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I'd rather see Earnhart go than Hill. At least Hill does a great job when he's given a good product - just looks at what he's done with Broken Arrow HS. IMHO, Earnhart's music coordination is the main reason Phantom has been faltering.

Wow, not a big fan of Don Hill, but the Will Pitts decision is puzzling to me. His marching band stuff is ok, but I didn't enjoy what he did for Spirit, and if that's any indicator of his DCI arranging abilities, I'm worried for PR. Of course someone will say his Spirit stuff was due to what he was told to do, but then again, that's what some argued about Don Hill's music. Not having a ton of faith for PR with all the changes yet again.

read the article response is "oh god no" 1. reduce the emphasis on difficulty? Because "we are old" -- no 2. "retire" a 4 time champion - in other words "put the Bucs out to pasture now and then" 3. DCA Champion is on first??!! No - sucks as a audience member AND punishes success (this IS written by a liberal and you can tell) 4. Emphasize GE on the sheets? No - they picked (just fine) the best and most entertaining units. No one wants to hear Maleguana six times a night Blatissimo with 12 sloppy and unnecessary company fronts 5. "Design Team Draft"???!! What is this, communism? Socialism? What ever it is - this idea fails in an epic manner. FORCE someone to design their competitors program. THAT makes sense - not. 6. Ditch "subjective" judging. No - competition creates excellence. Always has an always will. Besides - Cadets2 will work their brass line for 2016 and may very well beat the Bucs - the corps this all is so clearly aimed at punishing How about this "fix" instead. GET BETTER & beat the Bucs (or whoever) fair and square. Which is what this is clearly all about.

Too bad about the announcement. I do really like the way GH engages the public much more than any other corps, in the sense that he is the only director I know of who shares the conversation with the public. He has an unresolved question (which itself implies that he sees issues as questions to be answered) and gives the question to the public. He does the same in his webinars. Many good CEOs of large corporations do the same in interviews. Yes there is the PR gloss content as well, and even the issues presented need to be parsed a bit, and indeed I sometimes disagree with GH's conclusions or actions, but at least he respects us enough to bring us into the conversation a little. As far as I know, all the other corps are gloss-only, and DCI as well. So lets answer his question, and ask some more: - To what extent should a winter guard produced by a corps' parent organization primarily serve to produce members for the corps? - How does a corps decide that question? - How does this compare to say, Santa Clara whose winter guard won the championship and thus did better than the corps? - How beneficial is dance education generally compared to music education? Keep in mind that most dance teachers have never heard of color guard, but then again almost none of their students will be professional dancers either. Dance education, including guard, is mostly about personal development, right? (or wrong?). Hey, that's another question. All are questions he would have to address to make this decision.

Hmm... system favoring the Bucs? IIRC, when they added the communication thing, a few pundits here were rubbing their hands with evil glee and drooling over their keyboards because they felt the Bucs couldn't do that and that other corps would steal that subcaption. Maybe the problem was that the Bucs weren't communicating to them in the way they desire to be communicated to. They seem to be communicating well enough with the judging panels.... As for C2, it's already been mentioned that many of those same pundits figured they'd immediately take over DCA and smack everyone into oblivion forever and ever amen and their panic was amusing. This year was a big one for them. Now, they have to sustain that level. It could be tricky to do so. They have some unusual variables in their equation that aren't in the others.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Deanna Garber! 11 years straight, 13 years strong...the longest continuously marching member in (modern) Buccaneer history! ​It has been a pleasure to share the field with her for 10 of the past 11 years. :)

Recently, there have been a few blog posts traveling the web suggesting that the Reading Buccaneers are killing DCA. If you read a little further into the posts, you will find that the author has some radical ideas to help fix DCA. Some of the ideas include having a championship corps not compete the following season in an effort to allow another corps a chance to win. To me, it sounds like this blog poster is looking to have a corps fold because they win too much. Essentially, this is what could happen if a corps was forced to sit out of championships for a year. HOW IS THIS GOOD FOR THE CIRCUIT??? This is the exact same "Soccer Mom, everybody wins" mentallity that drives the public crazy!!! What I do know is this.The Reading Buccaneers have driven DCA to a place many thought it would have never gotten to. They have risen the performance bar and A LOT of corps are rising to the challenge. There will come a day when the Reading Buccaneers are no longer champions, and DCA will be better because of the hard work, sweat, and dedication given from the members and staff of the Buccaneers. You may not be a fan and you may not be a proud alumni any longer, but don't attack one group for something out of their control. You end your post with "I would end this note by warning everyone if you don’t do something, people could lose interest in the competitive aspects of DCA". If you want it to change, come out from behind your keyboard and make it happen.

Nobody EVER got better by eliminating or handicapping the competition. If you don't want the Bucs to win, beat them...... otherwise, when we announce corps' scores for the Finals, the winner would be announced as ".....and in 2nd place, the 201x Champion............"

I am cautiously VERY optomistic about this. I think this has the potential to be very very good. I think a change from hill is severely needed. I think he is a FANTASTIC arranger, just not quite right at Phantom.

I think 2014's drill was being shoved around by the others on the design team who were trying to force a bad show to work. If it is looked at closely it is obvious that it was not typical stylistically of his work.

Sort of off topic, but while Jamey's talents might be missing from the DCI ranks, he is alive and kicking in DCA. He wrote for Atlanta CV this year and absolutely tore it up. His drill was a huge reason why we were able to move into the top 5 this summer. Our guard finished second, in large part because they were always staged in a manner to be effective and supportive of the musical book. We were THRILLED with his work and look forward to him helping us to even higher heights next year. Dan

DCA had a large number of very talented corps in the Mini-Corps, Class A and Open Class divisions this season. Many have said it was the best crop of corps from top to bottom that they have seen in years. The level of competition is and has been rising for many years now. Corps that placed 2nd, 3rd or 4th could have been champions just a few years ago. Corps that didn't make Finals this year could have been in the Top Tier of their division. To the 2015 Champions: THE READING BUCCANEERS THE GOVENAIRES and STAR UNITED... Congratulations on an exceptional season and THANK YOU for once again raising the bar of EXCELLENCE.

Depends on your budget. Could certainly be one or the other

With electronics? John Cage: 4'33"

I no more want to hear a particular piece that originally had electronics done for that reason with electronics in drum corps than I want to hear a corps play Barber's Adagio for Strings with actual strings or Ticheli's Blue Shades with a clarinet solo. The originals already exist; what I want is to hear how they translate to the medium of drum corps.

anything Rush

You'd absolutely kill your recruiting if you did that. Kill it dead.

I'm going to be honest with you. People don't know how to attend drum corps shows anymore. Its doesn't matter if its DCA or DCI. They just don't know how to put the phone down, shut the eff up, and watch the darned shows. They seem to be too self absorbed to care whats going on in front of them. I've had people talk through every show I attended this year be it DCA or DCI. I've had a lady make a phone call during a corps' performance, to see if a restaurant will be open tomorrow, and i've had people taking pics of themselves and playing around on FB and BSing about it. This is my old man "GET OFF MY LAWN" post of the week. you paid for a show, shut up and watch. I paid for a show. shut up and watch! its not even the staff anymore. though they get a shut up and watch from me as well.

one of my biggest complaints about having decent center seats at dc shows. complained about it before, maybe here, maybe another venue, and got a lot of nasty replies from (prolly) those same staff folk who defended themselves and gave me what-for for my complaint. don't they realize how much distraction they are and how it takes away from enjoying their corps' performance? ps - had a thought while noticing that these caption heads were standing next to (I assume - cuz he was in suit, as opposed to casual) corps director; are they doing this for HIS benefit? "Look what a great job I did. Can I keep it?"

This looks good, but has complications with SCV announcing Dr. Chip Crotts as head of their brass. Like Chris, he works at Georgia Tech as well. Should be a fun duel for those Yellow Jackets! Good luck to both. (With fond memories of Georgia Tech back in '84!!!)

I do admire Joe's enthusiasm to discover a path to greater attendance in Rochester. However, using Joe's figures for Sahlen Stadium capacity between the goal lines, and the sight estimates of a likely paid crowd of about 3000, I have a different take on the matter. Sahlen Stadium is too small, and always has been. The current crowd size has adjusted itself to utilize the available 'good' space. Even if changes in marketing are successful, the level of audience growth is limited to about 1000-1500 more purchasers. That's a nice gain, of course, but those seats are a much tougher sell than center seats to established DCA fans. Even seating in the first couple of rows up to the 25 yard line are less appealing. Our productions are what they are, that is, all about central seating. To move the additional 1000-1500 seats, the focus MUST be placed inside the local Rochester community. That will require having some DCA promoters living inside Monroe County. People who understand and take advantage of all local marketing resources. Volunteers to man DCA information tables at related local gatherings, distribute window signage, appear on local radio with ticket giveaways, interact with small businesses for cooperative ad space, etc. Unfortunately, both Empire Statesmen and Crusaders organizations have been lost. Yet, selling those remaining less than ideal seats will require the efforts of people on the ground in Rochester. Are you one of those, wishbonecav? Also remember, the remaining outer seating is likely still priced too high for curious local families. If they do put down the money, they might not want to do so again the next year. Sitting low outside 20-25s isn't so hot. Perhaps, 2006 was the high-water mark for this very reason. I do know 2006 Rochester quite well.

I know it was mentioned MUCH earlier in the thread, but I was disappointed with the updates, or lack of, on the website. My wife and I attended the mini corps event on Friday night, after spending the majority of the day on the road, we left after the last performance rather than waiting around for the scores...I figured I would do as I have done at DCI championships in the past and just check the website back at the hotel. When I checked right before going to bed, nothing...not even on DCP! The following day, I was able to get the scores-from DCP, nothing on the DCA site. Similarly, I kept checking the site during the day Sunday in hopes of getting a Finals performance schedule, but with no success. We didn't even know when or if there was a scheduled intermission, or that the first performing corps didn't hit the field until 5:40. The DCA booth had no updates to provide, either. Obviously, there were no results from the prelims posted...which didn't really matter, I already knew but if I hadn't been able to make it for prelims or watch on FN there was no way to know who ended up where or with what score. As has also been mentioned earlier, a little advance publicity in the area wouldn't have hurt...just for s & g, when I received the e-mail from my hotel "reminding" me of my upcoming stay about a week and a half before our arrival, I went to the hotel website and checked out the "local events and attractions" and there were a handful of local events listed, but nothing about the DCA championships. I was noticing this year that even at our hotel, there didn't seem to be much of a drum corps crowd. At Allentown, breakfast was always full of fellow drum corps folks...everybody had dc shirts, Heat Wave even used to practice out in the hotel parking lot...stayed at same hotel as Cabs Alumni one year in Scranton, Sky Alumni and Bush stayed at same hotel we did in Annapolis. I didn't see ANYONE at our hotel this year who was clearly in town for DCA (Alliance stayed in hotel next door to ours, that was about the closest connection I could make). Clearly, the local community has to get more informed and involved. Back when DCI championships returned to Madison in the late 90's after an absence of several years, there were signs in our hotel "Welcome back DCI!" and the desk clerks at the hotels were all wearing buttons expressing the same...the local newspapers had front page pictures and stories every day on the previous day's results, the evening news always had something. Even in past years in Rochester, the championships usually at least warranted a mention on local news...nothing this year.

Gotta chime in on one issue here. I have to respectfully disagree with the concept of increasing attendance by "making DCA more competitive". First of all, I'm not sure what is implied by that. Let's call a spade a spade and focus this conversation on Bucs. Their winning streak is unprecedented and like them or not they have been at the pinnacle of the activity for a very long time. Are we supposed to just give another corps a championship just because Bucs have been too long at the top? REALLY? If that's the case, I don't want it. I am in one of those corps chasing Buccaneers and I can guarantee you that it is because of their excellence, and that of others, that my corps has gotten significantly better over the past several years. There is absolutely nothing I would like to see more than my corps being announced in first place, but when/if that should ever happen, I want to know that we beat Bucs (or Cabs, or MBI or C2 or whomever) at their best. I am not interested in a hollow gift of a championship. The same argument happens on the DCI side with people complaining about Blue Devils. Who do you think is driving the continued growth and improvement of the other corps? Bucs...you just keep on raising that bar. It's pushing us and driving us to better and better products. I don't have the answer to DCA's attendance issues but I can tell you they are not due to the success of any one of it's member corps. I would like to think that it is the quality of our product that puts people in the seats...not the number of championships we have. If that were the case then our home show would have zero attendance since we have zero Open Class championships. Doesn't make sense to me. Just my 2 cents. Dan

Phantom is switching back to King in 2016

Imagine a show about a giant light switch as a prop, the show would simply be entitled "Click."

Santa Clara marching into the tunnel in green pants and coming out white (or was it white to green?).

The Bushwackers and The Sunrisers would like to thank EVERYONE that supported the challenge these past 4 days. Though it was close with each corps taking turns leading the other, the Sunrisers came on strong at the end and were able to hold on to the lead and win the challenge by a mere $108.00 A total of over $20,000.00 was raised between the two corps, Making this challenge a big WIN for both organizations in the end. The Bushwackers congratulate the Sunrisers on their fine effort and wish them luck this weekend at the DCA Chamionships. And THANK YOU everyone that donated to the corps, it is greatly appreciated!

JesusChrist Give it a rest. Blue devils won stop trying to take it away.