madmooffan

And thus we have a bunch of new staff 😊

From what I’ve heard from the one returning drum major we have, plans are to raise the bar and field a smaller hornline with more alternates this upcoming year. I definitely agree with you, having a smaller group that can give 95-100% all season is better than a larger one that is always somewhere between 70-90%. In my eyes, I think the performers just didn’t prepare enough for a difficult production. I don’t think staff lowered the bar on membership too much, the general feeling was that we were a more talented corps than in ‘22 going into this season. People just didn’t get themselves to the level they needed to be. It was like they expected to be marching installation 85.

I honestly can’t even remember how we got that high. On the guard side I think it was mostly people getting hit by rifles/flags right in the head. We had like one ball injury. When we workshopped our final closer, the guard messed up catching girl that dove off of the “GE” ball at the end of the production and she got concussed. Brass end was just people doing horn snaps/horn moves with incorrect intervals. At least 4 of those concussions were caused by people who were out of shape and were constantly in and out, but sometimes it was really just bad luck. One guy snapped his bass trombone into his own forehead in Missouri and didn’t get back in until Allentown. Unfortunate stuff.

We had two incredible PTs, headed by a PT who returned from the 22 season, Dylan Lynch. Wonderful guy, did his best to keep people cared for. The killer injury for us last year was concussions, we had more than a dozen, maybe more than 2. The concussion protocol put into place by Dylan and the corps was great and helped get people recovered and back on the field after concussions, even on tour. There was just way too many of them. Not sure who our PTs will be next year, but I hope they’re as good as the past two years. Funny story: we had one of our trombone soloist’s moms come in for a day or two when Dylan left. It was a younger corps, and I think many did not understand the rigor of the activity enough to prep themselves properly beforehand. This year will likely be a younger corps as well, but I believe staff, after how the last season went, will probably make it much more clear the importance of off-season physical preparation. Even if someone doesn’t care at all despite that, there’s going to be required workout assignments. They’ll at least be doing that, at the bare minimum.

I’d agree with that for 22, but I believe J. Robb’s 23 production had a lot more life in it than we gave it. We were just plagued by injury all throughout the season due to poor off-season prep and that ruined any chance for us to really do meaningful cleaning of the show. We’d clean drill with 10 holes, then 3 people would come back in having not marched in weeks and it would end up dirtier than when it started. This year I believe they intend on getting one of those marching health guys to do a required off season fitness course for us, which I hope will prevent a repeat of that.

I did, that’s why I’m returning for a third season. I just hate ending every year with a handful of regrets.

As a member coming back for a third year… this design team is very exciting. Hope this year is more enjoyable than the last two.