chrisNAtlanta

VERY uncalled for.......

SCV hands down, since early 90's. In the 80's it was a toss up.

1993 Cadets! Although my sentimental would be 1990 Cadets! :-)

Saying a prayer for his successful surgery and continued recovery. For Holy Name Shall Always be.

Had a thought listening to my CD's in the car tonight. Considering the top 7 this year...and the overall quality of the top 15....is it possible that we will see the top 12 all break 90 in semi's this year? Can the top 9 break 95 in semi's? Finals? What a year it would be if we saw the top 9 all breaking 95 and true condenders in 2008? To have top 9 condenders: BD, Cadets, Cavies, PR, SCV, Crown, Coats...there is 7 that are there. Can BK? I say yes. Huge improvement year to year consistently and they were there before. There is 8. Can Madison get back in the running for knocking on 95 this year? I think maybe? And then there is the bottom 3? Can any of them move up to 95? Any dark horses to hit 95+? What a year it would be....... b**bs Thoughts?

Agreed

QBQ!© (The Question Behind the Question) QuickNote QuickNotes may be forwarded by email or printed in their entirety for personal and group use. © QBQ, Inc. 2007. It's true the QBQ! and Flipping the Switch books are about PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY, but in a broader sense they contain character-building content: Ideas that help us achieve excellence in life. I wonder if we're building character through youth sports. Before you delete this QuickNote because you don't have kids in athletics, see how principles in this message can be extracted and applied to your role as a manager, parent, colleague, or friend. Enjoy! John G. Miller -------------------- With Fall here and millions of youth ages five to teenhood flooding our fields, courts, and rinks, it's a good time to ask: Are youth sports about winning? I suspect that not all agree, but as a father of seven children who has been to countless sporting events and also competed as a wrestler "back in the day," I am convinced of this: Youth athletics are not about winning. Now I didn't say that every child should get a gold trophy at the end of the season just for showing up or that we should, as was so well stated in the movie The Incredibles, "create new ways to celebrate mediocrity." What I am saying is youth athletics exist for these purposes: • Aerobic exercise for kids today who need it badly (since nobody really walks anywhere anymore!) • Team building. Critical lessons in collaboration: Co-labor = Working together. An excellent ability to possess. • Fun. Pure fun. It's still true and always will be: It's fun to have fun. • Commitment. Disciplining oneself to stay with something even when it's not easy is a good thing. • Skill development. It's healthy to learn to run, hit, kick, swing, shoot, pass, and catch correctly when young. • Relationship building. Making friends is always worthwhile. Notice that winning is not on the list, not even at the bottom. Why? Because when that becomes an objective, I'm afraid we fail to build the character in youth that we desire. The "Winning is everything!" mantra seems to bring about bad stuff. Maybe you've witnessed some of this too: • Adult coaches become children again throwing tantrums that would embarrass a toddler. • A soccer mom instructs her nine-year-old son at half-time, “Tell your coach he shouldn't have you on Defense, you're a Forward.” • Parents scream at referees, and sometimes those refs are only teenagers themselves. • Coaches model excuse-making by blaming losses on field conditions, weather, officials, and cheating opponents. • Superstars are allowed to break team rules or not meet certain standards because, well, they're the superstars. • Parents and participants, especially when losing, fail to applaud the accomplishments of their competitors. • Basketball dads bellow loud enough for all to hear, "Come on, you can shoot better than that!!!"—at his own daughter. • Teammates treat each other poorly during competition with mean-spirited and "bossy" behavior, while coaches look the other way. • Weekend tourneys become so essential that holidays and Sundays—family and church time—are devalued. • Obsessed grandparents bark from the sidelines, "How can you be tired?! You're not tired! Get back out there and play harder!" • Less talented kids don't get to play much. And to be honest, some kids never play. Now that is a sad sight to see. • Coaches bawl the youth out post game causing them to lower their heads in shame. Find me a coach that cares for the children's mental and emotional health, allows each team member equal playing time regardless of ability, shows no favoritism, teaches skills during the practices but encourages during the competitions, instructs the youth to honor adults and peers alike, and models life-success principles such as fairness, kindness, integrity, servanthood, accountability, forgiveness, and joy in all things, and I will sign my kid up immediately for this Dream Team. My dad, Jimmy Miller, was a champion wrestler at Cornell University in the 1940s and coached the team from 1949-1975. I can still picture him in the late 1960s, when I was a boy, kneeling at the edge of the mat with both hands cupped around his mouth like a mini megaphone, encouraging his wrestlers with, "Come on, Peter!" "You can do it, Dick!" "Let's go, Buzzy!" If those young men lost that day, they still knew one thing: Their coach loved and accepted them just the way they were. Those athletes are now successful men in their 60s, and all speak highly of Coach Jimmy. I know that for him, when painfully watching his youngest son (me) flailing and failing on the mat, it wasn't about achieving a victory that day. It was about becoming victorious in life. That's the kind of coach I would want. Come to think of it, that's the coach I had. Now that's winning. John G. Miller, Author of QBQ! and Flipping the Switch Edited by: Kristin Lindeen

Completely touching and inspirational. You are in our thoughts and prayers David.

CONGRATS to the 2007 Cadets!!! http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums/inde...howtopic=103424 b**bs

http://www.drumcorpsplanet.com/forums/inde...howtopic=103424 That's why

Good evening. I want to take just a minute and state a few things to get my thoughts out in writing. First and foremost, I am a Cadets alum. I fell in love with the corps in 1983 when I saw them live and thought that it was the most amazing, and radical, thing that I had ever seen. Since that point, I have been an huge supporter and am thankful of my one year with the corp. I wish it could have been more, but I had to pay for college and my own tuition to the corp. I would never trade my experience with the corp for anything. It (and George Hopkins) taught me lessons in one year that have carried through my life experiences. Yes, all drum corps teach lessons, but the lessons I have treasured most from the Cadets, are this....... Life is change. Life is about hard work. Life is about passion. Life is about doing what you believe and working harder than other people can only dream of, and achieving what others think is impossible. The status quo is not fun.....pushing the boundaries of life and living on the edge is much more fun and delivers the biggest rewards. I have seen the members, and the design team, take on the impossible and constantly push new boundaries more than anyone. Consistently. More than any corps. Anyone. Period. Much of what DCI is today, we owe to the The Cadets, Garfield Cadets, and The Cadets of Bergen County......and most importantly the MEMBERS who never gave up and never gave in when the odds were totally against them to pull off the impossible that was asked of them. Yes, there have been revolutionary moments, designers and shows in other corps. And I thank them! But no other corp, since it's early DCI days, has constantly said "we will do what is new, fresh, different, and sometimes impossible". Sometimes they succeeded, sometimes not so much...but always there were the members who are some of, if not arguably, the most talented and hardest working members of DCI. I think the demand level of this years show was without a doubt the hardest on the field, both muscially and visually. When Star got booed in 1993, I was there, and sick to my stomach. They left DCI and we miss them. I was sick to my stomach when I heard someone say "shut up" at Atlanta this year during The Cadets show. Has DCI become an event where we forget that young people are being influenced by our actions? Have the adults become so childish to feel that this kind of booing, as in 1993 with STAR, now is acceptable again? We complain of corps folding, but we boo one of the most revolutionary corps of DCI history? I dont care if you say "I'm booing this, that or the other". YOU are booing the marching members accomplishments. The members of the Cadets of 2007 should be applauded for taking on an incredibly demanding show and showing an entire new crop of young musicians that the impossible, can be possible. The staff, supporters, alumnus, volunteers, BOD, and George Hopkins should be applauded for teaching the members that change is inevitable and that to break new boundaries in work, family, spirituality, friendships and love will result in the most amazing of results. We should clap and yell for every corps. We should show up for the 20th place corps and Div II and III to support them. If you dont like their programming, email the staff, but dont bash or boo where a young person can read or hear your venom. I would like to say a HUGE THANKS to The Cadets for giving me over two decades of revolution, and helping pioneer the direction of where DCI has arrived today, and encourage all current and future Cadet members to reach for the new, challenging, different and revolutionary. It will lead you to success in life !!! Congrats on making the impossible, possible, yet again! Please keep pushing!!! For Holy Name shall always be..

<**> Anyone, and I mean ANYONE, who boo's a youth activity, marching member or teacher in a youth activity should leave and never come back. PERIOD. You dont get it. You never will. You are immature and childish. Go boo Mike Vick who kills innocent dogs and boycott the Falcons and makes 4 million a year to take your abuse. Booing is for bad politicians and people who do very bad things in the world. Everyone who booed should voluntarily remove themselves from this activity permanently. Rant complete. And PS....If you booed STAR in 1993.....you will remember I wrote this similar posting in RAMD in 1993. So it is NOT Cadet bias. This is youth activity with people running it that make very little money and deserve better. Take your negative attitude somewhere else. Guess the rant wasn't yet complete.... :sshh:

I like Cheese Doodles.

Got me thinking of this year : http://www.fromthepressbox.com/19870814div1semifinals.htm Anybody else at Madison to see this Semi's and the insane scores from 11th on up? Could we see a repeat of close to 90 to get into finals?

This is getting friggin insane.....Could we end up with a true semi's where the 8th-12th spots are truly up for grabs to the best performances? Wow.

We need a couple more upsets to keep everyone pushing hard! Wild to see the fight, and rapid improvements, going on from 1st-7th and the dog fight it appears that the bottom 8th-12th will have, just to get in Finals. Thoughts on what score that the 12th place corp will have to break to get into finals?? Can you imagine having to break 90 to get in finals? Will we ever see the day?

GO Cadets and Blue Stars!!

Interesting that you picked 1990. I have a small connection to that year. LOL. My point is that there used to be a difinitive "slide" after about the 13th place corp that you knew had no chance getting into finals. This year, seems that we have a true quality 15-16 corps with the top 7 being resoundingly tight. Thanks for your thoughts!! Love that 1990 was your choice! B)

My thoughts have been running wild today about my experience watching Atlanta's Regional and some of the San Antonio broadcast. I truly think DCI has reached an entirely new plateau this year from quality and performance top to bottom. And HOLY COMPETITIVE! The honor of being in finals is going to take on an entirely new level. Thoughts?

How about 1990. Cadets rotating lines collapsing into the company from 1984's West Side Story push at the end of our show... I was on the end of my rotating line (check out the high cam for how fast we were moving and meshing into each other). We were somewhere in the Midwest and a very hefty marching judge decided THAT was when he was going to try to get behind the corp and run between my line and the rotating line next to me. All I saw was him go running by and I thought "oh crap, I'm going down". Going at full backwards run, I hit him, went down and took two others with me. Bloody lip and cracked tooth later...but I got up and marched the rest of the show. Our drill instructor was screaming bloody murder at him as we were marching off. Good times. FYI, a Crown member went down on Saturday in Atlanta and I was having serious flashbacks as people piled up on them. :(

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