Underdawg

OK, while we are on the topic of obscure and rare videos. Does anyone have a copy of Bloomington, Indiana 1986?

Daryl started in 1988 and aged out in 1995.

I don't remember there being a tour video in 1990.

Sam, I think the difference you are seeing in the way she is holding the horn between '83 and '84 is related to the horn itself. If memory serves me correctly the cadets mellos were DEG in '83. They didn't get the King mellos until '84. I vaguely remember asking Barb why she held the horn differently and she said it was something to do with the valve casings being different between the two horns.

Johnny Sanchez and Paul Perniciaro were on the cadets staff in '86.

Answers: There were 84 horns (28 sopranos, 18 mellos, 26 baritones/euphoniums, 12 contras). The guard members were actually guard people. All were supposed to play but I think only a few of them really did. During first half of the tour, twelve of the sopranos spun flag in the opener and there were 5 or six horns that were flags at the end of the show. Unfortunately that got changed to what you saw on the video. The original concept was to have 128 "cadets" that were interchangeable as musicians or visual people. Unfortunately, the staff failed to think through the necessary learning curve to make that work at a "top 5" level of competence. I know the Hoppy bashers will be shocked to know this, but my understanding was that the large hornline/small guard was Michael Cesario's debacle. The contra was played with a soprano mouthpiece by none other than Jeff Sacktig, Cadets's current drill designer. As for how the guard felt, they were not happy about it. It was a tough season for them. The boxing ring things were brutal. Was guard shortage an issue? Not really. There were a lot of ageouts in '85, so it was the "ideal" time to try such a thing. But there were enough girls that returned in '87 from the '85 guard and earlier seasons to have fielded a guard that was 50% vets.

I would love to see those Huntington pictures. There are so few pictures of us from that year.

No kidding, what didn't get re-written?

Well, here are my 2 cents worth. The hornline was overflowing with rookies that year. I have always maintained that if we had marched a normal 64-70 person hornline ( 68 was the standard for cadets hornlines '83-'85) we would have fielded a pretty good hornline despite being so young. However, we had an additional 16 horns that were .....ummmm .......weaker than we would have liked. That coupled with a weak visual design, inexperienced staff members, and a really poor overall staff moral kept us from being more successful. In all honesty, I think the judges were far too kind, Suncoast Sound was a better drum corps that year.

Yet another way for WGI to charge more and more for less.

Boring no one wants to watch a greoup stand still for 3 minutes

Spartans

Didn't Sherry Bowman design the drill for the Ventures in their later years?

Marc definitely wrote our drill in '90

Yes, this second tour '86

Does anyone have any pictures of 1986, 1987, or 1990 Cadets?

1985 - New jackets and shorter sash 1986 - New pants and shakos (creme top - bad idea; they get soiled easily) & short awful plumes 1987 - No changes 1990 - There were some new jackets made in either '88 or '89 that were different from the '85 version in the piping; we wore a mix of both styles After that, I don't know .

Those clips were from one of the few days that the girls had to rehearse in the skirts. They had had a few bad performances and had been using the skirts as an excuse. Zingali responded by making them rehearse in the skirts. The guard was BITTER.

I will be going to Pasadena since it is the last time in many years that I will be able to enjoy travelling to DCI finals. After that we have nine years of Hell in Indiana.

Ummmm, you forgot to include The Four Corners which was by far my favorite.

I have never gone this long without someone telling me that I was an idiot. ........LOL ........is this an omen?

Find out from Michael Klesch about a piece called "A New Blessing" one of the most beautiful things played by the 1985-1987 Cadets

The corps of the future is based on total achievement. By that, I mean this. All members are proficient to some degree in brass, guard, and percussion allowing the staff full design freedom. Uniforms will disappear and be replaced by a black unitard with mutiple overlay, accessories, etc to meet the visual/thematic material.

I'm not sure where you are geographically, Hrothgar. But, since I have heard that you are still of marching age, this would be an ideal opportunity for you to experience the activity first hand. I know how much I gained by marching my 3 yrs and I would love for you to have that same experience. A great classic corps paired with a marching band you love ......think about it.

I have kept my mouth shut until now. I just wanted to see the full gamut of responses to what has happened. I will be the first to admit that I don't know what the outcome of this change will be, but I am remaining optimistic. The relationship between x-men and YEA has always been strained at best. Some wonderful drum corps have emerged from the relationship, absolutely and I cherish all of them. But, over the past 10 years I have had my concerns. Some of my concerns are very different from what I have seen here and I will admit, some of which are selfish. Though I love the Crossmen and have had several students march there, I have always harbored a bit of resentment that my Cadets alumni contributions were funding the Crossmen at the expense of the Cadets. Flame me if you will, but at least I am being honest and forthright. As a former east coaster that now lives in Texas, I am tremendously excited for the Crossmen. If you have ever been to the San Antonio regional and seen the amount of kids of marching age there, you would be also. There are so many kids in this state especially in south TX that would march somewhere if it was not so geographically and financially prohibitive ( of course, I never lived within a 9 hour drive of a division I corps when I was of eligible age and still marched 3 yrs). Yes, there is not a good track record of corps in TX and I won't pretend to know anything about that. I do know that the band community in TX has always fought drum corps and there are few band directors in the state with the clout to fix that. Mark Chambers is one of them from what my friends have told me. Therefore, I am hopeful and I wish others would be as well. Quit bashing Hoppy, I think he did best for the X-men and trust me, I don't say that lightly. Despite being a die-hard cadet, Hoppy has never been one of my favorite people.