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Cadets 2018


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2 hours ago, mkelley said:


We flew home last night from camp, shuttled a few folks to/from the airport as well.  The MMs are really excited for the show this year, and they should be, the concept is great and the almost two minutes or so they had down by "show and tell" was impressive progress for an audition camp in early December.   I am a horn line guy so there was much to love sitting and watching their rehearsals, brass staff was great with the kids and the horn book that Drew is putting together shows great promise.  There is nothing more drum corps than a big horn entrance that incorporates a smoking hot mellophone run!

Unfortunately with two separate audition sites this year there was great competition for very few open horn spots, so my kid was asked to march C2.  As my son doesn't want to step backwards to DCA, this is our last Cadets camp for the year, so I will miss not being able to follow this more closely. 

C2 isn't a step back IMO. i know the distance isn't friendly for him, but DCA has some ###### good stuff going on, and C2 has some ###### good people in front of the kids. I'm sorry if i've offended, but i'm soooooo tired of the elitist "DCA is a step back" stuff. Many...MANY...kids made their bones in DCA then went on to win rings, as well as march in many DCI corps over the decades.

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14 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

C2 isn't a step back IMO. i know the distance isn't friendly for him, but DCA has some ###### good stuff going on, and C2 has some ###### good people in front of the kids. I'm sorry if i've offended, but i'm soooooo tired of the elitist "DCA is a step back" stuff. Many...MANY...kids made their bones in DCA then went on to win rings, as well as march in many DCI corps over the decades.

Everything you said is true Jeff, I also spent so much time there in caption head spots ..but...let's just say it's a different track with good training like you say.

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3 hours ago, mkelley said:


We flew home last night from camp, shuttled a few folks to/from the airport as well.  The MMs are really excited for the show this year, and they should be, the concept is great and the almost two minutes or so they had down by "show and tell" was impressive progress for an audition camp in early December.   I am a horn line guy so there was much to love sitting and watching their rehearsals, brass staff was great with the kids and the horn book that Drew is putting together shows great promise.  There is nothing more drum corps than a big horn entrance that incorporates a smoking hot mellophone run!

Unfortunately with two separate audition sites this year there was great competition for very few open horn spots, so my kid was asked to march C2.  As my son doesn't want to step backwards to DCA, this is our last Cadets camp for the year, so I will miss not being able to follow this more closely. 

It was a good show and tell.  MM's appear to be very excited, and from what I heard there were some very talented recruits, and the expectations from the staff were high.  The corps played about 1 minute of music, and despite the echoing in the gym, it was possible to hear some really cool stuff going on in all three areas: brass, percussion and pit.  Much harder to hear the vocalists, but that was a function of the echos more than anything else.  I'm looking forward to hearing more as this develops.

I really like the fact that they are going with 4 vocalists instead of 8.  The quality of the vocals will not suffer (it might actually improve with fewer microphones on the field), and the 4 additional horns will improve both the sound and the mass of people marching.

I would suggest that if you think your son was on the bubble and is talented enough to march Cadets, that you keep in touch with the corps.  When it comes time to pay the fees, some spots could open up, and the opportunity might present itself.

In the meantime, as for DCA, there are a certainly some corps that are second tier (true in DCI Open Class as well).  But the top ones - Bucs, C2, Cabs, and a few others - put on a very good show.  And C2 in particular does a great job of taking kids with mixed levels of experience and getting them to rise to the occasion by DCA finals weekend.  Check out the finals runs of 2016 and 2017.  They are both REALLY impressive. 2016 in particular was such a well-designed show, they probably could have used it as the basis for the Cadets that year and they would have had a better finish.

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4 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

C2 isn't a step back IMO. i know the distance isn't friendly for him, but DCA has some ###### good stuff going on, and C2 has some ###### good people in front of the kids. I'm sorry if i've offended, but i'm soooooo tired of the elitist "DCA is a step back" stuff. Many...MANY...kids made their bones in DCA then went on to win rings, as well as march in many DCI corps over the decades.

Jeff, sorry you were hurt by my comments, but to put it simply my kid said he doesn't want to step backwards to do part-time weekend drum corps!  This isn't his first time on a gym floor, he already cut his teeth sweating it out in DCI, like the majority of kids there at the last two camps I attended they are hard working, ambitious and universally all want to jump up to that next level of competition as a member of the Cadets.    If we lived close to Allentown and he needed to build his chops then sure, why not, but neither is the case.

It is important to note that I was witness to many other students providing a far more articulate and thoughtful view on this exact topic as we left camp, so as adults whether we validate their views or not, kids were and surely still are voting on DCI vs DCA with their own feet!   

Again, my initial comments were in relation to a crowd of kids and those that I shuttled to and from the Airport expressing how much they enjoyed the Cadets camp experience (even those offered only C2 positions) and then my own observations that staff consistently provided a very supportive and positive learning environment.   It was not intended to somehow single you out or provide political commentary on part-time vs full-time, DCA vs DCI or elitist vs snowflake.   I thought that was obvious, but if not I will be much more careful next time I post in the Cadets forum where EVERYTHING seems to go sideways!  :)
 

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4 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

earlier in the day 283 was a parking lot

Timing is everything.  :tongue:

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6 hours ago, Jeff Ream said:

C2 isn't a step back IMO. i know the distance isn't friendly for him, but DCA has some ###### good stuff going on, and C2 has some ###### good people in front of the kids. I'm sorry if i've offended, but i'm soooooo tired of the elitist "DCA is a step back" stuff. Many...MANY...kids made their bones in DCA then went on to win rings, as well as march in many DCI corps over the decades.

In my case, BITD, I wanted to march Cadets in 1977 (I turned 19 that summer), but couldn't take the summer off for tour. Ended up with DCA's Sunrisers, and the corps won its first DCA title that year.

Winning that championship... and two more during my time with Sun... certainly eased the "pain" of not marching DCI. :8_laughing:

DCI is great... truly the "major league" of marching music, in so many ways. A full-time organization.  And I certainly understand why kids want to "do DCI."

But DCA, considering it is, for all intents and purposes, a part-time organization,  brings a lot to the table, and always has.

Edited by Fran Haring
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51 minutes ago, mkelley said:

Jeff, sorry you were hurt by my comments, but to put it simply my kid said he doesn't want to step backwards to do part-time weekend drum corps!  This isn't his first time on a gym floor, he already cut his teeth sweating it out in DCI, like the majority of kids there at the last two camps I attended they are hard working, ambitious and universally all want to jump up to that next level of competition as a member of the Cadets.    If we lived close to Allentown and he needed to build his chops then sure, why not, but neither is the case.

It is important to note that I was witness to many other students providing a far more articulate and thoughtful view on this exact topic as we left camp, so as adults whether we validate their views or not, kids were and surely still are voting on DCI vs DCA with their own feet!   

Again, my initial comments were in relation to a crowd of kids and those that I shuttled to and from the Airport expressing how much they enjoyed the Cadets camp experience (even those offered only C2 positions) and then my own observations that staff consistently provided a very supportive and positive learning environment.   It was not intended to somehow single you out or provide political commentary on part-time vs full-time, DCA vs DCI or elitist vs snowflake.   I thought that was obvious, but if not I will be much more careful next time I post in the Cadets forum where EVERYTHING seems to go sideways!  :)
 

You really don't need to apologize. The intent of your statement was pretty obvious to most people. Thanks for you thoughts about the Cadets!

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