Callawyn Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 I will say it was very, very hard to be a Trooper at that point. There were some pretty angry people around who said things like "the Troopers killed 2-7." Yes, someone did say that to my face. It was not fun. I had no idea what to say. I didn't know what had happened other than we got tapped for finals and then 2-7 announced they had folded. I was sad, too. I loved that corps and still miss them. I'm so glad someone else in the thread (Brasso) gave some context to the history of that event. I marched 27th in 85/86, and both years I was shocked to hear we hadn't made finals. '85 we knew it would be close, '86 we had a much better show, performed well, and had been beating everyone we needed to. 10th or 11th was expected. To this day I know people who curse the Troopers over this. Never made any sense to me, why blame the Troopers? Whenever I hear this nonsense I make a point of defending you guys. The Troopers did exactly what they were supposed to do: worked their butts off and did the best show they could. Did the judges screw up? Maybe. Back then, the judging was far more inconsistant than it is today. In '86 we were .5 behind Garfield one night and 4.5 behind the next, due almost entirely to different judging panels. Did the judges intentionally screw 27th knowing we were likely to fold? I've never bought into these type of conspiracy theories. If you don't want a corps to beat you, be so much better than them that its impossible for the judges to give you a lower score. 27th simply didn't have the income necessary to survive in an era of full summer tours. In '85 we went on tour with 1 drill instructor, and it wasn't the guy who wrote the show. Same in '86, though we did have Marc Sylvester and George Zingali spend some time with us when they could (they wrote the show, but 27th couldn't afford them on staff full time, they were with Star, I believe, and helped with 27th part time). Other sections were also very short on staff, and we were often very short on sleep due to bus break downs. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommytimp Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 Anybody who would blame another corps (the kids, anyway) is lame. I will believe until my dying day we should have finished 9th or 8th in 1983 and had we done that, out fortunes may have been reversed. But I certainly don't blame 27 or Cavaliers or Freelancers etc. Despite my opinions, the opinions of others were different, and to blame the other units for, as was said, doing their job is just dumb. I think former marchers and fans alike can agree on that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueorginal Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 my picks for corps who came out of no where 1974 - Purple Lancers 1975 - Oakland Crusaders 1976 - Seneca Optimists 1987 - Bluecoats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FHdork Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 >1976 - Seneca Optimists> You should not have been surprised...they employed the power of positive thinking! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mckdan Posted February 1, 2011 Author Share Posted February 1, 2011 I marched 27th in 85/86, and both years I was shocked to hear we hadn't made finals. '85 we knew it would be close, '86 we had a much better show, performed well, and had been beating everyone we needed to. 10th or 11th was expected. To this day I know people who curse the Troopers over this. Never made any sense to me, why blame the Troopers? Whenever I hear this nonsense I make a point of defending you guys. The Troopers did exactly what they were supposed to do: worked their butts off and did the best show they could. Did the judges screw up? Maybe. Back then, the judging was far more inconsistant than it is today. In '86 we were .5 behind Garfield one night and 4.5 behind the next, due almost entirely to different judging panels. Did the judges intentionally screw 27th knowing we were likely to fold? I've never bought into these type of conspiracy theories. If you don't want a corps to beat you, be so much better than them that its impossible for the judges to give you a lower score. 27th simply didn't have the income necessary to survive in an era of full summer tours. In '85 we went on tour with 1 drill instructor, and it wasn't the guy who wrote the show. Same in '86, though we did have Marc Sylvester and George Zingali spend some time with us when they could (they wrote the show, but 27th couldn't afford them on staff full time, they were with Star, I believe, and helped with 27th part time). Other sections were also very short on staff, and we were often very short on sleep due to bus break downs. I have to agree with your assessment. When Troopers beat out Crossmen in 1979 we took the brunt of the "blame" for knocking them out of finals. I also remember that Cavies were only a few tenths ahead of us in the last week and Crossmen had been beating both of us by several points in the last week. It was just a convergence of a mediocre Crossmen show and a Trooper corps that was absolutely on fire for that day. I truely believe that if the corps had competed 1000 times Crossmen would have won 999. This was just the one time out of a thousand that occured that day. Troopers deserved this win on this day and this day only! I didn't watch the '86 season very closely, but, I hope that Troopers and the others who beat 27th deserved to move on. I only wish that 27th would come back to the competition field. I want to hear Danny Boy just one last time! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueorginal Posted February 1, 2011 Share Posted February 1, 2011 >1976 - Seneca Optimists> You should not have been surprised...they employed the power of positive thinking! I'm still a big fan of Toronto Optimists 75 show Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerriTroop Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 Thanks to all ya'll (that there's true Texan language for you!) for posting responses about 1986. I should have clarified that it was only in the context of those few days that I didn't know the reality of the situation. There really wasn't any discussion of it from the staff as far as I recall. I was just another kid on tour doing what my staff taught me to do - perform my show to the absolute best of my ability and let the cards fall where they fall. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluecoats88 Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 my picks for corps who came out of no where 1974 - Purple Lancers 1975 - Oakland Crusaders 1976 - Seneca Optimists 1987 - Bluecoats We weren't that big a surprise in 1987 - considering we finished 15th in 1986 and the 13th & 14th place corps (Les Eclipses and 27th Lancers) both folded in 1987 we were in essence only sitting in 13th going into the season which meant we only needed to beat 1 corps to make finals, and we started the season off by beating both Phantom and Sky Ryders in our 1st show. now in 1986 we were a big surprise, although we didn't make finals, we did improve 13 places and scored 10 points higher than in 1985. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
actucker Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 I was very surprised to see Magic contend for finals in 2002 until I saw them at prelims and realized they had no business being in division 2 in the first place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guardguy89 Posted February 2, 2011 Share Posted February 2, 2011 I was always surprised by the 1993 Colts - I just didn't think that show would make it in Later, Mike Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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