Why Academy, Colts, etc can't win next year

[MissionImpossible Scout]

A corps can have a meteroic rise but it doesnt happen often

Scouts went from missing finals in 2002 to making 4th place at San Antonio in 2005

plus they won in'88 after getting 6 and 7 in 87 and 86 respectively

Im sure there are plenty of other corps

it can happen

[jamesjones0611]

With the right kind of backing any corp could put together a staff and corp that would win a championship. I believe you would need to maintain that staff for 5-6 years before you win a Championship!

After Star, Crown is the only one to rise to the challenge but only time will tell if they can maintain the staff and design to get there. It's tough keeping a team together without the financial backing.

Are you implying that Crown is in a rough spot financially?

[Jeff Ream]

With the right kind of backing any corp could put together a staff and corp that would win a championship. I believe you would need to maintain that staff for 5-6 years before you win a Championship!

After Star, Crown is the only one to rise to the challenge but only time will tell if they can maintain the staff and design to get there. It's tough keeping a team together without the financial backing.

I see Blue Stars as the next Crown. Since leaving D3, they keep crawling up, slowly but surely, and getting some serious names on their team.

[azul]

Any corps that pushes themselves hard enough can overcome any obsticles and make it into the so called "elite" by placement. Let's take a look at two of the newer faces in the top 7 from the most recent of years and see what happened no more than 10 (almost 11 years from now).

2002-Some one mentioned scouts did not make finals only to come out 3 years later in the top six.

Same year Crown doesn't make finals and got beat by the Cascades and look at where both corps are at now. Crown was just 1.? away from the top and Cascades were all the way at the bottom.

1999-A decade ago the Bluecoats got edged out of finals by the Colts. 8 years later and the Bluecoats have successfully taken out every corps in the division at least once and drop all the way down to 7th. It even says in the 2007 DVD that the Bluecoats were the only none medalist to have done that in that season. If I had told you in 1999 that the Bluecoats would beat the Blue Devils and Cavaliers in the same night, you would've called me crazy.

Does this detere from the existance of slotting, no but it proves that any corps that is hungry enough to compete against those corps with titles under their belts can do so. It just takes time. Who knows, we could see Pacific Crest or Academy beating up the Blue Knights and Boston pretty soon (Not bashing BC or BK, just pointing out what we can expect from these corps).

[BRASSO]

This brings up an interesting thought. There seems to be a bit of debate as to why people march. Some (include me in this camp) believe that it is the desire to compete that drives people to march. There are obviously other reasons that go hand in hand with that, but I happen to believe that people who are willing to put themselves through the drum corps experience are, by and large, extremely compettitive by nature.

There are others who think that people are driven to march just for the joy of it. The experience of performing, the friendships, the lifestyle etc...

Let me pose this question then. If judging were completely removed from the activity, no scores given, no winner at the end of the night or season, performance for the sake of performance and applause, would people continue to march in the numbers that DCI currently sees? I don't have the answer, but my gut tells me participation would take a HUGE hit if this were the case.

If Corps did only exhibitions, and not competition, not only would the number of marchers decline, but the product would soon deteriorate in quality. One of the truisms in life and society is whenever we try to eliminate competition, lthe substandard takes place. Acceptance of mediocrity ensues. Innovation, creativity, excellence, etc inevitably fails to take hold. What drives innovation, creativity, excellence, is competition.

Exhibitions will attract the weak and the mediocre. And mediocrity will soon become both the pursuit and the norm... and ultimately...... the result.

Competition will attract the strivers for excellence. And excellence will be the pursuit as well as the result.. Exhibitions will not improve the product long term. Only Competition will. Winners always prefer competition. Losers always prefer something a little less competitive.

Edited December 15, 2009 by BRASSO

[BillH]

Truth - people go from crown to cadets and vice versa, from cadets to bd, phantom to cadets, cavies to bd....and so on, for ALLLLL kinds of reasons... And i agree, thats fine.

Very true. Although the one I NEVER hear about is folks going from BD to anywhere else. I am sure it must happen, but they must get things awfully right to keep it as minimal as it seems to be. My guess is that it goes to that reason #4 in your list, they want to be AMAZING and BD provides a consistently great opportunity to do that.

[euponitone]

Very true. Although the one I NEVER hear about is folks going from BD to anywhere else. I am sure it must happen, but they must get things awfully right to keep it as minimal as it seems to be. My guess is that it goes to that reason #4 in your list, they want to be AMAZING and BD provides a consistently great opportunity to do that.

It does provide that, although to be perfectly honest, the reputation now is that they have it a little easier, which is probably true. Even coming from certain staff members that worked there for decades (you can guess the one)...they have said its just more laid back. All things being equal (which they're not), if you have a year left and your body is beat up from marching wherever and you just want to have a great experience without too much pain, BD seems like the place to go.

[Pinwiz]

If a corps wants to make a move up, they need to do two things:

1. Commit to moving up the ladder

2. Make policy/design choices to help facilitate this movement

One thing I see is a lot of corps in the lower tiers playing it safe when it comes to show design. They write to the level of the performers, and that's not how you grow the corps. You write 1-3 levels above the performers and push them. If it works, the corps jumps up in placement. If it fails, the marchers improve significantly faster than if they did an easier show and they'll be stronger the next year.

Edited December 15, 2009 by Pinwiz

[jamesjones0611]

It does provide that, although to be perfectly honest, the reputation now is that they have it a little easier, which is probably true. Even coming from certain staff members that worked there for decades (you can guess the one)...they have said its just more laid back. All things being equal (which they're not), if you have a year left and your body is beat up from marching wherever and you just want to have a great experience without too much pain, BD seems like the place to go.

This.

Although recently it seems the mentality there isn't quite one of ever really working hard, they're doing something right in terms of visual cleanliness. I think this may be why their brass performance (IMHO) hasn't been quite good these past few years, with lots of stickouts and intonation issues. Not quite comparable to the untouchable 03 and 04 lines.

[euponitone]

This.

Although recently it seems the mentality there isn't quite one of ever really working hard, they're doing something right in terms of visual cleanliness. I think this may be why their brass performance (IMHO) hasn't been quite good these past few years, with lots of stickouts and intonation issues. Not quite comparable to the untouchable 03 and 04 lines.

Im not even going touch the 'working hard' mentality, because im sure people will get defensive about that, but they are one of the corps that absolutely has the "work smart, not hard" mentality. I guess when you have the best talent in the world, you can do that