Santa Clara Vanguard 2023 Announcement Thread

[year1buick]

43 minutes ago, scheherazadesghost said:

Same. No patches here. They're in the bottom of my closet.

Me in my corps jacket.

[Jeff Ream]

4 hours ago, 2muchcoffeeman said:

Yeah that's the vital question. In light of this news, what kind of conversations are boards, their CEOs and corps directors having today?

I’m sure many depends were soiled

[Terri Schehr]

1 minute ago, year1buick said:

Me in my corps jacket.

I got rid of all of mine and Jim’s jackets.  It still fit but I wasn’t moving them.  

[Jeff Ream]

4 hours ago, IllianaLancerContra said:

But what is truth?  Is truth unchanging law?  We both have truths - are mine the same as yours?

($0.02 to Tim Rice & Andrew Lloyd Weber).  

When financials are posted that dispel myths yet the myths keep getting posted, there you go

[TRacer]

46 minutes ago, scheherazadesghost said:

Same. No patches here. They're in the bottom of my closet.

I gave my jacket (with stars in the pockets) to my son for safekeeping as I wanted him to have it; it resides in the same garment bag as his jacket which has his rings in their little boxes stuffed in the pockets. His “go to” choice is his Blue Stars ⭐️ jacket (Call of the Wild show) which he wore at Finals a few months back after aging out in 2021. 
 

The patch culture was an “in the line” social pecking order thing too in The Days of Yore (labels were “rookie”, “2nd year nothing”, “vet/Yr 3”, “vet/Yr 4”, “super vet”) and I’d really hoped the corps had outgrown it. Sadly, the stories my kid told me of his 2017 SCV Rose Parade Corps experience indicated that it was very much alive and unwell 30+ years later. 
 

To quote SGhost, “It’s complicated.”

In other news, it’s sunny and 80 degrees here in the Hawaiian Islands, and the USGS says the Mauna Loa 🌋eruption (aka Madame Pele) has subsided. 🤙

[mingusmonk]

26 minutes ago, Jeff Ream said:

I’m sure many depends were soiled

I'm fairly confident that most of them knew this hammer could drop before the official announcement happened. 

[gbass598]

34 minutes ago, Terri Schehr said:

That’s not why there wasn’t a Madison Jr. Scouts. The corps director of Capitolaires was arrested for being a sex offender and they and the Jr Scouts were merged in 1995 and became Capital Sound.

I guess people remember what they want to remember.  I call that selective memory. 

And as part of that were they separated from the Madison Scouts Organization? Scouts took over Southwind shortly after. It seems Madison distanced themselves financially in 2003. Both Capital Sound and Southwind left competition after 2007.

In any event, Madison discontinued having a feeder corps a number of years ago. I'm assuming because it wasn't financially viable for them any longer.

[perc2100]

23 hours ago, Terri Schehr said:

Troopers took a year off and they’re still here. 

Oh yeah, good point!  They've been such a solid corps the last several seasons I totally forgot they took 2006 off!  That year off seemed to be great for them.  Not only have they not placed as low as they did in 2005 (22nd), but:

* five seasons before they took a year of: average placement = 21

* five seasons immediately after coming back from a year off = 15

With two finalists placements in the 14 years since their return (including a 12th place finish their third season back: their first Top 12 Finalist finish since 1986)!

[perc2100]

21 hours ago, corps8294 said:

I can give you the name of one corps that folded and persevered through reorganization...The Blue Stars. The Blue Stars were one of the founding corps of DCI back in '72 and came pretty close winning it, that year. They had a lot of success in the Top 12 during the '70s. They were also sponsored by a bank. They were known as "The First Federal Blue Stars." '82 proved to be a very challenging year for the corps both competitively and financially. When the sponsorship went away; it was tough going for the corps. That same year, the Cadet corps was reactivated and competed at CCI. The Blue Stars folded shortly after DCI in '82; but the Blue Stars Cadets were going to carry on the corps legacy; with the hope that, someday, the organization would return to Open Class, Div I, World Class (whatever title you choose). A lot of the members of the Blue Stars Cadets had friends and family that were a part of the Blue Stars. A lot of the instructors were former Blue Stars. The corps competed for three years in CCI before making the move back to DCM. In '86, the corps would also return to DCI; competing in Class A-60. The following year, 1987, was a special year; the debt from the '70s era Blue Stars was paid off and the Blue Star Cadets became the Blue Stars. The corps had a very successful year at DCM and DCI; the cherry on top was scoring high enough to qualify for Open Class quarterfinals. The corps would continue from there to be a powerhouse in A-60 and Div II and III all the way up through 2005. There were definitely some hard years during that time; but the goal remained the same. Along came 2006 and the Blue Stars returned to Div I competition with an extremely powerful corps as they finished in 14th place their first year back competing for a Top 12 spot. After finishing in 14th in 2007; they finally made Top 12 finals with a jump all the way to 8th. Since there return; they have only missed finals once.
So, what's the moral of this story? Sometimes corps that fall on hard times can actually turn things around and regain their former glory and success. It just takes time, pride, dedication, passion, and learning lessons so as to not make the mistakes of the past.

Eric Miller
Blue Star Cadets/Blue Stars member (1982-1994)
Blue Stars instructor (1995-2007)

Right, I forgot about Blue Stars as well (though the mid-1980's was before my drum corps-following time).  They did a great job of reorganizing and gradually making their way back first as a successful A60 corps (I do remember when they were perennial A60 Champ contenders - I remember when they were duking it out w/Div 2 Limited Edition in 1989, with both corps playing Carmina Burana), then back to Open/World Class status, and now perpetual Finalists.

Another good example of a corps successfully reorganizing financially and returning, thanks for the reminder!

[JimF-LowBari]

39 minutes ago, year1buick said:

Me in my corps jacket.

“It shrank… I swear it shrank…”

everyone else 🤦‍♂️😱🙄🤪😝