hotdogchompa

You are right... there is NO money in Florida......the rich people support other stuff. The avg. middle class person here would be on welfare in Massachusetts. But the high school band programs are top notch along with the FMBC contest circuit and the FFCG Winter circuit.

But the membership is overwhelming Florida. So to correct this , the support comes from Boston ( where the $$$ and older alum are) and the kids are from Florida. When Magic bit the dust it helped propel Boston into the Finals because of the kids coming to Boston. Another thing , I know a lot of those kids would not be in any other corps because of the proximity for winter rehearsals , they won't travel out of state and would just stay home. BAC is the corps to be in of you are a Florida Kid. I know of almost 10 kids that came from a small mediocre high school band about one hr from Lakewood Ranch , one of them has been a great soloist the past 2 years. DCI was just a dream for them until BAC had rehearsals near them. Teal is the Florida home corps and had something going but they were also in another region and attracted local kids in that area.

I think a great "Park and Bark" Class A corps could score high in Class A but not do well in Open despite the same sheets.

I got to see one of the "Winged" instruments trumpets at the TBT show at a demo booth and saw someone who was able to compare to a Jupiter Quantum. It looks like a copy of Jupiter with some minor differences and maybe a notch down in grade. The guy who tried the demo said it played the same and thought it was not too shabby. I understand that Jupiter and Winged are made in Asia.

Nice well attended show - full stands. Great job by Thunder to organize a complete great event including the BOA announcer, full retreat, trouping the stands, good food ( I had a nice rib sandwich ). Too bad that CorpVets and Alliance could not contribute to this DCA South event. anyway .... Show Review Sun Devils Ensemble in G - Star Bangled Banner was very nice with the TBT honor guard. DCA touch of old school. Florida Brass - Alumni exhibition - large brass group with small percussion section. Play some very nice music that I can't remember for the life of me except the closer was Brazil. they have some great player in that line and having a very good time. Mike, the guard guy, is a great one man show. Only technical advice I would give is to put percussion behind the brass and link the brass together. Shenandoah Sound - They have a nice complete show with solid work in all sections. I haven't seen them since 2009 but with more members they could be a player. Nice improvements. congrats and I heard they did a great job at Disney. Carolina Gold - wow.... Needs cleaning but....wow. Previously I thought they were known for just clean drill but now they have big brass sound with a screamer and a smokin big battery. Of course I haven't seen the other top Class A corps but these guys are top 1-2 at least. Just needs cleaning I think. Tampa Bay Thunder - heard all the stories and the rumors but I am hear to tell ya they are for real. Complete show was good. I need to remember they are a 1st year corps and they looked like a 3rd year corps. I can't tell you about GE and demand as I always seem to get that wrong. They have big battery 7/3/5 plus marching cymbals and with 36ish horns with a big pit and medium size guard. The show was a mariner theme and the guard uni's plus extras showed that. Percussion battery was pretty good and I was expecting major dirt with 7 snares and 3 tenors but it was not to be. they spread the field out well on a percussion feature. The front ensemble sound did not penetrate from my vantage point and brass could use some more dynamics. I think the music is good but I don't remember seeing the guard all that much. I may have been concentrating on other sections so don't shoot me just yet. I know this section of the review is lengthy but this is the corps I came to see and I do see good things coming. big congrats. all in all it was a good show - and I hope to see more DCA South corps next year.

Winged Instruments - anyone else heard of them? I know they have approached some US drum corps to sell to with price list and catalog (not on the web site) I have never heard of them before but maybe some of you may have. winged instruments link

no no no..... going with what the OP was posting. that the members "owes" money from previous year/s. also as far as I know there is no rule in DCA. just agreements but not with all corps under all conditions. case by case. there is some kind of rule in DCI and some DCI corps enforce if a member owes a DCA corps.

what if the corps A is in-active and members wants to still join corps B ? That could include a bunch of recent corps that went inactive. maybe a one year window if corps "A" does not come back. Corps "A" could also offer a percentage buyout deal like 50% of owed would clear the debt or a payment agreement. I would really hate to see younger kids who do not have a good source of income be turned away. I guess it's not that simple as pay-up or stay home. Corps A could have offered fund-raisers that offered to offset dues. when they go inactive they lost the chance and now the ex-member must come up with all cash to march another corps.

Why not?? The truth will be made soon enough.

I don't know why Sun Devils would have canceled camp because I heard they had over 40 at Open Houses plus returning vets etc. I know they didn't lose the rehearsal location or the equipment loaners from that high school. Only thing I heard about was some staff shakeups but not a good reason to cancel camp and leave membership in the wind. Then again what do I know.....

Open Class 1. Statesmen 2. Bucs 3. MBI 4. Hurricanes 5. Cabs 6. Alliance 7. Kidsgrove Scouts 8. Bush 9. Corpsvets 10. Kilties 11. Renegades Class A 1. Fusion Core 2. Carolina Gold 3. Grenadiers 4. Sun Devils 5. Govenaires 6. SoCal Dream 7. Vigilantes 8. White Sabers 9. Shenandoah Sound 10. Cincinnati Tradition 11. High Country Brass 12. Excelsior

Class A corps - that was also a week difference in shows for the 3rd and 4th/5th place corps. 4th/5th place corps may have got another 1-2 pt bump in one weeks time making it a tighter 1-5 race. I think these 5 corps will be within 1 pt of each other. I also think regionally that the scores vary too much. You may have to disregard or adjust high and low scores. That's where it gets tough with corps who only compete in an area amongst themselves and get high or low scores. These leads to "slotting". You could guesstimate a baseline with corps that compete against each other all the time. If a regional corps gets high or low scores it gets slotted in with the corps who have been competing head to head. and then you will also hear the crap about "first read" ... last years prelims did sort out most of well. I did say most..........

I think 150 just creates a super corps class (G7) and vacuums more members out of lower placed corps. This hurts membership in the lower corps and the G7 pulls away from the pack. I would like to see 150 in all - more members , more sound etc. the reality is that this activity needs to limits in a lot of areas that will even the playing field and promote growth. It's a hard thing to do with constant evolution and perfection in the activity. In our pursuit of perfection we lose more drum corps and more chances for young people to enjoy it. I believe the OP is looking at the rule change and if it works for ALL corps. Clearly it does not do that.

I think this year we may see the Class A corps who perform like a smaller open class corps start to have an advantage over the park & bark style of the mini-corps on the field. the word demand come to mind.......... I haven't seen Fusion Core but they must have done a great job this winter to ramp up from 2009.

There seems to be a southern bias for lower scores as well as a Northwest bias for higher scores. I can see why the South Corps go north as it is a better way to compare relative to other corps. Maybe they should go to Minn.? ha I would guess that all the DCA-South corps should have got 2 point higher scores this past weekend, that would make sense in comparison. I know that everyone says wait until prelims but I can't help but feel that these higher/lower scores contribute to slotting in some way.