How Southwind came to be yellow and in Kentucky

[PSeidling]

I am never comfortable posting on this media, but I cautiously share this in hopes that perhaps folks will read this as it is intended: a little history for all us drum corps nuts and most importantly, a tribute to a great drum corps that I am certain will be back. I put a version of this on SW’s website a few years back. Slight edits aside, here it is again. (sorry in advance; it's a bit long).

How Southwind came to be yellow and in Kentucky

The following is how I saw it, being in the trenches and deeply part of it. Perhaps my perspective is different than others who were involved, but I suspect not too much different. Please take this as merely my story and neither scientific nor official history. Take it for what it is and hope it proves some level of enlightenment or at the very least, entertainment.

I was assigned the role of "director" of Southwind in fall, 1998. I held that role until October 2000. In 1998 I was working full-time in the Madison Scouts office as an independent contractor in a management capacity. My primary role was to assist Scott Stewart with the Madison Scouts, especially on touring related issues (I toured full time all summer as his assistant in 96, 97 and 98) and in the off season I assisted both Scott and Capital Sound director Keith Gee on all matters regarding operations of both Scouts and Capital Sound.

During that time Scott befriended Dave Bryan, who was Director of Southwind. Dave Bryan was part of the Alabama-based Southwind almost from its beginnings. Dave and Scott hit it off, and in late 1996 Dave asked Scott for some advice on staffing and programming. Thus, the 1997 SW show was written by Scott Boerma (brass) and Mike Loeffelholz (drill) and Scott Stewart advised Dave on program design and such, as well as helped hook up some staff. Once or twice while on tour in 1997 we even sent some Scouts staff over to teach at rehearsals. SW had dropped below 21st in 96, and Dave Bryan just wanted to secure a top 21 spot again. That season – 1997 - ended with SW getting 21st, and therefore keeping full DCI membership rights. Dave had already had it in his mind to shut down for 1998 and re-start again in 1999. At that time, having full DCI membership allowed a corps to take one year off without losing voting status, show access or suffer too much of a drop in payscale. Dave planned ahead well.

Sure enough, by fall 1997 Dave was ready to shut down SW for a season. Why? Seemed the local Bama support staff was stretched a bit thin, motivation was low, you name it. But Dave certainly didn’t want it to die completely.

So…at a fall 1997 DCI meeting, he asked Scott to "take it over". I wasn't at that meeting. Scott came into the office that next Monday morning and looked at Keith Gee and I (it was a small office!) and said "we're going to take over Southwind. Pat, you'll be director". Keith and I looked stunned and then said "OK". That was that.

Now…all three of us thought Dave meant "run the operation, staff, tour, etc" and that SW would pay Madison for the services rendered. We knew he had some cash in the bank. My first task was to create a plan as to who did what, how costs were shared and billed, the details, etc. About a month later Dave Bryan came up to Madison to meet…we thought it was to hammer out all the details (I had over 10 pages of details!). Dave came up with his longtime friend and SW booster Andy Barton. They drove in from Ohare and we met at Drum Corps World offices. I got out the papers, Scott started talking details and Dave said "No, you don't get it. I want you to TAKE Southwind". Just take it. I'll help, I'll stick around, but you take it all. Just make it like the Scouts!" Well…that was much simpler than we thought! We closed the books and headed off for BBQ. It was that simple folks.

The rest of my fall was basically ascertaining what SW had and what it needed, getting acquainted with SW folks and moving the corps. DCI granted our "1 year off" that Dave wisely prepared for. No sweat there. Now…the move north. We wanted to be closer to the Madison office, but not too far from Alabama. We also wanted to be in DCM territory to get access to more shows, but again, not too far north so that we could still keep the name SOUTHWIND. We researched various cities, looked at things like airport access, interstates, service by low cost airlines, you name it. Very scientific, very calculated. Didn’t turnout that way at all! Nashville, St Louis, Louisville, Evansville...all were looked at. All had good and bad points. Louisville was settled on. I then called some schools to hook up camp locations. No Louisville area schools could fit us in. Meanwhile over at Winchester, Ky, Madison alumni Ivan Burke's family was trying to get us in there. The band director at the time was bitterly against it. Ironic, as that is where the corps has recently held camps! Anyway, one very friendly band director told me that over in Lexington a Scout alumni named Shaun Owens had a middle school program, and maybe he could get us in. Cool! I marched with Shaun way back when, hadn’t heard from him in years. Lexington wasn't quite on our plans, but looked good enough. Plus, it didn't matter, we needed a school soon! I called Shaun. Asked if we could have camps at his school. He said yes. I hung up the phone, looked at Scott and said "We're from Lexington". It was that simple my friends!

I then made a trip or two to Alabama to look over equipment, get to know Dave and others better. We borrowed the Blue Stars semi and dragged the equipment truck up to Madison to be remodeled. Sold off 4 old Eagle buses. Gave away or sold old drums, guard equipment, food bus stuff, you name it. See…Dave had saved rather wisely all those years. In Montgomery was a sizable savings account with cash in it. That money, coupled with funds raised from the sale of "old stuff" amounted to over $200,000. That money is what paid for the new buses, uniforms and other capital investments. The capital re-outfitting of the 1999 Southwind was paid for by SOUTHWIND. The operation's expenses and cash flow needs for things like staff pay, flights, phone bills, recruiting, camp costs, food, etc was paid for by the Madison Scouts.

We kept the 501c3 charter in Montgomery open since a small bingo game was running and gave us about $10,000 per year. Drum Corps In Montgomery was the legal name for the organization. That stayed open, at least through fall 2000 as far as I knew. I cant speak for it’s status since then. And that isn’t the point of this story anyway.

Due to MDBCA (Madison Drum Corp’s legal entity) Board meeting schedules, the SW decision really didn't get Board "blessing" until we were a good ways down the path. I am not so sure that was a good idea now, but at the time, I didn't think much about it. I wasn't on the Board, Scott was my boss and I take on challenges full-steam ahead. The Board seemed concerned and enthusiastic at the same time. The fact that SW brought so much cash to the table, and we – at that time – really did have a surplus of staff and mgt types, it seemed to me they let it move on. Hey, the momentum was rolling, how could they stop it anyway?

Scott defined the SW mission as creating a top-12 caliber corps in an area that historically hasn’t had one (meaning the mid-south area of Ky-Tn). Top 12 caliber did not mean "make top 12", but that it would be run with the same qualities as well run top 12 corps. Equipment, staff, organization all had to be top 12 quality. I like to think we delivered. By the way, the brass instruments were mixed bag of SW horns, CapSound horns that they weren't using and a new set of contras. Drums were Madison hand-me-downs and a few new pit instruments were given by Yamaha. Guard staff was either new or a mix of SW/Scouts gear.

I bought one bus at ABC Bus Sales Company in Minnesota, and two from a small bus company in Madison. Found the staff RV in Nashville. We bought the food truck and trailer brand new in Madison. Equipment truck was inherited from the Bama SW, we changed the stripe from red to black. Andy Barton secured and provided the souvie trailer and van and found the new member jacket style. Steve Vickers (Drum Corps World publisher) came up with the logo based on SW alumni Chad Faison's design (Chad picked the font). I decided to keep the bus and truck design simple and clean…mainly to save money, plus I thought it looked cool.

The uniform story: The red uniform that SW wore was distinct and recognizable, but they were very old and worn. NOT wash and wear either! We needed something new. Keith Gee (then CapSound director) had a picture from DCI finals 1992 in which every corps that had ever made finals was represented in its original uniform. He looked at that picture and said "no one wears yellow anymore. Southwind should." Scott agreed. I didn’t care, as long as it was a bad-### shade of yellow, not some cheesy yellow. Keith then was looking at a CD cover that had a cartoon caricature of John Philip Sousa, and it depicted Sousa in a uniform with elaborate chest-braids and cords. Keith said "that would look cool.". SW alums Chad Faison and Jamie King drew up rough sketches based in Keith's input and we picked out one we liked. Scout staff guy Greg Guffey offered his sister's artistic input, as she was a design major. She drew up a professional looking "final" sketch and we instantly liked it. Kept the same SW shako, and there it was. Unique, classy, distinct. A small company in northern Kentucky made it (same company that at the time had made Madison's uniforms) and we were in business. The old Bama SW folks were a little skeptical (yellow??!!), but when the model was shown, most signed on as fans.

I then recruited through out the summer of 1998. Set up a little table at shows while I still helped Scott as his tour assistant. In the fall I visited a LOT of college campuses and a few select high school band shows (we wanted to start with older kids, I avoided most HS band shows). George Boulden at UK and Terry Jolly at MTSU were especially welcoming. Shaun Owen's brother Brett got me hooked up with a lot of local Lexington support. I recall one day we were on a radio talk show, on evening news, in the UK student paper AND the Lexington daily...all on the same day! Thanks to Brett's efforts I was welcomed in the Mayor's office and at most band rooms. We really promoted the tie to the Scouts, thus many folks knew that we were serious, had solid plans and smart people behind it. Scott choose the staff and picked the tunes and I prepared for auditions.

December 12, 1998. Auditions. Tates Creek elementary classroom and middle school cafeteria and gym. Very nervous. Had no idea what to expect. Many, many Scouts staff, boosters, and Board came down to lend a hand and moral support. I remember reading about Star of Indiana's first camp, and they had 230 attend. I hoped for half that. It was pretty cold, slight frost and very light dusting of snow, but sunny. I was nervous as hell. Then they started coming...and by 2 pm we had

210 young adults show up!

It was a blast of a weekend. Low brass was a little thin, guard was solid, tons of drummers. We had a full corps by the end of the weekend and off we ran! The remaining winter camps were a blast, and NEVER did we have less than 60 horns at anytime but once…and then 54 showed up! Only 8 veterans from the old SW came back, and about 14 others had experience in other corps, (10 from Pioneer and even 1 kid from BAC and another from Magic). Winter was good. I found a nice school in Frankfurt, Ky (Western Hills) and move-in camp soon appeared. Dress rehearsal was SO cool! The members were great. All sections were solid.

We hit tour in June of 1999: first show: Butler, Pa. 128 "rookies", less than 30 had ever been in a corps before…that day we got the full drum corps effect: cold showers, long walk to stadium, hot dogs for lunch! We were on early, no bright lights for us! And we really kind of stunk. Got a score far lower than we expected. But it was still cool. The rest of the summer was great….scores rose rapidly, fans really dug us, took a 1 week mid-summer break and every kid came back for 2nd tour! We stayed ahead of a small but good Pioneer, got into a "back and forth" game with Spirit. By DCI week, we pulled ahead of them and landed in 15th place. Highest ever for SW, the highest ranking for any come-back corps (at that time) and the 2nd highest debut of a "new" corps. After quarter-finals, I stood back as Dave Bryan attended the pre-semi-finals managers meeting by himself. A proud moment to let him walk in and attest that "his corps" was back, and in a big way.

But better than our competitive results, we had created a bond. I've had many emotional "last shows" over 3 ½ decades of drum corps, but that was the most bitter-sweet I had experienced.

We only aged out 12 members. That next fall 80 vets came back! Folks, that's HUGE! That next winter ran as good as the first, and with almost the entire staff back, we just kept rolling on from 1999. 2000 was going to be special, we could tell from the start. The horn line…man, that was turning out to be something else! Guard was vastly improved, drums were rocking. Friendships were tight, the "bond" was there. We toured all summer in 2000, and competitively snuck into a new level. Probably most special was how popular we became with the fans! "Legends" became the surprise hit! By the way, that tune was presented to us by Matt Gregg (long-time Scout guy), who liked the melody from the movie soundtrack and did a personal arrangement while a grad student at UW. We chased Bluecoats and Crown all season, stayed comfortably ahead of everyone else below. Corps way above us started to pull for us to make finals, Cadets even reported our scores on their food truck marker board!

That year, maybe even more than 1999, the corps "vibe" was so special. I have never before, or since, been with a group that was so singularly on the same wave length. We were very simply just having a ball being a drum corps. It may sound like baloney, but competition aside, I think we just liked being a drum corps for the sake of being a drum corps. It was a very cool summer…in many ways, 1999 and 2000 seemed like one continuous experience – the start of the new Southwind was really a 30 month process!

Finals week came, all was great. Two super shows in a row. But alas, it was not to be. Crown really got strong, and Bluecoats' experience at that level pulled them through. We were dubbed 13th place by a mere 2 tenths. But you know, when the score was announced, no tears flowed from anyone. It was all good. I think I felt the worst, like maybe I let the corps down somehow. But everyone made sure I knew it didn’t matter to them. It was cool. We were proud to say that EVERY subcaption score ranked in the top 12…every one. It was simple math and spreads that kept us out. As high as 10th in a few captions. So…the challenge of 1998 to "make it top 12 caliber" was certainly met, statistically at least. And Dave Bryan's challenge to "make it like Madison" was met too, at least based on the member experience and fan reaction night after night.

That fall things got tough in Madison. Scott Stewart and his Board were at odds as early as late July. I got myself stuck in the middle in many ways. Keith Gee was looking for a life change and left the organization. I had personal financial concerns and was looking for a better paying job, and Scott and I differed on how deeply SW should tie into Lexington. Unfortunately Dave Bryan and I fell into quite a dis-connect and couldn’t communicate anymore. Sides were drawn, things got personal and it seemed best that I retire from drum corps, so I moved to Nashville and began selling rock and roll style tour buses. I guess I eventually ended up back for another round of drum corps, but that’s another story, and would bore you anyway….

The Southwind of Alabama I hardly knew. But from what I learned of that corps while sifting through it’s history, and meeting folks like Dave Bryan, Dorris Dobbins, Rennie Mills and others…it was a cool place. Just folks having fun at doing drum corps. Successful in Division II, hung in there in Division I, but regardless, a gang with a unique brand of class and dignity. The Southwind of Lexington I once knew well. I loved those kids as my own. Though I left of my own accord, the atmosphere of the departure felt like a divorce, and I lost custody of the kids. I am not bitter, I realize now I was merely a visitor there, and am glad for the time I had. I still watched SW from a distance with affection. The few SW'ers that have ended up with me

in my new drum corps life definitely hold a special place in my heart. Each finals night since 2000 I attend the age-out ceremony and make a special point to watch the SW vets from those days age out. It’s selfish, I know, but it makes me happy to see them all grown up.

I can’t speak for the corps since fall of 2000. I know very little about the whats-and-whys, and didn’t really care. I am just a fan, never wanted to be critical or stick my nose in, just wanted to sit back and watch and get to lean over and tell people “I worked there once”. Madison staffer Tony Rother took the reigns for a year or two until Madison divested the corps and Southwind was on its own. Mike Loefelholz has been director from then on. I know Mike well, he is a good, good man. Folks like Adrian and Barb Loefelholz, Steve Vento and the crew from Oklahoma, the Fitz-gibbons, and so many others have all done a great job keeping the spirit of that corps intact while creating some cutting-edge shows. This will be the 3rd time the corps has taken time off. Both times prior it came back better and stronger than before.

I would be willing to bet that’s going to happen again.

Go S-Dub, red or yellow.

Patrick Seidling

Southwind 1998-2000

[Blueemrld8]

. This will be the 3rd time the corps has taken time off. Both times prior it came back better and stronger than before.

I LOVE patterns, don't u?

[Tristan]

Pat--

As a southwind alum, thanks so much for this :-)

[spiritdm06]

That's a good bit of history that most people probably don't know about......really cool though.

[drumcat]

5-Star. Thanks Pat.

[eiramnosila]

Pat, thank you for this. It brought tears to my eyes. Southwind seems to get under the skin of everyone that comes in contact with it, and just never really seems to let go.

[usmpiano]

Thanks for sharing this Pat.

[corpsvalues]

Best of luck to you, Southwind!

I hope that the painful announcement of today will pave the way for long term success!

[Toby]

Thanks for that, Pat. :)

[07-Socks]

The red of the Southwind days of old, is still immortalized by the Baritones.

The section shorts are red.

In case anyone cares...