oldsoprano

The year that finals were in College Park, Md., I was the tour director for Spirit of Atlanta, and housing was so difficult in the DC metro area that we didn't have finals week housing until about two hours AFTER our prelims performance. Not at all a dig at DCI, who was responsible for finding Championships housing for all the corps, but it's just the way it is in some areas. And that was two decades ago.

Speaking of Varsity...(see last paragraph) https://www.11alive.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/cheerleading-championship-40000-people-georgia-world-congress-center/85-340fc6b8-b4e0-44da-aeda-78198c65e6e5?fbclid=IwAR1_xHIG4OiQwBxbHt3Z4SqGdhU7bXdk1hCnSm7rdOjMFT_oRMv7wD84omU

Seems to me like Varsity Spirit is a company that DCI has absolutely NO #### BUSINESS being involved with in any shape, form or fashion.

Not 100 percent sure, but I believe SCV was initially announced as winning high guard, and the actual winner was Spirit of Atlanta. Back then, the recap sheets were on two pages, six corps on page 1 and six on page 2. Whoever was feeding Brandt the information on caption awards only looked at page 1. Spirit, finishing in 8th place overall, was on page 2 of the recap. Spirit's guard staff noticed the error when they checked the recap sheets and alerted DCI officials on the field and a correction was made.

This one features current and former members of Spirit of Atlanta. And yes, someone (one of the drum majors, I think) played a clarinet for this, so get over it. 🙂 https://www.facebook.com/SpiritofAtlanta/videos/238536980541079/

Cadebts

And his brother Michael Martin! 🙂

I'm guessing she was talking about West Baden and French Lick. Here's a story on the amazing job he did restoring the resort: https://www.worldpropertyjournal.com/real-estate-news/united-states/french-lick-resort-west-baden-springs-tom-saunders-larry-borst-donald-trump-steve-ferguson-pete-dye-legends-championship-legends-tour-cook-medical-9292.php

Seems like using the 2020 show in 2021 would certainly be the fiscally prudent thing for most corps to do.

Carla Azar (18:32 on the video above) was in Spirit of Atlanta's snareline back in the late 70s or early 80s, as was Beth Hardcastle Gottlieb (not on the video), who is the percussionist with Gary Sinise and the Lt. Dan Band. Beth's husband, Danny, (founding drummer of the Pat Methany Group) is the set drummer with the Lt. Dan Band.

Not sure what I would do if DCI canceled the summer tour, but whatever it is, my blood pressure will be lower just by cutting out the frustration of getting Flomarching to work decently.

In general, DCI secures housing for finals week and for all regionals, and the individual show sponsors are responsible for finding one night's housing for each competing corps. When a corps has multiple consecutive days without a show on tour, it is usually on the corps to find housing for those non-show days. Often, the sponsors of the shows on either end of those off days can provide housing for additional nights.

At least one large school system in metro Atlanta has cancelled all out-of-state school-related trips for the remainder of the school year.

A few years ago, Spirit had a corps dad that toured every summer on Spirit's medical team whose "real life job" was the emergency coordinator for the U.S. Public Health Service, and was also the federal government's leading expert on chemical and biological terrorism. Donald Wetter is now retired in Arizona, but he sure would have been a good person to have on the road this summer. If DCI wants the opinion or guidance from someone who is an expert in public health issues such as this and who also totally understands the unique challenges of keeping a touring drum corps healthy, I have Dr. Wetter's contact info.