Who will this years Dark Horse(s) be?

[jwillis35]

I guess we all see dark horse a bit differently, or otherwise known as the corps that will come out of no where. To me, dark horse indicates that a corps has placed out of contention, either for top 12 or top 5 or for 1st, for some time. Not just one year or two years.

To me, it is really difficult to give the Cadets, Blue Devils, Cavaliers the title of dark horse, or coming out of nowhere. Um, not so much. We expect them to contend, even if they had some off years. Their recent history suggests this.

Madison, on the other hand, had a rough first decade of the 2000s. Not many finals appearances, and no top 5 finishes. I'd say that if they made a run for top 5 that they would qualify for dark horse. Same would be true for Spirit, Academy, corps like that.

For Bluecoats, they can now only be a dark horse if they challenge for the title. They have been in the 3 to 7 group many times.

For Boston it's mostly the same. Maybe they are not as consistent as Blooooo at placing top 5 or 6, but they have been there on several occasions. If they challenged for top 3, well now they are a dark horse.

For Blue Stars it's much the same only slightly different. They have been top 8, but a push to be top 5 would certainly make them a dark horse. Not a spot they have occupied yet.

Troopers would not only have to get back into Finals, where they were two years ago, but they would have to challenge for 8th or 9th. Then they become a dark horse for those spots.

Now...if your definition of dark horse only applies to WINNING THE WHOLE THING, then it gets difficult to find a dark horse, which I suppose is the fun of it all. BD, Cadets, and Cavaliers have many titles. We are accustomed to them challenging. Even though the Cadets have not won since 2005, and Cavaliers since 2006, we know they can. Cadets were a close 2nd in 2007, and 3rd in 2009. Not bad. They are typically in it. And Cavaliers were 3rd in both 2007 and 2008, and 2nd in 2010. Even Carolina Crown is not really a dark horse. They were 2nd in 2009 and 4th last year and also in 2008.

I'd call SCV a dark horse if they managed to sneak into contention, and maybe Bluecoats since that would be another major leap forward.

And if the TROOPERS challenged for the title...well, that's REALLY a dark horse! But that would be FUN!!!

Edited June 23, 2011 by jwillis35

[Zeke]

Spirit... because I believe.

Is that Patrick Stewart doing the voice over? Was this made specifically for them or borrowed from something else.

[BRASSO]

I guess we all see dark horse a bit differently, or otherwise known as the corps that will come out of no where. To me, dark horse indicates that a corps has placed out of contention, either for top 12 or top 5 or for 1st, for some time. Not just one year or two years.

To me, it is really difficult to give the Cadets, Blue Devils, Cavaliers the title of dark horse, or coming out of nowhere. Um, not so much. We expect them to contend, even if they had some off years. Their recent history suggests this.

Madison, on the other hand, had a rough first decade of the 2000s. Not many finals appearances, and no top 5 finishes. I'd say that if they made a run for top 5 that they would qualify for dark horse. Same would be true for Spirit, Academy, corps like that.

For Bluecoats, they can now only be a dark horse if they challenge for the title. They have been in the 3 to 7 group many times.

For Boston it's mostly the same. Maybe they are not as consistent as Blooooo at placing top 5 or 6, but they have been there on several occasions. If they challenged for top 3, well now they are a dark horse.

For Blue Stars it's much the same only slightly different. They have been top 8, but a push to be top 5 would certainly make them a dark horse. Not a spot they have occupied yet.

Troopers would not only have to get back into Finals, where they were two years ago, but they would have to challenge for 8th or 9th. Then they become a dark horse for those spots.

Now...if your definition of dark horse only applies to WINNING THE WHOLE THING, then it gets difficult to find a dark horse, which I suppose is the fun of it all. BD, Cadets, and Cavaliers have many titles. We are accustomed to them challenging. Even though the Cadets have not won since 2005, and Cavaliers since 2006, we know they can. Cadets were a close 2nd in 2007, and 3rd in 2009. Not bad. They are typically in it. And Cavaliers were 3rd in both 2007 and 2008, and 2nd in 2010. Even Carolina Crown is not really a dark horse. They were 2nd in 2009 and 4th last year and also in 2008.

I'd call SCV a dark horse if they managed to sneak into contention, and maybe Bluecoats since that would be another major leap forward.

And if the TROOPERS challenged for the title...well, that's REALLY a dark horse! But that would be FUN!!!

Good comments here. ( not to quibble, but the Blue Stars have finished as high as 2nd place in World Class Division DCI, and top 5, 3 times in all.)

Edited June 23, 2011 by BRASSO

[Stryfe]

8 votes for Madison? They're not a dark horse, they've been hyped all year long (and living up to it) so they aren't really coming out of no where.

As much as I love my team, I have to agree with this. But, like someone said, they may be in a position to challenge different groups than they were expected to.

I haven't seen anyone live, so I don't really know, nor will I vote. I'll jump on the Spirit hype train, and I also hope Crossmen can come out of hiding this year as well (no offense to recent Crossmen MMs).

[Room_101]

I say Academy.

You can only throw so much money and good staff at a program for so long before it finally breaks through.

Their brass staff is a top 5 brass staff, not a non-finalist brass staff.

Um...really? No offense to the Academy (who I absolutely love and cannot wait to see in Finals soon this year), but by top 5 do you mean better than the horn staff of BD, Cavaliers, Cadets, Bluecoats, Crown, etc, etc.?

Or do you just mean that they are capable of also teaching those top 5 groups?

[GeneralTsoChicken]

Um...really? No offense to the Academy (who I absolutely love and cannot wait to see in Finals soon this year), but by top 5 do you mean better than the horn staff of BD, Cavaliers, Cadets, Bluecoats, Crown, etc, etc.?

Or do you just mean that they are capable of also teaching those top 5 groups?

Instead of calling out various corps staff members by name and rating them one over the other, in a public forum, I PMed you.

[Tez]

Note to DCPer's:

If you have won 14, 9, or 7 DCI championships you cannot be a Dark Horse.

If you have finished top 5 every year since CD's were invented.... you can't be a Dark Horse.

...and so on......

[BoyWonder1911]

I'll go with the person who said a Dark Horse means moving up 3 spots or more from a previous year.

SoA definitely needs to be in this list...they smoked at Martin, TN. They will be challenging for a Finals spot.

I'd say Cadets are a dark horse to win the title this year. Cavs and Blue Devils are the most likely to win it, but don't count the Cadets out. I think Crown will lock up 4th.

Blue Stars would need to place 5th at Finals to be a "dark horse" under this definition, and I think they may have a shot at that. Depends on how the show evolves over the summer - what new things they add, what they take out, where they add in some more difficult brass music, where they take some things out, depends on what Bluecoats do, but I think 5th-10th might actually be a big battle between SCV, PR, Bloo, Blue Stars and Crusaders. Would be epic if it will be as close as I think it might be.

Scouts taking 7th would be a dark horse, I think it's possible, haven't seen their show yet, due to it being rained out this evening, and Crusaders taking 6th would be a dark horse, haven't seen them either.

We will have to wait and see! The season has just begun, let the fun start!