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August 11, 2002, 2:25pm ET Newark, NJ I have a few minutes here in Newark Airport so I thought I’d write a little about finals day/night. We woke up for stretch like usual and then had breakfast, which was open to family, friends, and fans of the corps. Speeches were given by various staff members throughout the day so it was an emotional rollercoaster as I expected. We did a full 5 hours of rehearsal, but focus was scattered early on. We got things together to have a strong full ensemble. After we finished our last rehearsal I packed everything I had left because I was leaving straight from finals. We had a really strong preshow warmup in the horn arc and there was an electricity throughout the hornline. While I would have liked it to have been a bit darker, performing in DCI Finals was great! The crowd really got into our show and we had another emotionally charged performance. I have some mixed feelings about whether it topped semifinals or not, but it was a performance to remember either way. The meeting outside the gate following the show was emotional. We all began to hug each other and cry tears of happiness, sadness, and relief. I’m sure everyone felt differently about the season coming to a close, but we all realized that this group of people would never perform together again.It was time to say goodbye, forever in many cases I suspect. Thinking about all that Crossmen went through in 2002, the evolution of the corps, the highs and the lows...it’s just something that can’t be put into words. Everyone who has done this crazy thing we call drum corps knows the mixed feelings of such a bittersweet ending. Retreat was fun (how can a tie not be fun?) and we spent some time on the field taking pictures and saying some more good-byes. Things moved quickly after we exited Camp Randall Stadium and before I knew it, I was in a hotel room, my DCI experience but a memory. I only had the opportunity to march 1 DCI season, but I am so grateful that I did it. It was an amazing experience that I will treasure for a long time. I met some great people who I hope to keep in touch with because you never know how paths may cross again in the future. It is time for me to move forward and close this chapter in my life that so fittingly began in this very airport almost 9 months ago. (The End.)

August 11, 2002, 4:39am CT Madison, WI And just like that, it’s over. I’ll write more about finals night a little later. Right now I’m sitting in Madison’s little airport and I’m surrounded by drum corps for the final time this summer. I see jackets from the corps I’ve seen on the road and it’s a reminder that we’re really all in this together. At the end of the day, everyone sits on the floor of the airport catching some sleep and wondering what the real world that we left behind for 80 days has in store tomorrow. It doesn’t matter who the people are sitting around me or what team they played for all summer; we are the 2002 corps of Drum Corps International and no matter what happens when we go our separate ways, no one can take that away from us. Madison, WI - Finals The Cavaliers - 99.15 - All Captions Blue Devils - 97.3 The Cadets - 96.75 Santa Clara Vanguard - 95.65 Phantom Regiment - 92.4 Boston Crusaders - 92.4 Bluecoats - 91.5 Glassmen - 91.0 Crossmen - 89.1 Spirit of Atlanta - 85.45 Magic of Orlando - 84.85 Seattle Cascades - 84.05 (One more post to come)

Saw my son in the Crown clip in "e=mc2". I'm happy!!!

Back in 2002, I kept a decent journal of my experience marching with Crossmen for myself and as a gift for each person who helped contribute to me being able to afford to march. I came across it today and the first entry was January 18, 2002 so I thought I'd post along for the full season this year.... --- (Note: I auditioned for Santa Clara Vanguard back in November.) January 18, 2002 Newark, DE I did attend the December audition camp for the Crossmen. Things were much different there than with SCV. We focused much more on music and much less on visual. We received and played through a part of the opener, Pat Metheny’s “Heat of the Day.” The piece was very challenging, but also very exciting. They didn’t cut anybody at that first camp, but did provide a good amount of feedback to each individual regarding what to work on for the January camp. I personally needed to work on flexibility and endurance more than anything else. I did receive very good markings from the visual staff. Between the December and January camps I worked hard to get the opener up to tempo and to memorize the two YEA tunes. I notice a marked improvement in my own playing, which made the practicing especially worthwhile. Friday night of the January camp, we were given a completely revised opener. The weekend’s mission was to learn that piece and ensemble the entire thing. We worked extremely hard all weekend long and did a ton of playing, but it all paid off on Sunday afternoon. We closed the camp by performing the complete opener as a full corps: battery, pit, and horns. I found it to be an extremely rewarding weekend and the whole thing pumped me up to be a member of the 2002 Crossmen hornline. In fact, on Monday afternoon I received an email from brass caption head Dean Musson inviting me to be a part of the corps. It is unclear whether I will be playing 2nd or 3rd trumpet, but I will be on the field come finals night as a rook-out. I still have a lot to improve upon because I don’t want to let the rest of the corps down, but I’m confident that I can do it. Once exciting prospect is a March 3rd indoor performance at Continental Airlines Arena with The Cadets and supposedly Cabs as well. That should be an exciting night, but we’ve got a lot of work to do before then. Our next camp is February 1-3! (Next posting will be February 3.)

Well, Rutgers season record just improved. Undefeated in 2020!

As of today the MAC,B1G and PAC12 have all announced they are moving their fall sports to next Spring. I'm sure more conferences will follow. There's also talk of some high school conferences in NJ doing the same. I would think that's going to make a lot of facilities unavailable for corps.

Weird I never knew you marched the crossmen. Thanks for sharing. It was not better than 9th obviously. Good show though.

and thank you for sharing this journal....so much great stuff!

I dunno, Muchachos had Jeff Kievit and a killer drum line. I say they could have been top three.

i know what the scores say. i was there, i saw the show develop all summer. it was better than 9th.

They just took it on the road and...…………………………………………………………………………………………. BLAST!

What if some states are more open to housing than others? Would DCI then be limited to tour only in the states that are more open? That is more along the lines of the regional tours.

Sure it is. Says right there in the Finals score 9th place Crossmen with a 89.1 What place was it?

wasn't a 9th place show

Just watched that part of the broadcast. I can only imagine what Zingali went through before his death. Yet, he kept the strength of his faith. The side trip to St. Anthony's story was very moving.

"One-ee-and-a STEP!"

assuming they can get into places

if only 8 can do anything, how does that help the others? corps, even on th Open Class level arent neighborhood corps anymore, so getting the band together to do a gig won't exactly be easy

We are delighted to announce that Michael Gaines has accepted the position of Interim Director of Program Operations for the Vanguard Music and Performing Arts. Michael will be working with our Interim Co-Executive Directors, Jeremy Van Wert, and Michael Kovalich to build and execute operational plans that support the organization’s future. While we would love […] View the full article

That is a very good decision

I haven't seen anyone state yet: Is there a suspicion that all of this is related to the Fred Morrison issue? If it's all speculation at this point, I don't really care about it. This appears to be another venerable org going down; I hope someone has actual first-hand facts.

Update: my final list in order of presentation ended up being: 12. Crossmen 2012 11. Blue Knights 2009 10. Boston Crusaders 1999 9. Blue Stars 2014 8. Santa Clara Vanguard 1992 7. Bluecoats 2008 INT 6. Carolina Crown 2007 5. Phantom Regiment 2011 4. Madison Scouts 1995 3. Cadets 2003 (only because I couldn't find full videos of Cadets 2001 or Cadets 1996) 2. Blue Devils 2004 (especially for my dad, who works for the railroad) 1. Cavaliers 2006 Music-before-scores: Cadets 2003 in an auditorium ripping through the end of Malaguena Retreat: 2008 Encore: Bluecoats 2016 My parents, a friend of theirs (watching drum corps for the first time, though she's heard me and my sister talk about it plenty before), and my cousin. General review was rankings were in order of performance (that is, Crossmen 2012 in 12th, Cavies 2006 in 1st). If I were to go back and do it again, I'd probably slot in Blue Knights 2010 instead of 2009, and might opt for Cadets 2009 over Cadets 2003 (though my preference is still 2001 or 1996).

Just started watching my list. And if you have forgotten about Colts 1999, do yourself a favor and re-watch it. I still believe it is possibly the best 12th place ever. What a way to start a Finals show!

Sir! Yes sir!

Still one of the best overall shows I have ever seen. Maybe one of the best and most talented corps to ever take the field, and they had a star-studded list of designers who would end up/or will be DCI Hall of Famers.

"He just has to kill Will." Haha! PR and Spartacus.

If you go on their website you will see that the entire design team has resigned except Ed Devlin. Today the last one Andrew M. (music writer) announced his resignation. You will also notice the entire Colorguard educational team has left. Some of the visual guys as well. Management page went from 7 employees to two. Board of directors went from 10 to whatever is even left.... interesting things happening....