The history of the Westshoremen

[BigW]

Check the time stamp- late night at work, recent posts by certain people on a couple of subjects on DCP have given me more clues to the 1981 DCA season and just what happened. Needless to say, it ain't a pretty picture. I'll elaborate when I have the time and the clear head to carefully craft my thoughts on it all....

[Jeff Ream]

give me something to read when i get back from the beach

[BigW]

Quick recap:

1981 proved frustrating-- the season before, we were able to get a couple of conntest wins, and it seemed as if we just couldn't get any traction against anyone. Scores were fluctuating wildly. We got rid of "Music", which also got a lot of us angry. To make things worse, even though we'd made changes, scores didn't move. I thnik that's what frankly honked ys off the most- serious program changes were amde and they were worthless- We did have a chance to win a show in Oil City against the Hurcs-- and lost by .45 to them, and as Ben said, Truman told us it was a toss-up between the two corps.

We'd figured to at least move on the Hurcs. That wasn't gonna happen.

And let me tell you-- if I step on toes, I frankly don't give a hoot from this point on. Reading some of the commentary on other threads- the Hurcs like to bust balls (they used the term...) and are proud of it, I'll bust back- politely- but I think I've been able to piece together what happened.

August 16, 1981. Bloomfield, NJ.

1 Reading Buccaneers 86.200

2 Skyliners 84.000

3 Sunrisers 83.150

4 Hawthorne Caballeros 82.500

5 Connecticut Hurricanes 81.000

6 Westshoremen 79.950

Take a look. Bucs beat Hurcs by 5.2 points.

The Bucs had won every contest that season except for the Grand Prix where they dropped a show by .15 to Sky, who was well known to turn on and perform WAY above their heads at the Grand Prix-- sometimes, it might well have been their best show of the year.

They'd been winning shows by 4-5 points all season with a couple of exceotions- beating Hurcs by 1.5 at the Dream.

Recent posts by Hurcs who would know indicate that the DCA hierarchy at that time started rumbling that "entertainment" play more weight in scoring.

In short- the kvetching and crowd reactions, I believe led to the conclusion Reading couldn't be allowed to win for a third straight season, and that the panels were carefully set up to ensure something would happen over championship weekend. I believe the right people on the right captions after looking at the recaps from the shows Reading didn't win by large margins were chosen. Those who the rest of the madding crowd protested or weren't toeing the line enough with the mandate were kept out of finals panels.

Hence, the ugly weekend in Philly.

The term "Slotting" that gets bandied about here on DCP somes to mind. We'd been slotted at 6th some time ago, we were at the bottom of the top. There was a huge gap between us and 7th down regardless of our show or program, and we'd not been able to mount any competition against anoyne ahead of us except the Hurcs, and only then at certain contests.

I do know there was a timing issue in prelims where we were concerned. The gun went off WAY late-- we ALL were upset the second we broke ranks when we got off the field. The gun had gone off all season pretty much at the same place, we knew when that was- and it was WAAAAY late. And I know we didn't play THAT up-tempo or force the show. it was a pretty typical run for the corps.

I do know when Larry played the one Tape and timed it, the number being bandied about was that the gun went off about 17 seconds late. He protested, we were livid, the response was that the tape speed differences disallowed the protest, we were P#&*$ed.

It also caused a lot of shock when Reading ended up third. Finals took on an aspect of surreal black comedy after that.

We went on, did I think a very focused and angry run at Finals, my cape got caught on my ankles when we knelt down in Spanish Dreams, the elastic in the cape stretched and nearly pulled me back flat on my A#&*$^ and I nearly went down. In reaction, I stumbled to attention and said "Sunnuva@(^%^!!!!!!", which caused baldy and a couple of people in the corps to gasp, luckily that never got on the recording, LOL...

So much for our run. I went into the stands to see for myself what was going down, and I watched the top three closely.

Reading did a typical consistent run, high quality, fine performance.

The one that frankly shocked me was Sun. I can tell you that I've seen VERY few performances that have been as outright hungry and possessed as their 1981 finals run. Screech played like a frikkin' banshee, the corps was lit up from start to finish, and they didn't leave anything behind on the field. Them beating Reading-- I can buy into that. It was entirely feasable and believeable to me. All I know was that last set when they spelled out SUN and just blew white plasma to the end of the show is STILL in my head.

As for the Hurcs-- I will give the guard props-- and I will give Pepe props on his solo, though I thought the whole George Parks thing with the toy mace was a bit.... crass. Pepe played like the skilled, intense, musical, and professional old-schooler he was when he took his ride. But back in that era, the scoring for guard was miniscule, and one man, no matter how good he was- and he was-- doesn't cover an overall appraisal of 45+ member horn lines.

Hawthorne had a lovely Jim Ott book and a wonderful soloist that year. I'll get back to that.

Anyhow, as we all know, the Hurcs did win. No one can take that away from them. My upset sister told me how some of the Hurcs flaunted the medals in a rather unsporting way in retreat, that didn't amuse me that they upset her.

But--- and I know I am not the only person to think this---- If Reading didn't or perhaps *could* not win that evening, It certainly was the Sunrisers, hands down.

All I know is combined with me nearly falling on my arse and dealing with the Medusa and all that entailed, who I broke up with a day later, LOL... the 1981 DCA season was a real dark season for myself, I think for Westshore, and just about everyone else in DCA but the Hurcs.

And anyone from the Hoppyville world who reads this-- nah, I'm not bitter. The Hurcs won it, they rubbed it in everyone's faces, and I'm more simply dissatisfied and indignant about what happened and why. Yes, the Westshoremen should have been 6th-- or 5th.... I think that the tampering that I believe went on behind the scenes played a large part in my future-It gave me a desire to try and fight for honesty in the activity- and to think about getting into adjudication, and when I did- I was gonna be like Truman- honest and very fair, no matter who the heck you were, whether you hate my guts or not. I've done that for 25 years, and I can look in the mirror at my ugly but honest mug when I get up.

When I have read some of the recent threads about Reading, where I did read a post by someone who would know these things that leads me to believe that things were carefully set up in 1981 to heavily stack the deck against the Bucs, I read people on DCP are practically screaming to do so again against them this season. Look, I competed agaist the Bucs- but for Lord's sake, they set the standard of excellence. We know this implicitly and understood we had to get where they were in terms of quality to have half a chance to get to the top. I'm not a homer by any freakin' means, but I am a person who wants to seem them treated fairly- if they are indeed the best, then so be it!!!!!! Deal with it, people! Work harder with your own corps to develop a program capable of a real fight against them! MBI came close last year-- it CAN be done without trying to politically manipulate the scene!

I'm just flat out disgusted that people are trying to, in so many words, change and influence things to make sure Reading doesn't win a 5th championship in a row and that their faves will get it, hook or by crook. Yeah! get a crowd stacked against Reading and stacked for everyone else and hook up an a applause meter to help score the corps! Moronic! Infantile! Idiotic! That kind of grasping at straws to try and stop what now is arguably the greatest Senior Corps of all time based on their record over the last 4 seasons and into this fifth disgusts me. Let them decide on the field, please. And let it happen without manipulating things like a pro wrestling event.

How's about standing back and seeing if someone can ACTUALLY perform at their level and BEAT them using the system that's in place that was voted on by the DCA Member corps and using the Judges the DCA corps voted to use, Huh? And how's about making sure the panels are as neutral as possible like things have been instead of trying to stack a panel with people who you know will lean x or y for or against a specific corps?????

And one more thing-- given the vacillation and lack of stable judging- we should have just stuck to our guns and sang anyway. We were 6th regardless of what we did in any direction. At least we wuold have maintained our artistic integrity instead of trying to pander to people who were obviously incapable of making up their own minds about what they really wanted in DCA.

Anyhow-- yeah, 1981 was a dark year. I went back to college hoping things would be better for the corps next year, and I do believe Larry told us to look forward to 1982- that we were gonna overcome the setback.

And... to say we overcame 1981 was an understatement.....

[buzzgok]

Big W, I agree with the Reading deal. Sun took the show in 81, but who are we to argue with the powers that be? As for this year, I sincerely hope and I really would like to think that if Reading does get beat, that it would be by a better program, not because the deck is stacked against them. I feel that would blow the integrity label right off of DCA.

[BigW]

Big W, I agree with the Reading deal. Sun took the show in 81, but who are we to argue with the powers that be? As for this year, I sincerely hope and I really would like to think that if Reading does get beat, that it would be by a better program, not because the deck is stacked against them. I feel that would blow the integrity label right off of DCA.

EXACTLY!

'81 hurt Senior corps more than I think people realize. Reading took a hard blow as a result for a couple of seasons after that, luckily-- they recovered, and got more than a few of us on board after we dove in like a Jart into someone's back yard after '83.

I think that eventually, when the 'powers that be' saw change was coming in spades, it was inevitable, and that nothing was gonna stop it, and unless all they wanted was Sky and the Cabs as the only 2 corps left in DCA after everyone hung it up in frustration because they felt things were being set up to accomodate those two corps in particular... well, things changed for the better. It's something I'll get back to. We were, IMHO, part of a bigger trend that spanned a period from about 1973ish (Yankee-Rebels), to 1977ish, (Sun) from 77 to 81, to 1982 and 3, (Us), which finally culminated in Bush breaking down the huge barriers in place in the late '80's, with Steel City in there as an "almost", much like Westshore.... Sun is in the gray area in that line of thought- they were relatively innovative, but also were very careful about their level of innovations so they didn't offend old school sensibilities, either. It's almost like they bridged the gap and maintained a very fine balancing act, much to their credit and also to their deserved success in that period. They're a lot like the McLaren team in Can-Am racing in the late 60's/Early '70's, who were similar in their conservative use of innovation to ensure their successes.

I'm also not saying that the judges were actually doing anything different per se or acting dishonestly by any means- they don't have to at all, and that's the really insidious isue at hand here-- it's just that if you very carefully and deliberately pick the right combination of judges and allow them to act honestly as themselves and judge the show as they have been judging all season, you can certainly manipulate outcomes in an egregious way. It's an ugly secret-- a very ugly one at that that no one likes to realy talk about.

A good example of how to properly pick panels for finals weekend was '08 DCI, and proabably the panels where they had ties at DCI Championships, even thought people went nuts about the ties, and I can understand why.

The individual judges tied no one in their individual captions- but they chose panels that would be even-handed overall, knowing the corps involved were very close. ONE change on those panels would likely have resulted in no tie, and it's also likely that who would be picked instead would have knowingly decided the outcome one way or another before the corps hit the field. Change Judge W and put X in there, yes... the tie wold have been broken, but it would have ensured corps Y won over Z before the show happened. Is that fair, either? Also, some of the early 90's DCA scoring structure was designed to close spreads in execution and open them out in Effect. Not a bad idea by any means, but again-- how to you take the .8 alloted in Field Brass for example in the top box and try and put 12 corps that belong in that .8 sized box and not tie anyone? Unless you put corps in the lower box whose performance was above that box... see where I'm going here? I think the current DCA scoring structure appears to give judges enough room to avoid those kinds of issues, thankfully. I know Tom P. has alluded to this in other posts, and knowing who helped create the sheets, It's a positive.

Anyhow- some real food for thought, huh?

Scott, you and Jeff know very well who taught me this little wise nugget of info. It's because of him and also Rook in large part that I lean over and listen carefully and respectfully to percussion judges. They hear and know more than most folks give them credit for. The more I deal with you guys, the more I'm thinking you drummers all like having the rep of being thick and then enjoy suprising the heck out of people, LOL!

Edited July 5, 2010 by BigW

[Fran Haring]

I know this is the Westshoremen's thread... but thank you for your kind words about the Sunrisers' 1981 Finals performance. That was absolutely our best performance of that season...and our best since DCA Prelims in 1979.

We had lost to the Hurcs at least a couple of times that season.... so them beating us was no complete shock by any means, even though, that night, I thought we had won, based on our performance. I didn't see anyone else that night. And the Hurcs took the title, so good for them.

And I gotta be honest..... I had seen the Bucs a few times in August and thought they had gone flat. And for probably the only time since I've been watching/competing against the Buccaneers, I sensed a degree of overconfidence in them as that 1981 season wore on. So I think they were ripe for the taking.... and I thought so back then, too.

Talk about gripes with judging that Labor Day weekend..... at Prelims, the Skyliners were on a couple of corps or so before we performed... so my brother and I went in to watch them from the sidelines. Sky absolutely tore Franklin Field apart that afternoon....one of the best shows I've ever seen from them.... and they came in fourth.

Edited July 5, 2010 by Fran Haring

[Fran Haring]

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Edited July 6, 2010 by Fran Haring

[TennTux]

The one that frankly shocked me was Sun. I can tell you that I've seen VERY few performances that have been as outright hungry and possessed as their 1981 finals run. Screech played like a frikkin' banshee, the corps was lit up from start to finish, and they didn't leave anything behind on the field. Them beating Reading-- I can buy into that. It was entirely feasable and believeable to me. All I know was that last set when they spelled out SUN and just blew white plasma to the end of the show is STILL in my head.

BigW, As Fran posted, I know this is the History of the Westshoremen thread.... just wanted to let you know I appreciate your comments on our (Sun) 81 DCA finals performance...

[Jeff Ream]

As a fan, I too thought Bucs peaked... Around Carlisle. I wasn't sure who won at finals...Sun was good, and Hurcs captured magic in a bottle.

And Shore... Well, the show didn't flow.

W, great observation about drummers, but you forgot one thing: we aren't afraid of having spreads, even if it calls the show.

Example: 1996

[BigW]

BigW, As Fran posted, I know this is the History of the Westshoremen thread.... just wanted to let you know I appreciate your comments on our (Sun) 81 DCA finals performance...

Hey- we knew who was ahead, and that we needed to get better. Reading and Sun both set the bar for us. And yeah, It blew my mind then, and still does. You guys were utterly inspired- there aren't many performances that ever come off that way.