Zakhad Utah

sorry I was referencing al the prop discussion.. I just saw about 30 secs ago that it had been split out. I'm trying to go back thru this whole thread to not miss somethign major and end up sticking my foot in my mouth.

See Texas State University for the lion's share of that recruiting from Texas. It is a HUGE pipeline to Boston right now

Yanked due to thread separation

SAy, is there somethign cheaper than paying 149 at once to watch during the season? SHeesh.. that is HELLA more expensive than Flo!

We have to face a brutal reality: a very unexpected casualty of 9/11 was the relatively free/easy movement across the CAN-USA border. Will all the restrictions on the US side, and even Canada cracking down (I learned that in 2003 headed to CGY for a gaming convention), it would have to make the logistics of trying to move the groups across the border repeatedly a nightmare. Those wonderful days of the 90s and backward are long gone now.

I'm an alumnus of the Ogden High Marching Band ( and a bit of Junior High as well) and remember first encountering DCI when our band went up to Edmonton for Klondike Days in the summer of 77. I think the director and one or two members were vaguely familiar with it, but the rest of us were completely ignorant. There was no Flomarching after all. We actually competed in a sanctioned event (date and scores verified thru the "FromThePressbox" website, [https://www.fromthepressbox.com/1977season see 7/19] and managed to pip past Oregon Crusaders. I was very very sad to see that they've literally just vanished into thin air. My senior year 2 of our members ended up heading to SCV after graduation, and within a year or two Ogden hosted the very first Corps Encore. I remember being particularly blown away by the whole look and mythos of Phantom Regiment. I was so thrilled to see as I poked around the interwebz this summer that Utah finally had an actual corps, after 20_ years of American Fark dominating HS marching band competition. Much luck to your kiddo, and I couldn't be happier/prouder at their showing this year! Beaten only by 6 much older experienced corps in Marion, and then squeaking right up to the line of qualifying for semis! 🥳 Sorry, but while I love them to death, Calgary should not have been in the actual competition track for semis. However, this sets up next year as having a very high bar to try and achieve similar results. 😬😁

GIven that Golden Empire is really only an extension of Bakersfield College, I don't think we'll ever see them pushing for top echelon and/or a bigger tour/finals

Apparently corps members and other smartalecks are referring to that as the "Mosh Pit" 😳😁

The one dude did get roughed up quite a bit... luckily he survived 🤭

HOLY SHIZNIT.. Only in that FInals Week PR video did I finally get a clear enough look to see that the Chevron is indeed on all of the musician Costumes (not the guard)... on the top of that sash over the shoulder. It's easy to be fooled into thinking it's another part of the Criss-cross pattern.

Hot having any actual ties to Rockford or the corps in particular, I did sort of become a stan of them aya back in the early 80s when I first saw them perform at Corps Encore. I was incrementally more and more excited as the summer went on. But I will have ot play devil's advocate a tiny bit. From the moment the crowd jumped up for the Chevron push, until Brandt's closing comment, was however long mentioned above. BUT, to be honest about it, while the folks may have remained standing, there was 20 -25 seconds where they weren't broadly applauding, as they were waiting for the final moments. So standing, yes, but a gap in the actual "ovation" portion. Just feel like I have to be fair to the SCV Babylon, Madison Empire, and Phantom Spartacus shows. 😎

it balances out the LOS marquee listing Phantom as being from Rosemont.. [side note: have you seen just how tiny Rosemont is ???] Cavaliers list their HQ as being in the ROsemont Public Safety bldg. WIsh they had at least a placard on the sign outside.

They would have blown the roof off, except Troopers went first and blasted it nearly all the way back to Casper. They wanted a bigger practice hall 😛 Have you seen the tiny building they use in Casper? I Do think it's cool that there is a community institution of Troopers Bingo LOL Phantom for some reason, has it office in a big warehouse, with no visible signage I can spot. Sort of makes me sad. I mean build a huge fricking Chevron statue out front or something!

Overseers in charge of slaves building the Pyramids/Great Wall of China: "No one wants to work anymore!!" SRSLY, age old complaint about work ethic LOLOL

#GiantOrangeCatToy Lets get it trending! WE CAN DOO EEETTT!!! 🤭

what are the gears' significance? I'm unfamiliar with of those more personalized traditions for certain corps

As a proud Marching Band veteran of Utah 1977-1980 I am overjoyed that Battalion was basically first runner up. Calgary is it's own little category with the woodwinds, let's be honest. First trip to worlds, taking 7th, beaten only by the California powerhouses, and 3 much older established corps. Then to basically taste the edge of semifinals? I am gonna be asking around the stats nerds to see if a first timer corps at Worlds has ever done that, or if so, how long ago.

Brilliantly stated! Lord knows the kids are getting a workout pushing those things around though! LOL I suspect those with that responsibility had to do some serious leg day workout for Strength/Stamina. Again brilliant summation of the feeling from a great many people this year. I am NOT claiming it is the majority, just a lot of commentary flying around). Technically it is nearly flawless, and the music is more than decent. But aside from the powerful flashbacks to my childhood and a tiny bit of ASMR feeling from that song, the rest of it leaves me feeling nothing greater than <meh>. I honestly can't remember any real sensation or impact beyond Moon River. And that, my friends is a definite problem.. If you can have a technically brilliant show, but people can't really remember it strongly a few hours later, than you sort of failed in a major objective. A show should be about really engaging the audience, not pandering to what you think the judges want to see. I've seen the accusation from a broad variety of viewpoints that BD are focusing on ticking all the Judges' boxes for scoring, rather what Phantom is doing this year... i.e., building a music composition that takes you on a powerful emotional jury. The "Eli's Theme" ballad duet is by far my favorite ballad moment of the year. Since I hadn't discovered a way to watch live until this year, I've been scouring YT for videos of some of the greatest successes from Corps in the last 2 decades or so... say, after Star's bizarre choice to go in a wildly different direction. I too, am totally blown away by shows like Spartacus, Tilt, and Babylon. It may not place high, but "vorAcious" has some of the most intense musical reactions from me in decades. Thanks to the brilliant use of "Derrick" (they named it and gave it its own Facebook page HAH!), the cello, and the simple but overwhelming effect of the streamers to give us an oil sunburst, I will NEVER be forgetting that program! I have no doubt Ennio Morricone (comp. Estasi Dell'Oro) would highly approve of the amazing coup de theatre to close that show.

Oh, don't get me wrong Central Wyoming is truly beautiful, but a great deal of today's youth are so acclimated to uber modern life and access to everything, that it might be a bit of culture shock, unless they were raised in rural or isolated settings. I may have been residing in central SLC for 30yers, but any chance I can get to go up into the Wasatch, or even take a trip out into the western wilderness of Utah, i grab it. It's sort of a shame that Casper isnt a university town.. that would boost tyouth culture a bit. As it is, I am so happy to dig around and find out that Troopers is a beloved institution there.

Given the realities of having to go spend a lenghty time in Casper, that is one thing that cant help but be a negative when recruiting. I still find miraculous they managed to survive when so many fellow founder corps have failed.

Hey there! Med. Retired Navy Vet here living in downtown SLC. I first encountered DCI stuff at a competition I was in with Ogden High Band Jul 19,1977 Edmonton. We barely beat the Oregon Crusaders (I didnt remember that at all until I looked up the details) and took 5th. But not one person in the band, or the director for that matter, had ever seen a DCI contest. When I discovered that Utah finally had a corps (and it first performed while I was stuck living in Nursing Home, where I didnt get a lot of info) I was ecstatic. And to watch them climb rapidly with only 7 scored shows before Marion. I guess they showed everybody who the new kid in town was!

Hey there Chief GUns! Medically Retired HM3 here from 84-92 era. Nice to see ya.

Here in Utah, The Battalion is fielding a notably reduced number this year, primarily due to out of control fuel costs for travel. As a very young corps organization still, and Utahns being infamously stingy about supporting such things, they don't have the resource pool the big 3 Cali Open Class corps have (SCVS, BDB, Gold). And it exploded even further thru the Spring as Putin's mad war of brutality skyrocketed oil prices around the planet. Here in Utah we are tied or in 1st place for the worst gas prices in the country, even though we have 5 refineries in greater Salt Lake City. So the decision was made before opening camps to pare down the corps size.