KeithHall Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 Had your corps not have folded, where do you think they would have gone? My corps, The Royal Coachmen, folded in May of 1977 (actually merged with The Frontiersmen). Had the corps stayed together....we would have started out with 26 horns, an almost full drum line and about 18 in the guard. I am sure that over the month on June we would have added more people to the corps and would have done pretty well. Our winter training regimen was pretty intense and I am sure that the corps would have been competitive in Class "A." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rb325th Posted February 20, 2009 Share Posted February 20, 2009 A lot of "what ifs" involved in that... Defenders What if we had not seen such a dramatic decline in membership? What if we had maintained the core of the marching members? What if the finances had not been so bad? I listen to, and look back at the years I marched and know that we definitely had the ability to go farther than we did. If we had not folded after the '82 season, and had we managed to rebuild the membership? I think maybe the '84 season would have been realistic to see marked improvement. We were barely treading water that fall/winter after the '82 Season, and honestly it was just painful to be at rehearsal. I had the chance to go march elsewhere that Winter and never took it, it just would not have been the same for me. The expectation of breaking into the top 12 was so high going into the '82 season. The talent was there, our drum line was awesome, our brass line was talented, our guard was excellent... Something was missing in there, and though we had some pretty knock out the crowd performances the missing piece(s) or pulling it all together at the same time never did happen for us. That is alright though, 26 years later and we have our Alumni Corp and are just having a great time of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHall Posted February 20, 2009 Author Share Posted February 20, 2009 I think in our case it was some parents got in the way and also the director at the time (who left) needed to work out his family stuff. Sadly, we should have continued with what we had and maybe had been more successful than we thought. I know what ifs but isn't it fun (or not) to try to think how things might have been? I always wondered, what if the Greece Cadets had taken 1977 and continued on from their DCI win in 1976. They did have a good year in 1979 (I think) but then everything went down hill. Same thing for Squires, Avant Garde and Gauchos. Maybe there's another thread out of this...hmmmm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LancerLegend Posted February 21, 2009 Share Posted February 21, 2009 A lot of "what ifs" involved in that... (Fill in the name of 99% of corps) What if we had not seen such a dramatic decline in membership? What if we had maintained the core of the marching members? What if the finances had not been so bad? Kudos to rb325th - well stated. Your questions apply to all of the MA corps - except of course for BAC. Regardless of the corps, I think two things work in parallel - the energy to sustain the corps goes hand in hand with the financial ability to maintain it. If there is money - it is more likely the corps will survive. Without money - it becomes a burden and drain on energy to find money. In MA, the Bingo laws changed for non-profits in the early 1980's - that hurt 27th. BAC has survived on will and generous alumni. They have had many changes to their management structure but their focus has never wavered. And they have adopted the big league philosophy (marketing, membership, corporate support) to ensure their survival. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
secarizona Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 Straight to the bottom! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pearlsnaredrummer77 Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 (edited) Royal Crusaders. 1980 the director folded the corps. 1981 (when I joined), we nearly made it out, went to mountain camp with under 20 brass, but a decent size battery. No money and low brass numbers sunk us in 81. I think we could have made it out and maybe-depending on how many veterans showed up, would have been in the top 25. In 82, we tried again, but this time the board was disinterested completely. They just wanted to pay off debt-we survived that summer as a parade corps and that was the end. If we had fielded it would have been a respectable Class A unit. In the long run, I think deindustrialization of the Pittsburgh region killed the Royal Crusaders as much as anything else. General Butler Vagabonds. Since Finleyville was done, I moved up North in 83. GBV had not fielded for reasons unknown in 82. Most of the vets went to bigger corps. 83-85 we fielded and were mid-pack Class A. But we had recruitment problems (alot related to hard economic times for W. PA-no more steel production). We couldn't get enough brass players locally in 86 and the corps became a parade unit. With a few more musicians, the corps probably could have fielded in 86, but alot of folks went to BAC. GBV then did not field again for a decade, when a much smaller, but more sophisticated corps emerged. I think our "what if" year was 84, when we had as many as 50 brass show up (and a full battery) for a couple of camps. But we kept losing people to having to work. Edited July 16, 2009 by pearlsnaredrummer77 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommytimp Posted July 15, 2009 Share Posted July 15, 2009 I play this game all the friggin' time. Had we made Finals in 83 like I feel we deserved to? Hard to say. Always hard to say. We would have had to improve our touring model as well as drag the equipment into the 20th century, that's for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrunchyTenor Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 (edited) I play this game all the friggin' time. Had we made Finals in 83 like I feel we deserved to? Hard to say. Always hard to say. We would have had to improve our touring model as well as drag the equipment into the 20th century, that's for sure. Had the corps made finals in 82, as all signs pointed before being unceremoniously dumped at DCI Midwest, the 83 Knights almost certainly would have been a repeat offender contender. Garry in Vegas Edited July 16, 2009 by CrunchyTenor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleu Raeder Posted July 16, 2009 Share Posted July 16, 2009 (edited) So many "what if's"... If the merger had been kept in place after 74. Regiment Militaire was very strong and recruiting from other locales in Louisiana and the Golf Coast was becoming more widespread. This would have kept a lot of folks from heading for other stronger corps' programs after 75. Edited July 16, 2009 by Bleu Raeder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kstein Posted July 17, 2009 Share Posted July 17, 2009 What if Fantasia III hadn't folded? Another tough little NJ corps which would have provided an excellent training ground for many more youngsters who could either stay and work in the Summer while still competing in a good drum corps or develop the chops and confidence to move on to top level corps. What if the Bridgemen hadn't folded? Many more years of limping along financially AND many more years of fan adoration. A true sense of fun and joy in the activity that is still sorely missed. What if Star of Indiana hadn't folded? Thousands more kids getting a first class drum corps experience and a few more championship trophies in Bloomington. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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