KeithHall Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 (edited) Sorry, this was meant to be in DCI Historical and NOT in DCA. I apologize for this mix up! At times in the 1970s one could go to a contest in Upstate NY and see...Oswego Black Knights, Fulton Gauchos, Greee Cadets, Mark Twain Cadets, Mello Dears, Southern Tier Grenadiers, Royal Coachmen, Imperial Regiment, Tri-Town Cadets, Squires, Kingston Indians, and more. All gone by the 1980s. Some tried merging to prolong the inevitable......Renegades, Fusion, Northmen, Fusion. But even Avant Garde and Patriots couldn't sustain the life of their corps. What happened? Depends who you ask. Directors gone bad. Other top corps offering more. Money woes. Some will blame DCI. Others, the economy at that time. Whatever the reason, today upstate NY has one competitive corps and it is a DCA corps. The once mighty state of NY is dead of junior corps. There probably will never be a revival of corps in NY again. The same could be said for every state in the Northeast, Midwest,West, South and Canada. Remember going to shows in Marion, Butler or Lynn and 60+ corps would be competing? When was the last time we saw that many corps together. Today DCI coul be done in 2 days. Edited March 26, 2015 by KeithHall Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cabsbaritone Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 One of the main reasons is that NY schools are in session until the end of June. Thats already 2 weeks into the season. So, no high school kids and no schools to rehearse at till almost July. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigW Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 I was commenting on that recently to friends. From my personal experience, they ran till 20 June. And from about 4 June, when schools close in PA, most teachers were done for the year and did very little except for end of the year inventory stuff. If one tried to do anything, one met resistance, partly because the buildings were ovens. The NY folks can tell me a 190 day school year is superior, and I just couldn't buy into that thought from my personal observations of what they did with those extra 10 days. At least Excelsior and White Sabres are still working hard and active. One could say much the same thing about PA. Many, many corps in PA, and only a very few survivors extant. Mainly about money issues here. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHall Posted March 24, 2015 Author Share Posted March 24, 2015 I think NY school year has been consistent so I don't find problem with schools. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xandandl Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 (edited) The OP shows a definitive main land bias as he omits any reference to the almost four million people and almost as populous drum corps who inhabited NY's Suffolk and Nassau Counties and continue to pay their horrendous NY State taxes even if Binghampton is going to secede. Besides the disqualified Purple Lancers from Auburn area of the Finger Lakes, the Long Island Kingsmen attained 16th in DCI World Class Semi-Finals before they folded for various financial reasons. The Selden Cadets, whose alumni corps still competes in the BHOF circles, was on the national caliber level prior to the advent of DCI. In that time period, Suffolk and Nassau Counties alone had five separate circuits: Sounds of Suffolk Association, Nassau-Suffolk Association, Greater NY Circuit, CYO circuit, and the L.I. M&M Circuit. From these corps have come 3 DCI Hall of Famers: Wayne Downey who marched with the Smithtown Freelancers before his family moved to California, Kevin and Maureen Smith, the founders of Carolina Crown once they moved from St. James where Kevin marched and was the director, and Paul Litteau who was the drill instructor for the Medford F.D. Grenadiers while Uncle Sam assigned him for several seasons to the base at West Hampton Beach. The tremendous cost of living in New York, particularly on L.I., the increase in the size of all DCI competing corps and their budgets, the increasing costs and popularity of college education, and the rise of the scholastic marching band programs (competing in USBands, TOB, York-Penn, and NYS Field Band Conference) are but some of the reasons for the diminishment of drum corps in New York State. The shift in ethnic populations, the lowering of the birth rate in traditional populations, the increase in the quality and expectations of the drum corps performances, and the unstable employment rate in New York, now sadly part of the Rust Belt phenomenon all make their contribution. California's school year parallels NY in its length, starting and stopping dates, and Regents expectations. California has not seemed to suffer in maintaining its drum corps life, although it never has fielded simultaneously as many corps as L.I. and Upstate NY once did sez this NYS resident of six plus decades. And of course, there are The Sunrisers who have returned to their L.I. roots. Edited March 24, 2015 by xandandl Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HBD Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 Last time I checked, the Sunrisers were a New York corps and have been on the fast track to success since Dave Hobart and Larry Visconti assumed leadership. New York drumcorps isn't just upstate. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HBD Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 AND let's not forget a few parade corps in lower New York with great programs, the Saints and 20th century and the Brassmen where all 3 reward it's college age members with LARGE academic scholarships. These are all great corps doing the right things. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Florida Sun Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 EXCELSIOUR trys hard to stay afloat ,they did the Saint Patricks Parade in Holyloke ,with 7 guard ,4 horns and I think 3 drumers but they where there ,Good for them ,I hope then can build enough to come out in Class A again this year ,plus they have 2 shows planned that there running , Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHall Posted March 25, 2015 Author Share Posted March 25, 2015 Re-Read my post......I talked about UPSTATE! Not wanting to talk about THE ISLAND because I never competed out there. I meant no disrespect for Sunrisers, LI Kingsmen, etc. But PLEASE read what I wrote!!! In fact, I don't recall (the couple of times we went to AL State Championships) any Long Island corps there (between 1971 and 1974). It seemed as though we did our thing up there and you did your thing down there, right? As I wrote the OP yesterday I said to myself, "There will be complaints from the LI people, but if they read what I wrote and notice I talked about UPSTATE, maybe they are intelligent enough to not get bent out of shape!" BTW....when did Purple Lancers get disqualified? Did I miss something? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHall Posted March 25, 2015 Author Share Posted March 25, 2015 Oh and in my OP I did talk about the 1970's too Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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