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Kyle,

Having coached high school scholastic varsity lacrosse, I know your statement is not inclusive of the great black scholar athletes who play that game, like hockey, in a number of areas of New York State, one of the four major lacrosse hotbeds in the U.S with Michigan, Maryland, and Denver. They, like their white peers find such a quick, athletic sport a great opportunity for college, sometimes beyond usual choices.

That being said, I too mourn the loss of the all black corps which came from the inner cities of NY, Philly, Newark, etc. The South Shore program out of Chicago is about the closest the activity in general sees that contribution at championships today.

Edited by xandandl
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http://bluecoats.com/shop/scholarship-funds/hbcu-scholarship/

I hope that we can get some support for this on here. I had the idea to reach out to the HBCU community after seeing a lot of screaming trumpets and similar raw talent on HBCU YouTube videos. To me, this could be a win-win-win situation.

1. Drum corps is getting more and more expensive and therefore less diverse. This (as well as other scholarship fund opportunities on the link) helps combat this.

2. There are many talented musicians at these schools that I would like to encourage to audition for the Bluecoats by partially offsetting the costs. I think of it as "widening the net" to attract the most talent.

3. I think there needs to be more cooperation, outreach, and appreciation between show style marching arts and corps style marching arts.

So if you, are anyone you know, feel passionate about exposing and encouraging drum corps participation to a culture of band students who may not be familiar with our style, please contribute to the fund. Thanks.

Derek Gipson

Bluecoats brass caption head

Derek,

Great ideal!!!! My son plays football at a HBCU. I use to stereotype the HBCU bands, but there are some really good bands out there now.

Count me in as well.

Derek

Edited by derek005
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I appreciate anyone that tries to reach out, and I hope that one day people can just appreciate band versus criticize the packaging.

I host a show that comes on every Sunday at 8pm EST called The 90 Degree Show and we are the 'first take' is you will of show style marching bands. We also have a forum called The 5th Quarter Forum similar to this forum.

I just want to put out there that there is no lack of interest with Drum and Bugle Corp and nothing but respect comes from the 'show style' community in regards to DCI and is appreciative of the integrity of technical skills. The level of competition and performance only helps someone that goes back to their college band..(HBCU or PWI) We often applaud the precision in formations and patterns of motion. How do we do this..by getting the experience in other avenues to learn.

I didn't want write that much, but that certain tone of white vs. black in this topic, gets me angry where there is nothing but positives that both sides can learn.

Shot out to Bluecoats and I will be talking about this on my show tonight at 8pm EST. here: http://bit.ly/1A7Kiqi

Edited by Phantomque
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Derek, I happen to work for an HBCU (in Texas)--I'd be happy to e-blast it to my department liaisons and via our Facebook page. I think it's a great idea!

Edited by Sam98
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Derek, I happen to work for an HBCU (in Texas)--I'd be happy to e-blast it to my department liaisons and via our Facebook page. I think it's a great idea!

That would be fabulous. Feel free to contact me. Info can be found on the corp's website. Thanks!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Yesterday, Dec. 7th, a day that will live in infamy, the New York Times did a 3 page business section feature on the financial struggles of Canton and North Canton, Ohio.

It is a very interesting read and gets me thinking of what effect such changes might have on Bluecoats' ambitions. The article's content and business examples eerily reminded me of the transformation of Garfield, New Jersey and area which helped lead a shift of locale operations for one major competing corps.

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This is a great idea. We do have an HBCU right here in Ohio (Central State) and they have a wonderful marching band. Their trumpets all march the Dizzy Gilespie model with the bell angled up. DCI could use some diversity, too. I believe a lot of the shows are beginning to look very similar in style, theme, drill, etc. Not sure this answers that call, but bringing in students who have a different perspective on marching band/corps can be of value.

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Yesterday, Dec. 7th, a day that will live in infamy, the New York Times did a 3 page business section feature on the financial struggles of Canton and North Canton, Ohio.

It is a very interesting read and gets me thinking of what effect such changes might have on Bluecoats' ambitions. The article's content and business examples eerily reminded me of the transformation of Garfield, New Jersey and area which helped lead a shift of locale operations for one major competing corps.

Well, Canton and North Canton--despite that article (did not see it)--are doing much better than people might think. Yes, we've lost manufacturing, especially with the loss of The Hoover Company (Vacuums). Timken and DeBold continue to do well, but are not exactly adding major jobs to the area. We'll see what happens over the next 4 or 5 years, but I think the Canton region will be fine. It's a beautiful area that many Cleveland and Akron folks often move to and commute to work.

In fairness to the NYT article (again which I did not see), it's easy to hit-up all of Northern Ohio. The combination of Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown, Canton, and Toledo were major centers for the old DETROIT vehicle machine. Akron was the rubber capital of the world (tires), Toledo was the glass capital (windows), Youngstown for steel and the largest GM plant outside of Michigan, and Cleveland for it's steel and auto plants. It's taken years for those epicenters to re-adjust to new levels of production and to branch out into other businesses.

Edited by jwillis35
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Mr. Willis (and others interested...)

Here's a link to the preliminary article on Dec.6th which led to the fuller article for which I have yet to find a link on line. I read a print copy, old school.

This is definitely the company which was discussed for most of the article, but there was more. Some of the photos in the accompanying slideshow to the linked article here were in the Dec.8th version too.

Dec. 6, 2014 preliminary article.

http://www.nytimes.c...n-two.html?_r=0

http://topics.nytime...pany/index.html

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