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George Zingali RIP 20 years ago today


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RIP my friend....one of a kind

Met and was instructed by George in the SUNRISERS in the late 80's.His sense of humor was only matched by his genius in drill design.I used to be amazed at how he would change drill sets on the fly....all in his minds eye.Of course the changes would always work and make the final result so much better.He would never belittle anyone on the field,,,,even if they were WAY out of the form.Even as a veteran and lead soloist in the corps ..when I was not where i should have been his remark was "BOBBY darling do you really want to be in that spot.....there is no soprano solo in this segment." We all laughed and trust me.... I was never out of that form again. We will never see his like again .R.I.P. GEORGE

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I mostly loathe drill nowadays. Like the music, I feel like the drill is just little moments thrown together that don't really flow cohesively. It's like watching a Michael Bay movie...

The early 90's was absolutely spoiled with Zingale, Brubaker, Brazale, and Rosander. Heck I'll even throw John Miliauskas in there.

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I mostly loathe drill nowadays. Like the music, I feel like the drill is just little moments thrown together that don't really flow cohesively. It's like watching a Michael Bay movie...

The early 90's was absolutely spoiled with Zingale, Brubaker, Brazale, and Rosander. Heck I'll even throw John Miliauskas in there.

For those who are newer around the activity, please give some info about the corps those folks wrote for. Thank you.

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I mostly loathe drill nowadays. Like the music, I feel like the drill is just little moments thrown together that don't really flow cohesively. It's like watching a Michael Bay movie...

The early 90's was absolutely spoiled with Zingale, Brubaker, Brazale, and Rosander. Heck I'll even throw John Miliauskas in there.

amen. Especially John, he never got enough credit for Crossmen 92

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I mostly loathe drill nowadays. Like the music, I feel like the drill is just little moments thrown together that don't really flow cohesively. It's like watching a Michael Bay movie...

The early 90's was absolutely spoiled with Zingale, Brubaker, Brazale, and Rosander. Heck I'll even throw John Miliauskas in there.

He taught at my high school. Helped get us 3 championships. (2 when I was there.)

Great drill writer.

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In 1992-1993 Zingale, Brubaker, and Brazale all died. Huge names in drill writing all kinda disappeared very quickly.

For those who are newer around the activity, please give some info about the corps those folks wrote for. Thank you.

George Zingale - 27th Lancers (placed 3rd in 1980), Garfield Cadets (during 80's championship runs), Star of Indiana (1990-1991), Blue Knights (1991 first finals appearance). "Whiplash" style drill writer. Set-to-set moves were not always straight lines. Besides whoever wrote Madison Scouts, you probably couldn't find much faster/athletic drill during the mid 80's either. He is one of the earliest examples that pushed drill to be more athletic and asymmetrical.

You wouldn't think it, but the drill in this video was absolutely insane for the time. Closing out the opener you'll see one of his most famous writings, the "Z-pull", which pretty much blew the audience's mind.

Steve Brubaker - Cavaliers drill writer until 1992(?). Almost solely responsible for the typical geometry drill you see nowadays, though I like to think he perfected it.

John Brazale - Phantom Regiment visual designer for late 80's & early 90's. Very unorthodox and styled drill writing; lots of pushes, long phrases, and odd geometric combinations. Master at showing off feet (Phantom Regiment won quite a few high visual caption awards under Brazale)

Myron Rosander - Most recently wrote for Phantom Regiment(?), but had a huge stint with SCV from the late 80's until 2005ish. Similar to Brazale's writing... though his phrases seem to be a little shorter and more abrupt.

John Miliauskas - Most famously wrote for the 1992 Crossmen. Out of any writer I've seen, he is probably most comparable in style to George Zingale. Sets flow into one another meticulously, but without necessarily straight paths all the time.

Edited by NR_Ohiobando
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In 1992-1993 Zingale, Brubaker, and Brazale all died. Huge names in drill writing all kinda disappeared very quickly.

George Zingale - 27th Lancers (placed 3rd in 1980), Garfield Cadets (during 80's championship runs), Star of Indiana (1990-1991), Blue Knights (1991 first finals appearance). "Whiplash" style drill writer. Set-to-set moves were not always straight lines. Besides whoever wrote Madison Scouts, you probably couldn't find much faster/athletic drill during the mid 80's either. He is one of the earliest examples that pushed drill to be more athletic and asymmetrical.

You wouldn't think it, but the drill in this video was absolutely insane for the time. Closing out the opener you'll see one of his most famous writings, the "Z-pull", which pretty much blew the audience's mind.

Steve Brubaker - Cavaliers drill writer until 1992(?). Almost solely responsible for the typical geometry drill you see nowadays, though I like to think he perfected it.

John Brazale - Phantom Regiment visual designer for late 80's & early 90's. Very unorthodox and styled drill writing; lots of pushes, long phrases, and odd geometric combinations. Master at showing off feet (Phantom Regiment won quite a few high visual caption awards under Brazale)

Myron Rosander - Most recently wrote for Phantom Regiment(?), but had a huge stint with SCV from the late 80's until 2005ish. Similar to Brazale's writing... though his phrases seem to be a little shorter and more abrupt.

John Miliauskas - Most famously wrote for the 1992 Crossmen. Out of any writer I've seen, he is probably most comparable in style to George Zingale. Sets flow into one another meticulously, but without necessarily straight paths all the time.

Thank you.

Brubaker's last drill was 1991, I believe. He helped Greg Poclacki formulate the 1992 drill, but he was too sick by then to be around much. I doubt he would have made it to Finals to see Cavaliers win its first DCI Championship had 1992 not been held in Madison. Greg was the drill writer between Steve and Michael Gaines.

Myron also wrote for Madison Scouts after he did SCV, although I believe his best drill ever was Seattle Cascades in 2002, when they made Finals. Everything worked for me in that drill.

John Brazale was fond of what Regiment members referred to as "icebergs," static forms that floated around the field as an iceberg in the open waters. While some writers wrote for multiple corps, (Rosander doing SCV and Cascades in the same year and other corps later and Brubaker doing Cavaliers, Star of Indiana and Bluecoats in the same year), Brazale was exclusive to Regiment.

What were the other contributions of John Miliauskas, besides Crossmen 1992?

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