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Biggest surprise to make finals


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As far as one year to the next, I was most surprised by the 2002 Seattle Cascades. Even when I saw them in San Antonio I don't think I was seeing them the same way the judges were. That said, by Finals I don't think anyone could question them.

mike

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I was always surprised by the 1993 Colts - I just didn't think that show would make it in

Later,

Mike

yeah I thought Boston or VK would have taken them

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Thanks for the input. I guess the biggest upset is always the one that you were personally (either pro or con) with. This is the best part of drum corps, the upsets! Troopers giving SCV their only loss in (I believe) 1974 at SCV's home show, etc.... The next biggest upset will be the next corps to beat BD.

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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.

Big jumps year to year are always interesting to me and are usually accompanied by changes in staff. Would you mind sharing your thoughts on what you think were the reasons for your 13 place jump from 85-86?

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Big jumps year to year are always interesting to me and are usually accompanied by changes in staff. Would you mind sharing your thoughts on what you think were the reasons for your 13 place jump from 85-86?

Some of the main reasons are listed below

1- Larry Hershman was brought in as program coordinator and put together a design team to design us a show to make it into the top 25.

2- we only lost 2 members from 1985 to a top 12 corps (twin sisters went to Garfield to age out)

3- we picked up members from some other small corps (Northern Aurora, Marion Cadets)

4- we had an influx of new talented members which increased our hornline size from low 40s to mid 50s (part of this was due to running a bus from the harrisburgh, PA area which brought a number of talented members from that area. This was tied to the Larry Hershman pickup as well)

All of these things combined enabled us to max out our performance and we ended up taking a show which was designed to get us into the 20-25 range all the way to 15th strictly on performance.

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In the context of a corps' history I think you would be hard pressed to find a bigger surprise than The Cascades in 2002. They were coming off a string of very nice open class seasons, but nothing that led you believe they were going to pop and make finals. Then when you see that they have fallen back into a semis contender it makes the 2002 season look even more remarkable.

In the context of that single season, however, they were not a surprise at all. If you followed them throughout the summer it was very apparent that they had a very legitimate shot at finals. As a kid who grew up in Washington drum corps it was very, very cool to finally see a corps from our state make finals. The Seattle Imperials and Marauders had some great years, The Black Watch won class A in 1976 and were great in 77 and 78, but we never had a finalist until 2002.

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1993 Colts

2002 Magic

2002 Cascades (I'm still mildly chapped they beat out BK, whom I thought had the better show)

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For me personally it was Sky Ryders in 1988. We were decent, but we had not beaten Crossmen or Freelancers once all summer and Dutch Boy had been beating both of them in other shows. I figured for sure that we would end up 15th. I have newspaper clippings that were in the Hutchinson, KS newspaper of a group of us in the parking lot listening to the stadium PA on semi's night when they announced Dutch Boy in the 13 place. Its a great photo of some elated people.

That was uber cool for us. For a Dutch Boy friend of mine who later because my DM at Vangaurd in 1992...not so cool.

We never competed w/you guys until Semis and that was the year they drew for position putting something like 10 corps between us. Honestly, we thought we were IN, especially because we new you guys had never beat the Crossmen and we had never lost to them, when we were announced in 13th i remember walking into the corridor at Arrowhead and the first person i saw was none other than Marty himself, that was a pretty tough pill.............Marty and that same cymbal line also took 13th in 89.

ps: as tough as it was to take 13th, i remember a Vanguard kid rode home w/us and feeling so bad for him. We took 13th by .2,< they took 2nd by .2

Edited by nngs9
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