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Just curious- How many current 2018 DCI members are legacy members- where their parent(s) marched in the same DCI corps as they do now? I know of one legacy at Cadets. My son is at Crossmen. However, there have to be others... wondering which other corps have legacy members this year. I don't need/want the names of the kids, I'm just curious about the legacy aspect.

What's the lineup order? We are going if it stops raining!

Yay for breaking 80 in SA!

Ray, I'm just happy that you have yet another Crossmen in your house! Thanks for all that you and your wife did for us. Glad you are able to keep the Crossmen spirit alive in your family.

I will be at the Baltimore one on Saturday for my son's first tuba Christmas performance. He's almost 12 and has been looking forward to it since we went last year to watch.

Fred told me at the WC show that they aren't interested in adding red to the unis since the neutral colors give more freedom for design and colors visually. Straight from the horse's mouth. Don't hold your breath on seeing red with the b&w anytime soon!

Lots of happy Crossmen tonight! As for setting stuff on fire, we are all good in that department. Already happened last week! Had our own little car fire at Allentown in the parking lot. We are box 5 when it comes to picnics! Lol Sooo happy for these kids. I've been saying all summer that it was going to take until tonight for the winds of change. I'm so glad I was right!

Whoo hoo!!

If they both go out and put in the same shows as last night, Crossmen should be in finals because the guard score should be higher. (this judge places the guard higher than Blue Stars) IMO, it is all going to come down to that guard score tonite to determine the placements.

Prior to 91, they were from West Chester. They used to have a PO box there. 89 and 90 we practiced at the institution of the criminally insane just outside of West Chester. (yes, you read that right) I think in 88 they practiced on campus sometimes (WCU) and also at Boeing beach (a Boeing parking lot off of rte 95 still near West Chester). 87 I think was at Boeing as well. 86 barely happened. Not sure where they practiced, in 86. they were based in West Chester while the Robinsons ran the corps and still stayed in WC after the Robinsons retired. The corps was based in WC through 1992. I think they were from Newark, DE in 1994?? My husband marched 91-94 and he refers to that time as the I-95 Crossmen. "home" was wherever they could get practice space. I'm curious as to why you need the info. Trivia contest? There may be info in the archives: http://www.crossmena...g/archives.html And the time under YEA was your Allentown listing. However, that was just where the YEA ofc was. They weren't really based there except on paper.

Thanks, I was posting that in response to questions/comments from earlier in the week and last week. I'm surprised with Cavies guard score tonight. The opener flag work was dirty and there were lots of drops in the multi colored rifle section. They were picking up far too much equipment off the ground for August. It wasn't a solid Cavies guard performance like I would expect in any other year.That's all. Hopefully they will catch everything when I see them again! Eta, you kind of can tell dirt when a shiny colored rifle is in the ground and not in someone's hand. That's easy to see from any seat. I know they will remember much more than their placement. I just wanted so much more for them, that's all. They are one of my favorite corps.

Some random thoughts from the show. Btw, I was on like the 5 yrd line and am a visual person. Happy to see my Crossmen moving so well again! The guard is great and the corps itself is finally marching like they should after many years that seemed to be lacking. Still not sure I love the ending, but they are so much closer to a top 12 corps than they have been in quite a while. Their recent guard scores where they were beating Cavies are accurate. Their guard is cleaner. I think it is a matter of time at this point for Crossmen. Is there enough time left in the season to move up a spot or two, or not? Only time will tell. crazy things have happened with that corps in the last days of tour before, so anything is possible. Loved the visual program for Vanguard and wished they had been able to perform the show twice just so I could see it again. I wish the Cadets had the Xmas box segment in the corner staged closer to the corps. They seemed to be miles away from my side of the field. Cadets had some late horn releases tonight. Now, I'm a guard person, so it has to be really obvious for me to notice a bad release. There were two that i heard. I haven't followed any corps much this year, but I heard some about the issues with Cavies drill and placement. Their show is fine for a top 12 show. However, it isn't fine for a Cavaliers show. The drill isnt doing them any favors. The guard was very dirty tonight too. There were 4-5 rifle drops that I saw, and some timing issues in the ensemble flag parts. Not the Cavies I had hoped to see. I was actually sad for the members because I'm sure some of them have had a dream of doing their age out in a phenomenal Cavies show. I'm disappointed for them that they didn't get the design product that they went there for. I'm sure they are having fun performing (at least it looks that way) but it has to be disappointing or bittersweet for the age outs since this is clearly an unusual year for them.

For those of you having Problems leaving the stadium: Heas south from the stadium. Then you will turn left onto rte926. This will bring you back to Rte 202 and you can go either north (to the left) or south (to the right) off of 926. Hope that helps! The other sneaky way is Tigue Rd to Rte 52 either north or south, but Tigue rd (turning right at the intersection just south of the scoreboard) is a crap road. I think it is unpaved in parts. jonnyboy, I will keep an eye out for you. We will be in GA in the upper right corner by the scoreboard as usual.

Money will come and go all of your life. Simetimes you will have enough, sometimes you won't. That's just how it is. If that's the only thing holding you back, then I would agree with everyone else and just march. I didn't march my age out. However, it had nothing to do with money. I simply didn't want to march and knew I wouldn't be a positive contributor if I did march. So I skipped my age out. The world didn't end, and I have never regretted that decision. For me, there was no question though. I was just done. You don't sound like you are done yet. If you aren't done marching, then go march your age out.

Jason, we will be there too!

Anyone posting from the show?

hi BDA Mom! The Sky Ryders placed 12th in 1991. They moved from Kansas to Tx starting in 1990.

If it is the same announcer it has always been, it is Paul Cain. PC was on the Crossmen staff when I marched and we'd get the "you" announcement during the season sometimes at rehearsals for big shows. He's been doing that announcement for ages! I'm surprised the vets in Colts didn't explain it to the rookies. It isn't that easy to forget when a crowd yells like that.... At least they will know for next year, right?

Sorry to hear you were cut, but you are young, so you do have time, and there are many other quality programs out there. 1) Seriously consider the DCA corps that were posted. They will teach you everything you need to know for DCI. 2) I saw that you said you need to do some conditioning. Do you live near a YMCA? If so, do they have a youth triathalon training program there? Ours does and it is open to any Y youth member over the age of 12. They will teach and train you to do a triathalon with training session 3-4 days a week. If you have no running technique, they will teach it to you. The best part is that the training sessions here go at your own pace depending on your ability. So if you are slower than other people, it isn't a big deal. They make a plan that fits you. Can you get involved with something like that to boost your conditioning? Do you swim? Adding swimming to your routine will help with the upper body strength. My son is 11 and plays tuba. He wants to march Surf when he's 14 (trust me, I have not encouraged corps with him, this is is own idea and I am not sure I want him marching at 14 either, but that is another post entirely!) and has decided he's starting the triathalon training program next year when he's 12 to get ready for corps. So if his plan works, when he arrives at his first camp at 14 he will be bringing seven years of swim team and two years of triathalon training along with his four years of tuba experience to that first Surf rehearsal. And that is why YOU have to focus on being fit along with the mastery of your instrument..... because there are people who have the physical conditioning part all set and you are up against them for these spots. By being in shape, you give the staff one less reason to cut you. It removes a variable so then you are only being judged by what you CAN do. Does that make sense? DCA could be your answer for this year. Please please don't rule them out. I marched both in DCI and DCA and it is absolutely worth doing either one. Spend this summer getting in shape, getting experience, and getting ready for NEXT summer (2013). You have so many years to march DCI still that a year in DCA will only HELP you get the spot you really want for later on!! Good luck!!

Two of the HS students that I teach marched Surf last summer at 14. One was the youngest member of the horn line. They both had positive experiences at Surf and returned To HS with fantastic work ethics. This year I think we have two 15 year olds, a16 yr old, and an 18 yr old going to Surf. Oh and my 11 yr old has already told me he's going to Surf when he's 14. He's now interested in the kids triathlon training program at our YMCA to get ready for Surf. (and I have not encouraged drum corps with him, in fact I've told him time and time again just how hard it is) If your son has the determination, then the rest should come with experience. Talk to Bob Jacobs about it. Your son may not be the only 14 yr old there....

Thanks for this. My favorite closer for obvious reasons. I'm not the only one who had goosebumps during the ending segment of the show while performing it at finals. That's something that never happened again during my marching career. I still can't watch or listen to '90 without getting those goosebumps during the same part of the show as I did that night. Two decades later! I think that anyone who loves the 92 show should watch 89, 90,91, and 92 in sucession to see how things evolved in order for 92 to happen.

The Unity between the generations of past members and the current/future members.

From my experience, it isn't easy to have bands move their band camp. We have one week that we are allowed to use the stadium because it is booked the rest of the month. The other fields are booked too. School starts on Sept 6th. Guess when band camp was? August 8th! There's no flexibility with this- every available space is booked after August 12th. Doesn't school still typically start after Labor Day up there? Most of the band camps when I lived in MA were held just before school started and after DCI was over. Not sure how anyone could persudade a band director to move his camp up by a month just for a DC show..... Does the Lawrence show have group tickets for students? If so, what is the minimum number for a group? What is the cost for GA seats? Perhaps marketing to the band directors that they could buy $10 GA seats for their students with a minumum # of tickets of TEN (rather than 25) could get students from some of these smaller non-competing bands into the seats. Here's what we do to get kids to a DCI show even though our camp is a different week; maybe it would work up there also: Firstly, we start talking up the show in May/June when the DCI tour has been set. A notice goes out on the band website with the info about the show a few weeks before the date. We pick a spot in the GA section to meet up and everyone finds their own way there. $10 and a 20min drive is do-able for our students. We also are not making it a school sanctioned event, nor are we paying transportation costs to the district for buses from our band budget. It works. We had 20 kids out of our band of 65 there this year. The upperclassmen bring rookies because they know that most of them have $10 to spare, just not a ride. The first time we did this was last year. After the band to the show last year, we had two kids decide to march with Surf this summer. In November we are sending 5 more kids to audition for next year. Potentially 7. From our little band of 65! That DCI show is how we rope them into the activity. We would have a much more difficult time sending kids to Surf if the WC show was cost prohibitive for students. Anyway, that's what probably needs to happen with the schools up north of Lawrence..... get a drum corps person on staff to see if the band director can loosely organize a non-school sanctioned meet up in the General Admission seats. However, if there aren't GA seats in Lawrence at a reasonable student rate (or really low minimums for group tickets) then that could be a deterrent for kids. There are a lot of things I don't like about the West Chester show, but I will say that one of the things they do right is pricing for the GA tickets. $10 is affordable for students, and anyone under the age of 12 gets into GA for FREE. Does the Lawrence show do anything like that to encourage students to purchase tickets?

And just because they don't compete doesn't mean that they shouldn't be a focus for recruting kids into corps. Like I said earlier, it just means they don't compete.

Wondering why you feel that alumni should teach competitive marching band and not just ANY marching band? Why not reach out to the kids that don't compete too? Maybe with budget cuts districts just can't afford the buses to get to the shows anymore. I grew up in MA and went to a HS that didn't have a competitive marching band. They never competed, and still don't, because they have international award winning jazz and concert bands. (The jazz band played for the President and Mrs. Obama earlier this year.) I had never competed EVER until my first performance with Crossmen. However, we still had instructors in HS who did corps, talked to us about corps, told us when the show was on PBS, etc. Our director didn't discourage drum corps- we could watch DCI in the band room during study hall if we wanted to. He just didn't do DCI himself and our district was not interested in funding a competitive marching band. So we didn't compete. That didn't mean that kids weren't interested in it. It just meant that we didn't have experience competing. If you get the drum corps bug, it really doesn't matter whether or not your HS marching band competes. Oh and another thought- could it be that parents didn't want their kids in Lawrence? When I used to work there about a decade ago, it wasn't the best place to send a carload of suburban teens. Not sure if it is any better than it was, but that was one of my first thoughts when you posted about the show attendance demographics. I'm not disputing the fact that there are less kids involved in MA. That's been going downhill for years. I'm just questioning your premise about competitive marching bands being the sole resource for drum corps members. (edited a few times b/c I am lacking coffee this morning, sorry!)