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The history of the Westshoremen


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16 hours ago, buzzgok said:

The best part was the we were all family

Every year but one. 1983, there was a lot of infighting, caused in large part by some folks new to the corps. Not all of them, three in particular. Spoiled that season for me in a lot of ways, in spite of the fact it was the best freakin' hornline I ever played with.

 

When those people were gone in 1984 because they were marching elsewhere or realized Westshore was a long, long shot to make finals...... I enjoyed that 6-week season far, far more because we all did get along a lot better and treated each other with the kindness and respect that was missing in '83.

 

I haven't reached the half-life in my anger and disgust about 1983 and some of those people. I....just can't.

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On ‎3‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 7:41 PM, BigW said:

Well, it was a known thing about Styrofoam coolers and that they never held up on a bus for more than a weekend at best. People were warned, and if they didn't listen, so be it.

 

Again, for anyone outside the activity reading this, Drum Corps took place during all of this. Just a rather pointed reminder that amongst all the buffoonery and goofball incidents, the Westshoremen beat everyone in DCA at least once at Finals during the 1979 to 1983 period and placed no worse than sixth (yeah, Bucs, Cabs, Sky, Empire, Sun, Hurcs, so on and so forth....). Tom could play. We all could play. We may have been a bit nuts, more then a bit dysfunctional, but we had top end talent and a lot of desire. :satisfied:

But did we have fun?  You better believe it!!

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9 minutes ago, Bucbari said:

But did we have fun?  You better believe it!!

Yes. Many people I will always be fond of, George. Doesn't matter where I see them or how long it's been.

Edited by BigW
grammar fail
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On 3/18/2017 at 4:07 PM, BigW said:

Every year but one. 1983, there was a lot of infighting, caused in large part by some folks new to the corps. Not all of them, three in particular. Spoiled that season for me in a lot of ways, in spite of the fact it was the best freakin' hornline I ever played with.

Great visual design in 1983, too. IMO, 'Shore and the Caballeros had the two best drills in DCA that year.

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Mel Stratton wrote the drill for Westshore that season. One of the three people I mentioned was all snippy and snotty about Mel because of his affiliation with BD, which I was rather disgusted and taken aback by. Several of us were pretty honked off about those comments.

 

I did the WCU Band Director's clinic in '83 with Mel as one of the presenters (Bruce Schaffer was also there) and he was fantastic. His work at Clovis HS was masterful. IIRC, a 1980 BoA Class championship was part of his success there as Director. Mel had a ton of common sense and sensibility with teaching and putting a program together. I regret he never had enough seasons putting the California Dons together to really make that a top end group- they were fairly close to it right out of the box.

 

IIRC the Cabs were using someone from Two-Seven post Zingali at that point. Some nice stuff and solid design for that era, esp. for DCA.

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Speaking of those WCU Director's Clinics in period... listening to Pete Emmons... Zingali, Joe Marella, Mel Stratton, getting to interact and stretch one's mind with them was marvelous for me. Things were taken away that have lasted a lifetime from all of them.

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1 hour ago, BigW said:

Speaking of those WCU Director's Clinics in period... listening to Pete Emmons... Zingali, Joe Marella, Mel Stratton, getting to interact and stretch one's mind with them was marvelous for me. Things were taken away that have lasted a lifetime from all of them.

Pete Emmons wrote Sunrisers' drill in 1974.

It was my brothers' first year with Sun. I went to a springtime drill rehearsal to hang out, and Pete was there, teaching drill. So cool to see how he went about his business!!!

 

Edited by Fran Haring
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The one thing Pete was very explicit about in his clinic was that carefully teaching methodology and thoroughness in fundamental marching were perhaps more important than the actual show design. Mel also made that very clear as well. Without fundamental excellence, it doesn't matter what you do..... it looks like crap.

 

IIRC, Pete was one of the brains behind the Live Oak "Emerald Regime", which was killing it in early BoA big time in the mid-late 70's, I could be wrong about Pete's involvement there- but there's a lot of in period video of them on YT where they were pretty much beyond everyone else, period.

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On 3/19/2017 at 9:29 PM, BigW said:

 

IIRC the Cabs were using someone from Two-Seven post Zingali at that point. Some nice stuff and solid design for that era, esp. for DCA.

Dan McBride. He did some great work for the Cabs in the 1980s.

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On 3/19/2017 at 9:29 PM, BigW said:

Mel Stratton wrote the drill for Westshore that season. One of the three people I mentioned was all snippy and snotty about Mel because of his affiliation with BD, which I was rather disgusted and taken aback by. Several of us were pretty honked off about those comments.

I wonder if the fact that we were referred to as the BD of DCA had anything to do with the snide comments.  I took it as a compliment but I know there are a few who resented it.

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