Why such a tough year for the Midwest Corps ?

[DCIHasBeen]

I don't think there were any grand conspiracies in play here:

The Cavaliers - It was an unremarkable show performed remarkably well. The took the vehicle as far as they could. As for not being a "medalist", who cares ... While I appreciate the gesture of giving the corps multiple opportunities for success, as in the Olympic system, the truth is you win or you don't. After that it's the intangibles of what the season meant for you as a marching member, and the promise of next year.

Phantom Regiment - Easy. Bottom-of-the-barrel visual program.

Blue Stars - I thought they did great, and the show was a terrific follow-up to last year. They're still developing their staff, their corps, and their approach, so give it a few years.

Madison Scouts - They just didn't get it done this year. Period.

Colts - I really liked their show a lot, and would have loved to see them in finals. Not sure why they weren't, but if they were going to get knocked out by someone, then the Troopers were an admirable adversary to do so this year.

The Midwest had a lot of MOR product this year ... The East(and South) and West had very cutting edge stuff that was performed brilliantly.

[BRASSO]

I'm inclined to think that this year does not portend a trend of decline of the Midwest based Corps, but simply an isolated peculiar set of circumstances that befell some of these Corps this year.

Edited August 9, 2009 by BRASSO

[supersop]

2009 was not a year that overall was favorable to Corps from the Midwest. Anybody know why ? Is their recruiting base down in their locale ? Is this the start of a trend ? Or was 2009 just an isolated abberation and these Corps will rebound next year ? What do posters think ?

Lets examine 2009 for the Midwest Corps :

The Cavaliers...... 2009 is the first year in a decade ( since 1999 ) that they failed to medal.

I think this is a Jeff Fiedler issue. Jeff was a monster at driving the boys to a higher standard - exhibited in SCV this year. The boys did very well this summer but I felt they were missing that little extra kick in the butt to be perfect.

Phantom Regiment..... defending champion fell to 9th here in 2009. Nobody would have predicted this back in the Spring.

The rewrites to PR's shows the past 2 years I think are plenty of evidence that their visual program was questionable. It was a topic of conversation in 07, 08 and 09. Even with the rewrites they accomplished this year, they were not of the same level of quality found in the 07 and 08 productions. The colorguard really hurt GE and Visual in just about every way possible. The loss of staff in the guard caption and the sketchy drill writing took it's toll in 09. I look forward to some strong changes for the 2010 season.

Blue Stars.......... did reasonably well placement wise, but quite a few thought this Corps had huge momentum from last year that would catapult them up the standings this year.

The use of props were overbearing and underutilized. No other way for me to say it. It just wasn't visually effective up to the box. Stars are on a steady climb and I commend them for pushing up the ranks. I do hope their brass staff takes a better approach to attacks and interpretation of cadences in the music they present. I felt they had an issue early on with short note syndrome. It helps to clean but it isn't very musical.

Madison Scouts..... good grief. This Corps reminds one of the once pretty girl that has 6 cosmetic surgeries, and after that, the girl is no long pretty and she's unrecognizable.

Show concept was flat out the downfall of this years corps. The boys did the best they could with what they had ... but it was just a BAD IDEA to begin with.

Colts........... looked early on to be a lock for 12th back in early July, but then came up short to a Corps from the West and failed to make Finals.

They really need to get back to doing some kickbutt drill like they had in the late 90's. Time to get a new drill designer. They have an excellent guard, hornline and drumline ........ concepts are a bit on the light and happy side which is fine ... but they aren't moving nearly enough and what they did have written wasn't very simplistic.

You left out Blue Coats. They really executed very well. This uniform change is starting to haunt them (not the cloud shirts). It's just too dark and unreadable from up top. The cloud change actually helped readability. Also, the concept was a bit out there to begin with ... accentuated greatly when that dude opened his mouth for 13 minutes on the commentary. YIKES! If he was trying to sell that line every night in critique ... I would have held the corps back on my judging sheets as well. Lower the brow and bring back some '03 - '05 Blue Coats and they'll do far better. White pants and helmets PLEASE!!!!!

[DrumJunkie]

2009 was not a year that overall was favorable to Corps from the Midwest. Anybody know why ? Is their recruiting base down in their locale ? Is this the start of a trend ? Or was 2009 just an isolated abberation and these Corps will rebound next year ? What do posters think ?

Lets examine 2009 for the Midwest Corps :

The Cavaliers...... 2009 is the first year in a decade ( since 1999 ) that they failed to medal.

Phantom Regiment..... defending champion fell to 9th here in 2009. Nobody would have predicted this back in the Spring.

Blue Stars.......... did reasonably well placement wise, but quite a few thought this Corps had huge momentum from last year that would catapult them up the standings this year.

Madison Scouts..... good grief. This Corps reminds one of the once pretty girl that has 6 cosmetic surgeries, and after that, the girl is no long pretty and she's unrecognizable.

Colts........... looked early on to be a lock for 12th back in early July, but then came up short to a Corps from the West and failed to make Finals.

In Open Class Competition, that division was likewise dominated at the top by the West and the East Coast Corps.

So what gives ?

blue stars had a great season. I would have had them right where they are . there was just so many good shows in front of them it was just hard for me to see them higher than 8.

phantoms score to me was a little dissapointing. I had them in 7 just behind bluecoats. I think we were all a little spoiled last yr by spartacus. that was just a truly amazing arrangement they gave us and was extremely tough for anyone to have to follow up.

cadets...well its very hard to be dissapointed with any kind of medal although they had a truly amazing show for their 75th anniversary and I would have had them in my top two shows this yr along with crown being ahead of bd.

cavies. they were classic cavies but their show didn't move me like their shows of past. there a numerous corps that would have loved to finish where they did this yr. I know its been forever sonce they have been out of the top 3 but with groups like cadets re-emerging and crown coming up like they have their might be many more yrs to come where fourth or fifth is where they end up. crown has an amazing sound and this staff has been putting together some absolutely amazing and entertaining shows as of late, so who wouldn't want to march their right now. they certainly will be the next new dci champion.

overall I don't think it was necessarily a bad yr for the midwest but just an amazing overall yr for drum corps. bd"s 13th championship, holy name with an amazing 75th anniversary, crowns first medal in their 20 yr history, scv back in the top 5 I mean can we really ask for anything else as fans

[BRASSO]

I think this is a Jeff Fiedler issue. Jeff was a monster at driving the boys to a higher standard - exhibited in SCV this year. The boys did very well this summer but I felt they were missing that little extra kick in the butt to be perfect.

The rewrites to PR's shows the past 2 years I think are plenty of evidence that their visual program was questionable. It was a topic of conversation in 07, 08 and 09. Even with the rewrites they accomplished this year, they were not of the same level of quality found in the 07 and 08 productions. The colorguard really hurt GE and Visual in just about every way possible. The loss of staff in the guard caption and the sketchy drill writing took it's toll in 09. I look forward to some strong changes for the 2010 season.

The use of props were overbearing and underutilized. No other way for me to say it. It just wasn't visually effective up to the box. Stars are on a steady climb and I commend them for pushing up the ranks. I do hope their brass staff takes a better approach to attacks and interpretation of cadences in the music they present. I felt they had an issue early on with short note syndrome. It helps to clean but it isn't very musical.

Show concept was flat out the downfall of this years corps. The boys did the best they could with what they had ... but it was just a BAD IDEA to begin with.

They really need to get back to doing some kickbutt drill like they had in the late 90's. Time to get a new drill designer. They have an excellent guard, hornline and drumline ........ concepts are a bit on the light and happy side which is fine ... but they aren't moving nearly enough and what they did have written wasn't very simplistic.

You left out Blue Coats. They really executed very well. This uniform change is starting to haunt them (not the cloud shirts). It's just too dark and unreadable from up top. The cloud change actually helped readability. Also, the concept was a bit out there to begin with ... accentuated greatly when that dude opened his mouth for 13 minutes on the commentary. YIKES! If he was trying to sell that line every night in critique ... I would have held the corps back on my judging sheets as well. Lower the brow and bring back some '03 - '05 Blue Coats and they'll do far better. White pants and helmets PLEASE!!!!!

On the Bluecoats, I wasn't quite sure if they constitute an east or midwest Corps, but Canton, Ohio sure seems " midwest " upon further reflection. I wouldn't call this a down year for them by any means. The Corps in the middle are so strong these days, and they more than held their own. They scored in the 93-94 range, and that's signifys to me that as a midwest Corps and based upon reasonable placement expectations by non afiliated fans, ,they carried their weight from the Midwest it seems to me. ( loved their final musical number by the way )

Edited August 9, 2009 by BRASSO

[supersop]

On the Bluecoats, I wasn't quite sure if they constitute an east or midwest Corps, but Canton, Ohio sure seems " midwest " upon further reflection. I wouldn't call this a down year for them by any means. The Corps in the middle are so strong these days, and they more than held their own. They scored in the 93-94 range, and that's signifys to me that as a midwest Corps and based upon reasonable placement expectations by non afiliated fans, ,they carried their weight from the Midwest it seems to me. ( loved their final musical number by the way )

Agreed and Agreed .... but the points i mentioned for Coats is what I feel are keeping them out of that top 5 or top 3. They execute very very well. I think it's just a uniform issue and the new direction with show concepts. This corps should still be in the hunt and not slotted 6th or 7th all season. So true, that closer rocked out visually and musically.

[supersop]

blue stars had a great season. I would have had them right where they are . there was just so many good shows in front of them it was just hard for me to see them higher than 8.

phantoms score to me was a little dissapointing. I had them in 7 just behind bluecoats. I think we were all a little spoiled last yr by spartacus. that was just a truly amazing arrangement they gave us and was extremely tough for anyone to have to follow up.

cadets...well its very hard to be dissapointed with any kind of medal although they had a truly amazing show for their 75th anniversary and I would have had them in my top two shows this yr along with crown being ahead of bd.

cavies. they were classic cavies but their show didn't move me like their shows of past. there a numerous corps that would have loved to finish where they did this yr. I know its been forever sonce they have been out of the top 3 but with groups like cadets re-emerging and crown coming up like they have their might be many more yrs to come where fourth or fifth is where they end up. crown has an amazing sound and this staff has been putting together some absolutely amazing and entertaining shows as of late, so who wouldn't want to march their right now. they certainly will be the next new dci champion.

overall I don't think it was necessarily a bad yr for the midwest but just an amazing overall yr for drum corps. bd"s 13th championship, holy name with an amazing 75th anniversary, crowns first medal in their 20 yr history, scv back in the top 5 I mean can we really ask for anything else as fans

It's truly is hard to call it a bad year when 6 of the top 12 are Midwest Corps (that includes Troopers since they were always part of the Midwest since the Midwest Combine. That's 50% of finals. They held the 4,6,8,9,10 and 12 spots. Yes they were out of the medals .. but also consider that all were Box 5 performances (sans Glassmen and Troopers).

West took Gold, 5th and 11th spots with SCV being considered an Elite in 5th. East took Silver and Bronze and 7th. East VS. West seems to be an overall tie to me this year in terms of overall accomplishment. Midwest filled the voids and turned out 5 incredibly entertaining shows (yes I only said 5).