effect captions, to blow past Hawthorne Caballeros into second place behind Connecticut Hurricanes at the March of Champions contest in Kingston, New York on August 8. The Statesmen were rebounding from a fifth place finish in the previous week’s contest in Scranton, Pennsylvania, their lowest regular season result since before the turn of the century.

At Dietz Stadium in Kingston, Empire Statesmen also had high score in the ensemble percussion caption and were second in eight other captions: color guard, field percussion, percussion total, field brass, ensemble brass, brass total, visual effect and effect total for a total score of 87.6, almost four full points higher than the previous week.

The Hurricanes won the March of Champions with 88.650. Hawthorn’s third place score was 87.313. The Bushwackers of Harrison, New Jersey also jumped up sharply on the score sheets in Kingston, moving from 78.150 the previous week in Scranton to 83.163 in Kingston to take fourth place. Fusion Core, of Morris County, New Jersey was fifth with 74.075. The White Sabers of Dansville, New York were sixth with 66.8.

On August 15, Empire Statesmen and Syracuse Brigadiers will face the Reading Buccaneers, undefeated in 2009 and winners of five Drum Corps Associates (DCA) world championships in a row, in the Pageant of Drums in Cicero, New York. The Statesmen and Brigadiers will face each other again in the DCA Brass Fanfare contest in Norwich, New York on August 22. The lineup for Fanfare 2009 in Bridgeport, Connecticut on August 29, the final contest of the regular season, features Empire Statesmen, Connecticut Hurricanes, Bushwackers and Brigadiers.

The 2009 DCA championship will be decided during the Labor Day weekend tournament in Rochester, with Empire Statesmen serving as the local host for the fourth year in a row. Weekend events begin 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.

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 Empire Statesmen and 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

Posted by on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009. Filed under DCA News.