TerpCorpsNut

2007... 2009... 2007... 2009... I CAN'T DECIDE. 2007 was just so fun, and the ballad was gorgeous, and I really felt like Crown came into their own this year (...and horses are my favorite). But the Promise of Living put me in tears last year, and it was such an entertaining show (...and green is my favorite color). I'll hit 2009 before I can change my mind again. :) But props to 2006. Like other people have stated on here, definitely an under-appreciated show.

Yayyyy Blue Devils! *bump*

Why is everyone so grumpy? I hated BD's show (maybe I just refuse to like them).... but you can't deny they marched and played the heck out of it. Thousands of kids paid lots of money to work their butts off this summer to do what they love and entertain us. Congrats to all of them. :)

Reverse this. Carolina Crown - Ft. Mill, SC The Cavaliers - Rosemont, IL The Cadets - Allentown, PA Blue Stars - La Crosse, WI Glassmen - Toledo, OH Madison Scouts - Madison, WI Colts - Dubuque, IA Pioneer - Milwaukee, WI

True story... I'll be student teaching at a high school in Frederick in the fall. Amazing mentor teacher, amazing staff, amazing kids, just a really amazing marching (and everything else) program overall.

Sigh. REALLY?? The one weekend I'm going home, I have drum corps in my backyard. Clearly my best friend from home didn't consider this when she set a wedding date, how rude of her... Also, kinda weird, since PG County doesn't really do the whole competitive marching band thing.

Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra might take a while to grow on you, but like everyone else here, I really encourage you to get to know it if you don't already. I played it in my school's orchestra this year... every movement is great! I can't even imagine what the first and last movements are going to be like on the field. CAN'T WAIT. I haven't ever been this excited for SCV (I'm showing my youth).

I really have no idea. The only person I really know who auditioned and didn't make it was the percussion instructor at my high school, who had the "Cadets or nothing" mindset. I guess that would technically give you a 50/50 split, but I'm not sure 2 people is a representative sample. I can tell you that out of the rest of the people I remember at my audition camp who were "tier 3" with me, not many of them seemed as set on marching as I was, so I'm not sure if they would have even cared to go to another camp. There were a lot of high school kids just trying to gain experience, or going for the fun of it, or whatever else. I also don't remember many of them being strictly set on marching with the Cadets. They had a preference, sure, but no one struck me as being completely set against marching somewhere else. I remember talking to the people who ended up being "tier 1 or 2" (who weren't Cadet vets), and many of them came because they really wanted to be a Cadet... one guy who ended up marching came all the way from Florida. That doesn't give you a percentage, but that was the atmosphere I experienced. Also, I know a lot of people who think drum corps is cool but don't think they would be good enough to make it. I think the networking option would be a great way to suck those kids in, as well as the high school kids just looking for an educational opportunity. Both groups would have a better opportunity of making the cut, thus creating the possibility of them actually marching, thus giving lower-tiered corps more potential players, etc etc. I know none of this answered your actual question, but I think a networking camp would definitely open up the pool of auditionees regardless of the split between those who could be swayed to march somewhere else and those who couldn't.

Having a caption head sit down and have a real discussion with me about my audition/opportunities to go elsewhere, as well as having the option of a group/regional audition, would have really encouraged me to march somewhere else. Sorry Nick, as much as I appreciated you yelling at me to stop sucking and go march, it clearly didn't work so well. :) But great ideas to the rest of you! I'll admit it was really stupid of me to only have my sights set on marching Cadets (NOT because they're a top-tier corps, or because I wanted to win a championship), but a little more encouragement from staff probably would have been the swift kick in the butt I would have needed to try going somewhere else. Also, as previously mentioned, a group audition would really cut down on the stress and money required to go audition other places. That was another one of my issues... my parents didn't really want me to march corps anyway, so I had to stay as tight with money as possible. Mom didn't want to ship me off to camps all over the East Coast just so I could find somewhere else to spend a couple grand, but I could have wormed my way into a generic audition without much argument... I think.

Since I'm one of those people euponitone knows and referenced, here's what happened to me. I spent the whole summer before auditions running and practicing baritone (more than I practiced clarinet, which is my principal instrument for my major). Unfortunately, that fall semester, I got too busy to keep working out and practicing as much, and I ended up going to the audition really under-prepared. I was in the third tier of auditionees, and while I won't say I was "cut", because they didn't explicitly tell me NOT to come back, I cut myself and didn't go back on my own. I also didn't audition anywhere else, and I didn't audition the next year (for a lot of excuses that I regret). Poor decision in hindsight, but hindsight's 20/20. ANYWAY. I'd say that both of your theories applied to me. The Cadets were the first corps I saw on video and live. I love them. I don't always love what they're doing, but I love them, and I wanted to be a Cadet so badly. I know I could have gone to Surf, or even Buccs, and gotten a quality experience. However, I knew that I wouldn't be 100% there, and that's a lot of time, money, and effort to put forth for something you can't be "in" 100%. Just couldn't find it in my heart or mind to do it. I also didn't want to go to a corps with the solitary purpose of "Hey, I need more experience so I can march with the Cadets". I didn't think that would be fair. Now that I'm a year too old to march DCI, I know I'm going to march Buccs at some point, but it just wasn't something I wanted a few years ago. Can't speak for everyone else with a similar situation, but that's my story.

Apparently they just started the second round. My Cadet-alum friend says Crown is going to take it all this year. I know it's early to say that... but apparently they're doing good things. Man, I haven't been on here in forever. Such a bad idea to start, you all are addictive!

Me too! What a great moment that was totally missed. In general, I think a lot of fantastic moments were missed for shots of the guard, but oh well, at least I got to see quarters in some capacity. My theatre experience was pretty good. It was fairly full, with a bunch of high school kids, but embarrassingly enough a few of my college friends acted worse than they did, so I'm sorry if you were in Columbia, MD and had to put up with some obnoxious college kids who talked A LOT between corps at full volume. Besides that I have no real complaints.

HNC and VK

Hahaha always a solid source... And I, for one, am not trying to whine about it.. I think the coverage is awesome, I'm just laughing at the choices a little. Besides, DCP complains about everything, don't we all know this?

Wow that's pretty neat. They showed 2007 a lot of love... I wonder who picked this Top 10?