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Had a great day with the Cadets yesterday. There is huge difference between the perception created by DCP and what is actually happening with the Cadets.

The Cadets will be fine for 2020. There will be a big announcement in the near future outlining the plan for the Cadets moving forward and a lot of the people spewing doom and gloom will be eating a lot of crow. This I can tell you and it is first hand knowledge: The Cadets have taken delivery of a BRAND NEW set of Yamaha Brass The Cadets have taken delivery of ALL BRAND NEW front ensemble instruments The Cadets Will be taking delivery of a BRAND NEW set of battery percussion The Cadets WILL NOT be competing in Open Class. They will be touring this summer as a World Class Drum and Bugle Corps The Cadets have a Specific budget for the operation of the corps and will adhere to that budget The “back of the house” is being cleaned and when the dust settles the Cadets will be in a much better place (and it will be a better place than many other corps) Finally if you talk to any prospective members or vets who have been attending the winter camps they will tell you that the experience has been first rate and the overall vibe is extremely positive

Because BD is drama-free. They go about their business of producing a great drum corps.

Your agenda is crystal clear if necessary all us donors and alumni will step up and support the Cadets fully on their 2020 world class tour

The arrangements so far are stellar. Jay Bocook is on top of his game and the Cadets sound like the Cadets again!

Yeah. But given this is a CADETS thread and there are quite a few people implying Cadets may not be touring this year, I think that person wanted to give a little more information about what's actually going on given he's part of those people who have been receiving and inventorying equipment...kinda providing balance to all the naysaying going on in this thread.

Just because people come on here posting gloom-and-doom pontifications based on rumors from those they think are in the know doesn't make those rumors facts. I think we should wait for official announcements from those controlling DCI and Cadets before believing everything that's posted on a forum. There are certain people here who have made their agendas clear. P.S. Curious about this year's musical selections...

I got to go to their January camp show and tell this morning, some very interesting and exciting stuff. They seem to be going after a mix of very recognizable music as well as more obscure stuff. Also some very interesting plans for at least one part of their show, something I'm not sure has really been done to the extent they are attempting. They also sound great. Should be a very exciting season!

Thank you for the clarification of my post, you obviously understand what I was trying to convey. In my very first post on this thread I said I do not post on forums but the negativity and false rumors being spread about the Cadets is getting to me and I feel compelled to try to quell some of the false statements being made.

Next camp is a 1 day camp in Austin, TX next Sunday, January 26. More info here https://yea.org/events You can find info about the Feb camp (South of Tampa) and the March and April camps (back at Salem) there also. I saw a few videos from Sunday and all I can say say is ... Jay Bocook and this brass staff are a great combination and already doing an "heckkin" job well ahead of last year and the drum staff is picking up where they left off last season. So far, so good. But don't believe me, come check out one of the camps for yourself, if we have one in your area. You can also still give to the Holiday Campaign here - https://yea.org/cadets/holiday?reset=1&id=123

NO more bad juju !! be positive..peace

If I was judging drums, for example.... I might be in front of the snares during a particular spot in the show. I could hear the tenors, but I was not in a spot where I could fairly evaluate them. They could be making all sorts of errors, but I could not tick them....ditto basses, timps, mallets, cymbals. You had to be in position, so the judge naturally missed a lot. Also, if I as judge decided a "thing" should be recorded as a tick...was it one tick or a group tick. If a group tick, how many? So many variables to consider. I could tell by listening if a timpani section was playing in tune with the brass, but if they were not...how could I tick it? I recall judging a show in the Garden State Circuit in the mid/late 70's, and I could see a timpani section cranking their drums all through the show...but the pitch never changed...I noted it on my sheet in the Analysis area. I later asked the instructor what the point was of all the cranking, as it was obvious the timpani pitches stayed the same. He told me that I was the first to note it, and he had gotten all sorts of positive comments on his players "tuning", even though he had disconnected the crank. A lot of older drum judges had no idea how to judge timpani or mallets, and the tick sheets were not really set up to do so very well.

I was one of them.

Thank YOU for your sharing of information about Cadets 2020. With all the negativity that typically goes on in a Cadets thread (and I have been guilty of it in recent-previous years), given the information that's been coming out of each camp from many of the instructors who I've marched with, people who have close ties with the Cadets this season, I believe we would be better off embracing a more positive tone this year given what's happened in the past with this corps. The more people who have uplifting, direct knowledge to share about Cadets this year, the better. We need more of you.

no one is portraying rainbows and unicorns - most are realistic. Cadets are in serious rebuild mode, competitively AND financially

probably trying to get the most talent possible - same as Gino etc did in 17 when they headed to Boston, held out contracts attempting to recruit as late as possible. SMART imo - not handing out contracts like candy until they are through the TX and FL camps. I'd imagine by March they will fill the remaining spots and set the line with a set of alternates

It is not a discount on the tour fee it is a discount on the audition fee

Long story shorter here... mid-1990s, commuting from Baltimore to the DC area, I was heading in early on a Saturday (had a 6 AM start time at my job). It had snowed overnight, and the B/W Parkway was not in good shape. I was moving along at about 35-40 MPH, and an SUV came up and was tailgating me, right on top of me for several miles. Now, I was not gonna speed up... it was dark, the road was icy and snow-covered, my car was not AWD, etc. After a few miles, the SUV passed me and abruptly cut back in, #### near taking my front bumper off. Well... a half-mile or so up the road, the SUV skidded off the roadway into the wooded median strip!!! I slowed down to see if the driver was OK... he was, and he was outside the SUV yelling for me to stop... but I didn't. LOL. God forgive me... but I was so PO'd at the dude that it was up to him to figure out how to get outta there.

You might want to check your sources. Spent the day with the Cadets yesterday. You paint a very different picture of the Cadets than the reality I saw yesterday. The corps is very positive and all our excited for the upcoming season.

I agree - the past 4 years of drum corps have been a living example of The Emperor Has No Clothes - Devils and Bluecoats realized that because the sound basically sucks inside Lucas Stadium, the only solution is sound reinforcement - Without actually stating this as the justification, all the corps entered a sound system war to the extent that the actual sound of a drum corps is now so completely messed up, it only sounds good on flo marching through your home AV system -- Critics of these innovations are shamed or threatened into silence by the enlightened elite who silence any diversity of opinion by branding their opponents as dinosaurs or craven anti (creative)evolutionists. Corps who should have known better and sided with the traditionalists were too afraid of not being cool and made their own weak attempts at entering into the electronics war. So now we are at a point where rules need to be formed to set a fair playing field. I'm particularly ticked off because I can't enjoy seeing a show live any longer unless you are sitting high - if you are low on either side, the sound is entirely the speaker stack nearest to your seats -- this is crap and the designers know it. One idea might be to limit amplification for indoor venues where the sound reinforcement is actually helpful - outdoor venues do not need amplification - The electronics race has lead to the design mindset that this is an indoor activity or a performance intended to be recorded and viewed online - is that really the direction the elite want the activity to go? Seriously, Bluecoats, Blue Devils -- is this what you want?

Buried on page 12 here. Anybody getting excited about BD in 2020! 😎

Looks like as good a time as any to trot this classic back out 😎

This statement is incomplete. Yes they worked hard. But those glory years also had the absolute best teachers and creators. Hard work is meaningless without the instruction to properly guide it and the design to let it shine.

"Come on Ghost. There was a three after his name. Pay attention AH!" Enjoy every minute with a great corps SB.

Contracts for each position have not been awarded yet. Members are fully aware of this going in

I want every corps to succeed. But I don’t want the members to suffer during the process. It’s not fair to those who have already paid for their 2020 season in full for all of a sudden the corps to go in a different direction. I think DCI, YEA and all of those involve with the cadets need to take a strong look to see if it’s even an option to be on the road. Also just because the front of the house seems to look good. Doesn’t mean the back of the house is running smoothly! Ps. Theres certain corps who folded after members have paid and no one ever got their money back!

I'm SHOCKED!!

When was scoring not subjective? Ticks were also subjective.

They’ve never had the top talent. They’ve always had the best work ethic

except none of this is anything other than internet chatter at this point

So the Scouts leadership and board manage to provide the members with a safe and quality drum corps experience, feed them well and avoid any of the scandals currently affixed to other, more "succesful" organizations. No rumors of crippling debt or lawsuits. I find it difficult to term their tenure as inept.

3 after this summer

thank you for the additional info and explanation.

Yes. It may not be the doom and gloom that some have said but it is apparently not rainbows and unicorns others are portraying either.

close! Zach Wilson still has one more year!

Sorry I missed this month's camp...can't wait for the next one!

It's like watching hockey for the fights, races for the crashes, or figure skating for the falls.

Hey simply put I don’t want (I would gather no one else would either ) to sift through three pages of posts to try and not miss a post about how a recent camp went. I’m not saying these discussions can’t be had I’m just saying just do it in another thread. Call it Madison scouts; the good the bad and the ugly

I are up in Central PA and people knew how to drive in snow, granted there was far less traffic. Moved to Columbia, MD and I stay off the roads if there is snow or ice. Have seen too many idiots that think SUV equals impervious to ice.

So much pontificating on here. Everyone going off their own opinions and their own rumors based on people they CLAIM to know who have inside information, but no one knows for sure WHAT is happening. I would LOVE to know what music Cadets are playing this year.

Hey moderators can you reel this thing in a little bit? Honestly everything and the kitchen sink is being discussed in this thread and has zero to do with the upcoming season. Do your jobs please!

16th place then 17th place out of what - 20 world class corps? Yeah, I guess if competitive results don’t matter it’s been a smashing success. Only problem is, competitive results Do matter. Quite a lot. But hey the bus didn’t run out of gas, so there’s that.

If I were auditioning, before I signed a contract (thereby promising $ to the Corps) I would want to know if I am signing up for an Open Class tour or a World Class tour. And if I signed up for World Class & it was changed afterward to Open Class, I would expect (at least) a reduction in amount owed, and hopefully the offer of a full refund so I could go elsewhere to march a World Class tour schedule.

It is interesting how people can interpret things differently. I know nothing about the situation, but I do happen to be an antitrust expert. So, let me offer a couple uninformed opinions just for fun: First, Varsity may be trying to offer a benefit to the participants by arranging availability at hotels, perhaps even at a reduced rate. In return, the hotels may be asking Varsity for some effort to direct participants to them, perhaps in exchange for that reduced rate. If so, that could be a win for all the parties involved, especially if the alternative is limited hotel availability at higher rack rates. The Cheerleading as a sport thing is very interesting and complicated. Some do not want it to be classified as a sport because they are worried schools would use it as a title 9 offset to football and then reduce investment in other sports for women and girls. Others want it to be classified as a sport so that it is covered by insurance schools take out on their sports programs. So this is a very complicated issue, as least as I understand it. Best.

There have been debts for many years, pay attention a little more on that, as you’ve clearly missed them. I agree that the environment is safe, however they have failed to put a consistent staff together, quality design, and competitive success. If you look at the placements and quality of programming since 2008, and compare that to the success with the judges and fans of the Sal Salas era, or the Scott Stewart era, the results are a failure. The Jim Mason years helped, including the 2015 corps that moved up, but the rest is a major disappointment. You can call the CK eta whatever you’d like, but I’d calm them inept, and the era a failure. Their competitive average of placements from 2008-2019 is 11.8333. How is that a success. They are no longer a destination corps, but merely a feeder corps for others. They gave so much turnover on staff and membership. Last year they were asking for cut lists from other corps, when they used to share theirs with others to help. In June if 2019 they begged guard members from previous years that did not come back to fill holes because they started move in’s with less than 75% of the guard spots filled. But yeah, they’re a total success because they are fed well and there’s no scandals. Who cares how they’re doing from a performance standpoint, right?

i'll tell them do well. i don't care that they added women. the timing is fishy, the BOD has allowed failures to occur, and i love mocking hypocrites....and i use my real name here. big boy enough for you?

Well that seems peculiar. If DCI is really trying to ascertain if YEA still operates the Cadets, might I suggest DCI call Denis Bonfiglio. I'm pretty sure she will answer the call!

Acccording to several Crown BoDers I know personally, he announced to the boD awhile back to begin looking for his replacement due to his health issues.

Whatever it is, they'll be doing it with a 100% vet snareline.