hardcorpscadets

With much anticipation, finally got to OC last night in Erie. I became a big fan three years ago after seeing perform in N. PA. Having seen them on FN in San Antonio and Atlanta I was a prepared for a so so marching show. What I saw last night was far better than I expected. I figure they must have a great deal of time on the drill this week and it showed. Drums were great, I'm horns will improved now that they are showing more confidence in the drill. The only thing I see holding back is the guard. It's not that they performed badly, quite the opposite. The guard is not a World class design in IMHO, I think the design. Is a good Open Class design but it won't help them much in World Class. The scores seem to reflect this too. If they were scoring 1to 2 points higher look who they would be competing with. Having said that, I feel this corps is right on track for bigger and better things in DCI. Growing and improving at the right pace. Congrats to them for not suffering the sophomore curse, I look forward to seeing them in Indy and hoping they surprise me there. FYI I was setting near family from PA who had a member marching.

Round Rock cancelled

Looking a little better, we will get rain but it doesn't look like it will be a bad as predicted. Small front on its way this afternoon, sun was just out for a bit. Its turf field so it will be better to march on. I think it will happen.

Most of these guys are in Pittsburgh tomorrow night, guess what the weather is forecast is.....70%

Having seen my first Glassmen show in 1975 and been a long time supporter, I was quite surprised me to hear last year of the debt and their folding. Much unlike other corps, I never got requests for donations, I get 7-10 request from other groups during the year. I assumed they were in good shape since I never heard from them. Having talked to a number of people over the past year, I concluded that they way the other corps keep themselves up and running is through a strong Alumni support system. ( Cadets, Vanguard, BD , PR and Troop) The Glassmen are trying to get an alumni group together. If the turn out at the Bowling Green show and the Finals event are any indication of how may alumni are interested, they are going to have a long road a head of them. The economy in Toledo isn't much help either so I doubt there is much corporate sponsorship available. So far as I can the see, the BOD hasn't been very resourceful in there fund raising efforts. This is a whole new era in running a corps, new ideas are very much needed here. The Glassmen have a 50 year history, I haven't given up hope yet, but clearly some changes are needed.

It was very interesting seeing 7th Regs 22 horns vs the 55 + of the other corps. If this corps had twice as many horns they would be beating established World Class corps. Nicely designed show. Hope to see them at Quarter Finals

I have heard nothing official, but with two corps now out for the Minneapolis Regional, wouldn't one think that the start time would be backed up by a half an hour to 2:00? TO those of us traveling many miles to see this it makes a difference.

After the corps have had a few head to head meetings, San Antonio is going to have a big pro Crossmen factor. It is their hometown, you would expect a little better showing there.

I suspect a week after Minneapolis we will have a better idea of the over all picture.

Just looking at the rankings and seeing the Colts ahead of Blue Knights and Crossmen near Spirit, it just seems like these scores are a little out of line. I'm sure this will all be taken care of next weekend when they are all together. I'm thinking there will be some disappointed folks after next week.

Saw OC in Johnsonburg, thought they should have won that night. Saw them tonight and thought the M&M was shakey tonight, the horn line was on fire. BDB did a much better show tonight than in Johnsonburg. I think if OC cleans up the marching issues, the title is theirs. A new fan here!

BUMP

I have a two complete sets of tickets for all three nights. High seating Sec. 640, row 9. If interested send me an email at HARDCORPSCADETS@aol.com

I'm thinking these scores are more representative of the corps..there are 4-5 corps scoring better than the Bluecoats. Madison and the Blue Stars, Boston and the BLue Knights are in the next tier....and while the Glassmen are down a little right now, they still are the corps to beat for 12th. There are plenty of corps looking at that spot but the Glassmen have a history there. SOme of the scores on the east coast have been way too high. Saw Boston and their show does not compare well to the Blue Stars and Madison.

Checkout the BLuecoats App, very nice.

Considering the cost involved with the LOS, I would think it would make sense to consider other ideas. I'm not so much against OC having 3 performances during the week, but it seems to make good business sense to not lost money for 3 performances, when you could lose less by doing 2. BTW, I well remember coming into Orlando for Open Class finals and seeing couple thousand in the stands and being mildly surprised, grant you many were from other corps not in finals, but it was far better attended then this years OC Finals. This was one of the worst attended Finals I've been to. Even saturday night wasn't that great, the stands were full of kids from corps.

Agreed but I would say that the crowd would be 3 or 4 times the size of what I saw this year.

I believe to bring down the cost of the tickets, DCI eliminated Open Class from the package. Truthfully, few people used the tickets. I was there for OC Finals this year and saw a very small crowd. IMO, having Finals and Semi-finals competing on the same day as World Class is ridiculous, its too much in one day and makes fans choose one or the other. I believe they should return Open Class Finals to wednesday night, thereby making it more of an 'event'. Did it really make sense to have semi finals with 16 corps this year? If your competing field is 16 corps why not let them compet in both prelims and finals. I know I would be there on wednesday and I would think that there would be a larger crowd. This would also not require all the OC corps to spend the whole week, bringing down some costs. It would also give the OC corps a day where they don't live in the shadow of WC. I'm not sure if this change in ticketing has any effect on the corps payments, I don't think they are getting that much from DCI to begin with.

Glad to hear the hometown came through. I had other obligations, had to miss it. Sounds like it could happen again if they made a little money.

Does anyone know where the Blue Stars are practicing at in Uniontown, PA?

There's an assumption with this post that the Glassmen will not get better. Year in, year out, they are underestimated. They are always given up for dead and they always manage to come in just under the wire. I like Academys show a lot, but I just can't help but think that they will lose a little steam as they travel more. They've had a pretty easy schedule thus far and as they get east it will slow their progress. I'm impressed with the progress Troop has made and see them getting even better. I'll jump out and say Academy 14, Troop 13, and Gmen 12th.

Saw them at the Storm in Minnesota contest , was blown away by their performance, this show has great potential. I found them more interest than last years show. Not sure they can catch top 12 but this season anything can happen.

The BLUES 'coats Stars Knights Madison TEAL SOUND! If they clean this up they could make top 17.

St. Paul Scouts were all male, as were DeLaSalle Oaklands, Toronto Optimists, LaSalle Cadets from Ottawa, DesPlaines Vanguard, St. Lucys Cadets. Most eventually went co-ed.

I have 2001 and 2002 3 disk CD set if you interested