MikeRapp

Been a fan of this activity for a very long time, and I simply will agree to disagree. Talent and experience is a huge part of success. You put Alabama’s football staff at Vanderbilt I can tell you today they still finish last in the SEC four years out of five. DCI used to post the age and experience of each corps. For as long as they have awarded medals that list ranked most to least experienced 95% of the time. Look at the age out numbers and tell me that the success of the top tier corps isn’t directly tied to talent.

I admit to loving the infinity sets because they call back to the best Crown show ever.

Yes. How long has it been since Cavaliers truly competed for a medal? Times change my friend. I truly do respect and yearn for tradition—and I know moving on from tradition will #### off a lot of supporter$. But IMO I see no way Cavaliers will ever be top tier again as an all-male Corps.

Uh beg to differ. There was a time when Madison was the Bluecoats of DCI.

Crown is a unique corps in this activity for many reasons. They proved you could (at least at one point) organically rise to superpower status. Expectations for Crown are sky high for a reason. I think they, like perhaps some other corps, are at a crossroads. Do they continue to be the corps high school kids can relate to and aspire to—or do they step left and become more of a theatric entity like BD, Bluecoats and now Boston?

Fair enough. But I’ve heard these arguments to not change Madison.

Talent is always the foundational issue. Always. There is a limit to what your can put on the field and clean, as it is always constrained by your talent and experience.

I think we need to consider the fact that an all-male corps finished behind the Scouts, who are now all genders. I get history and all, I really do. But it’s time for Cavaliers to come to terms with the fact that there aren’t 160 males that are better than the mixed gender corps.

Well maybe. I for one don’t know what happened—but history and experience tells me it wasn’t likely the fault of the staff.

First, thank you to the many BD fans for being engaging and respectful while experiencing a less than expected outcome (albeit still awesome). It hasn’t always been that way. It says a lot for this forum and for BD that nearly all of you truly understood that Bloo and Boston were simply better this season—and still engaged in the activity. Second, I for one am eager to see what BD does next season—more so than any previous DCI season. The gauntlet has been tossed now big time, and it’s time for BD to rise to the occasion. Would not bet against them. I’d pay a pretty penny to be a fly on the wall for the retrospective on this past season!

There are mistakes made in staffing everywhere, but my belief is that constantly changing the staff is not the path to sustained success. Leadership at the top has to create a shared vision and confidence in the path—but also an emotionally safe space for creatives. No one wants to work somewhere where there is constant drama and fear.

Front ensemble was hardly the main issue with Cavaliers IMO. Nuff said.

I am always a bit sickened by this annual thread, mostly because I can imagine how terrible the season was for that person. This activity is not for the faint of heart. It attracts the most creative and innovative minds in music—but when things turn south, it is usually not rescuable. You can bet the kids know it, too. And yet you have to press on, knowing the cake is baked and you are out. Retreat can be a bitter pill after an exhausting drama of disappointment. I wish there was a better way.

That last sentence is the key. There are bad concepts, but the design team is the difference. The Beatles concept could have gone really wrong in countless ways, but look what they did with it.

https://cavaliers.org/news-blog/cavaliers-announce-clif-walker-designer-arranger

I don’t disagree in principle, but “entropy” is not a topic you discuss over nachos…

This show had so many amazing moments, but the one that really showed me they were headed for gold was the micing of the silver metallic flags. Now the micing of the flags was just amazing. But the sleight of hand going on back field was genius. While the crowd is mesmerized with the flags, the ENTIRE FIELD IS COMPLETELY RESET behind them! You don’t even know it happened because you were focused on the flags!

It felt very sad at retreat. Truly the end of an era.

Some 10s for Bloo tonight. Impressive. This change is everything…

It’s been a pleasure my friends. Thanks for a fun season!

97.413 Boston

97.075 Blue Devils

Bloo wins GE.

Wow phantom finished fourth ahead of Crown. 95.225!

Sanford: SCV!!!