redhaven

I would agree with that observation. Star was at DCI East in 92 and I do not remember much booing and if there is anywhere where a non "EAST" corps would have been booed it would have been there back in the days when fans would watch prelims in the morning and spend the day cooking out and drinking copious amounts of alcohol before finals at night. I wish they still did that! I went back and looked to confirm Star was at DCI E and they were only a point ahead of us at prelims there. Sifting through the scores from that year is really interesting. It seemed like we were beaten by everyone until Aug 6.

I was also in the soprano line. My name is Rich Phantom had a rough run at finals. I always sensed that they were too pumped up finals night. They actually beat us 6 days before finals! http://corpsreps.com/scores.cfm?view=scoreshow&showid=1992188 I don't have a copy of Phantom's show but I think I remember a member of the guard dropped and lost her rifle in full view of the rest of the corps early on. Sometimes when you are all pumped up, the air all comes out when something bad happens.

I know this is a very old topic. Marched Cadets in 92 but I have not been involved in the activity really in any way in a long time. Someone posted this show on facebook and I did a little googling and found this post. I was watching the semis and quarterfinals performances and it is true that we had some intonation problems on finals night. This was an extremely young hornline so it would not surprise me if the cold weather had a bigger affect on us than the other corps. The low placement in 91 made recruitment more difficult and most of the vets left because 91 was a bear of the year for the corps from what I was told. The 91 show was hard to put together and the staff pushed and pushed, usually at the expense of sleep and free time. I had heard a rumor that the staff staged a bus breakdown to miss a performance and have an extra rehearsal day. Anyway, I can remember very little of the corps attended the first couple of weeks of spring training because either they were still in high school or the corps agreed to let them march even though they could not attend for other reasons because recruitment was so difficult. There were weekdays at camp that we probably had less than half of the hornline at rehearsal. We performed in exhibition at our first couple of shows because the show was a real train wreck early in the season. The last few weeks of the season were such a fun ride. I remember a few times the corps members insisting that we stay on the field during dinner and shower time to rehearse. Phantom beat us the Sunday before finals and then finished 6 spots behind us. As for Star, there was definitely a perception and some rumors flying around about how easy they had it. I don't remember much booing but we did not see them outside of big regionals. They did have the nicest buses of any corps. At the time few discussed that the reason they were so nice is that they needed to be well maintained to be used as charter buses. When Cadets started doing that, our buses also improved dramatically. I do not remember feeling anything other admiration for them just like the rest of the corps. I am sure this is pretty common but I watched vhs tapes of pbs broadcasts for so many years and the corps members seem like gods. Then I march a top 12 corps and after a few rehearsals I no longer feel that way about myself or my corps, but when the other corps pull into the lot, it is like meeting a superstar or something. I think that is mostly how I felt about Star. I saw first hand that the member experience was pretty similar to ours. I can remember the crowd reaction when they were announced in 3rd. I think it was more shock than anything else but nothing like the shock of Phantom coming in 8th (and the unfortunate gesture by their corps director). Anyway, if you ever have a chance, check out the semi finals performance. The intonation is somewhat better (but still not as good as other years I marched) and there is a little less muddiness in parts of the show that i noticed appeared on finals night.

This is a very old post but I was looking him up because I was watching the DCI Quarterfinals from 92 and the announcer Brandt Crocker said "Drum Majors Doug Rulay and Joanna Allen, is your corps ready?" I marched Cadets that in 92 but I didn't remember that. I was probably pretty awestruck at quarters. I think the Brandt got it right by finals but at semis he said "Dave Rulay" so he was closer. Dave was a great guy and an incredible drum major. My first experience with him at the first rehearsal in the fall of 91, He called a bunch of us over to bring "cahts" (instruments carts) in from the truck. I was out there looking for sleeping cots.