Glen Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 (edited) Just my assorted thoughts ... I can't tell you what a great time we had in Annapolis, Maryland for our 2012 Championship. Just a little background ... DCA ran its first competitive season in 1964, and our first season culminating with a championship competition in 1965 (long before my time in drum corps) . We have never had a championship this far south. All of our championships over the decades have been in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and believe it or not, only ONCE in New Jersey, the state that at one time, probably had more drum corps per square mile than any state in the country. This year was our first championship in Maryland - it has never been held south of the Mason-Dixon line. We started off the LOOONG weekend with DCA At The Dock early Thursday evening. This was a very laid back concert held right at City Dock, free to the public and right on the water. Minnesota Brass stood and played their whole show in t-shirts and jeans, against a backdrop of sailboats passing by in the harbor. The Kidsgrove Scouts from England did the same in full uniform. We also had an up and coming local corps, the Annapolis Drum & Bugle Corps come and play, as well as a number of ensembles and mini corps perform. The event was a big hit, drew a large crowd, and many people brought their own chairs to take it in. We brought drum corps right to the people of Annapolis, and they loved it! What a great event! On Friday, we had the Individual & Ensemble competitions and the Mini Corps championship at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. Initially, we weren't sure how this would work out, as this event has always had a block party flavor to it. Not all the events were on the football field - if you have never been to Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium, you need to go. This place is massive, and it is much, much more than a football stadium. It is a monument to our military heroes, and is quite something to experience. There are party tents and even banquet facilities there! We were easily able to hold all of our events there - there was something happening nearly everywhere, as we spread out dozens and dozens of individual competitors, ensembles, quartets and duets and mini corps all over the place. We were very happy to see hundreds of cars in the lots and hundreds and hundreds of fans walking around this beautiful complex, taking it all in. And of course, admission to all of the Friday events was free. You can read more about this beautiful place right here: http://www.navysports.com/facilities/memorial-stadium.html . Saturday. Wow, that was a tough one! We had gotten through three-quarters of the championship preliminaries when Mother Nature paid us a visit - she wasn't happy :) We struggled through downpours and very scary lightning that forced us to clear the stadium more than once. When we got the all-clear to continue, we had five corps left to go. We got two of them in, and then BOOM! More downpours, more lightning, more delays. It looked like we might have to stop and resume with the remaining three corps early the next day. The DCA Executive Board, Stadium Manager Bill Givens, and the directors of the three remaining corps huddled in an office, and we were glued to the stadium's state of the art radar display and lightning detection system. It looked like we might have one more shot to get those three corps in on Saturday before reverting to some sort of plan B. We got the green light from the stadium manager, and raced to get Minnesota Brass, Caballeros, and Buccaneers in. One more nearby lightning strike and that would have been it for the night. I can't tell you how relieved we all were that the lightning held off just long enough for those corps to do their prelims performance. All in all, we experienced a total of THREE HOURS worth of rain and lightning delays. AND OUR FANS HUNG IN THERE WITH US! When we announced that we were resuming with the final three corps, hundreds of fans raced back into the stadium. We were stunned to find out how many people were still there and waited it out with us. No question, DCA has the best fans on Earth! MISSION ACCOMPLISHED - PRELIMS COMPLETE. Sunday, our final day, was something special. We opened up the Championship Finals by recognizing the wounded warriors in attendance, and then the United States Marine Drum & Bugle Corps took the field, played their show, and brought the house down. They followed their field show with the UK and US National Anthems, and the conductor of the corps turned and conducted our FANS, urging everyone to sing along! And it seemed like everyone actually DID! The corps left the field playing the Marine Hymn to a standing ovation from a roaring crowd. It was an amazing emotional experience! Although the US Marine Drum & Bugle Corps has played at many DCA shows over the years, this was their first time opening our World Championships. And you can bet we will invite them back. Our finals competitions then got underway. The crowd at the stadium, many of whom had never seen a drum corps show before or hadn't seen one in many years, were treated to OUTSTANDING performances from the BEST all-age competitive drum corps in the country. And one from England :) When all was said and done, The Buccaneers were crowned the 2012 Open Class Champion, with a DCA record high score of 99.03 . Carolina Gold turned in a brilliant performance and captured the Class A crown, Fusion Core became an Open Class Finalist for the first time, Cadets2, a brand new corps from Allentown PA finished in the top 5 in their very first year of competition, and the White Sabers appeared in the Class A finals for the first time in 7 years. Congratulations to EVERY ONE of our corps! It was a weekend to remember FOR SURE. Annapolis is a beautiful city, and we'll be back there next year. Join us, you'll LOVE it! You can actually buy tickets for the 2013 Championships in Annapolis, MD right now! Edited September 3, 2012 by Glen 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-horns Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 I guess Glen slept through the Alumni Spectacular. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glen Posted September 3, 2012 Author Share Posted September 3, 2012 Nope. Didn't sleep through it, but I wasn't at the stadium for it. That one I watched live on the Fan Network back at the hotel. That's another thing - the Fan Network was hoppin' too. I got an education there - I didn't realize that the FN broadcast was as good as it was. Except for the brutality of the weather late on Saturday, it really was a great weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JoeDz Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 Nice Wrap up, Glen....... sort of a "review" from the administration point of view. Thanks to Fan Network and Kevin, I enjoyed the weekend fully, the evening portions in real time and the alumni and early prelims by use of the time bar. Great job ! Joe Dziezawiec NJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phalanx Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 I guess Glen slept through the Alumni Spectacular. If that's how you're reading it then we can assume he fell asleep after the Marine Corps D&BC at finals as well. This wasn't a review, simply a run down of the administrative success of the weekend. Great job to DCA for a successful weekend! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G-horns Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 If that's how you're reading it then we can assume he fell asleep after the Marine Corps D&BC at finals as well. This wasn't a review, simply a run down of the administrative success of the weekend. Great job to DCA for a successful weekend! My comment wasn't intended as a slam. Obviously, Glen had to sleep sometime. However, the Spectacular participants fill hotel rooms, restaurants and the stands for prelims and finals, with people who might otherwise not attend the festivities. Not to mention contribute to the I&E/Mini-corps event. It would have been nice if it was mentioned in a DCA Administration post. That's all. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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