saccaptain

Congrats Delazure on your Independent A Class Championship in MAIN, Semi-finalist status at WGI, and having such a great and successful season with the best staff around! darrell

Wes and I have been friends forever, however I haven't had the opportunity to see him much in the past few years, with us being in two different parts of the country now. Wes designed a few years for BLack Gold Drum and Bugle Corps, and yes, he taught Santa Clara the year they won DCI in 1989 with Phantom of the Opera, taught them again in 1990 when they did Miss Saigon, and then came back in 1993 for their anniversary show of Fiddler on the Roof. He is an amazingly gifted designer and has always been one of my "icons". While you are right, his indoor guards have not always faired as well in the last several years as his legendary Union guards, his shows have always forged new ground and left people talking. If you haven't seen videos of Union World in 1993, or of Union High School when they came back out and placed 7th or 8th in Scholastic World in 1994 I think, I would highly recommend it. He brings indoor guards out rarely nowadays, and usually sporadically, because he, and again I am speaking from our last conversation which was several years ago, is really enjoying involving himself more in designing outdoor programs, plus he becomes so intensely involved in an indoor guard, that he no longer wants to put forth all that time and energy year after year in developing a competitive indoor program.

I was 41 when I walked off the floor in San Diego in 04 as captain of Sac. And the sad thing is, if I can get a hip replacement, don't think I won't be back for the 30th anniversary next year at the ripe old age of 46!

Actually Forte did something very similar MANY years ago. They designed their entire show based on the Dayton Arena Floor, with their flags matching the color of the boundaries so that when they laid them out, the blended in with the floor. At the end of the show, the members all laid down on the floor, each member in a black unitard with odd white lines and stripes on them. Once they laid down, the stripes matched up perfectly with the foul lines and stripes on the arena floor. It was really a great and smart show. Again, this was at LEAST 10-15 years ago. Trish, do you remember what year?