The Staff Merry-go-round

[BlueStainGlass]

Not a change but assuming Travis Larson sharing auditions for Blue Stars he will be back next year. Now give him a book he can cook with 🔥

[saxfreq1128]

5 hours ago, drumcorpsfever said:

The difference between 1 and 2-4 this year was design - not talent, instruction, or execution.

For Crown and BAC, both corps need a show design re-think. They executed the heck out of their productions. But the contrast between them and BD was evident. 
As for Bluecoats, their design is becoming stale. They were a little too cute the first half of their show as brass played so little until the ballad. They killed the 2nd half but a little too late to top BD. 
 

Disagree on all fronts, all these corps are doing great — Crown leveled up on 2022 in a huge way with a mature, caption-winning show, BAC has a team that has achieved the near-impossible in their rise over the last 6 years, and Bloo has once again proven they’re they’re among the most inventive corps on the field.

The BD team’s secret is longevity. Wouldn’t the way to compete them also be longevity? Let these design teams cook! 

[MikeRapp]

3 minutes ago, saxfreq1128 said:

Disagree on all fronts, all these corps are doing great — Crown leveled up on 2022 in a huge way with a mature, caption-winning show, BAC has a team that has achieved the near-impossible in their rise over the last 6 years, and Bloo has once again proven they’re they’re among the most inventive corps on the field.

The BD team’s secret is longevity. Wouldn’t the way to compete them also be longevity? Let these design teams cook! 

Yeah the difference(s) between 1 and everyone else need to be acknowledged. It’s not “just” design IMO.

Bluecoats was not my favorite this year but I can’t imagine design being their “problem,” if they have one. If anything the predictability of BD design is the thing that makes them hard to beat, as they keep honing their ideas over and over again with the same sensibility to details. Bluecoats have their “tropes” but they tend to steer away from predictability rather than toward it.

Edited August 14, 2023 by MikeRapp

[gbass598]

3 minutes ago, saxfreq1128 said:

 field.

The BD team’s secret is longevity. Wouldn’t the way to compete them also be longevity? Let these design teams cook! 

Longevity helps you maintain it. Just because you do something a long time doesn't mean you are good at it. They've been fortunate to have a team that has fostered success and then those people stick around.

If you look at a lot of professional sports teams, you can turn around an organization in a few years with the right people involved. Staying at the top longer than that is where the longevity is required.

I'm just surprised people don't try to copy how BD functions creatively. Not copy "what" they do but "how" they do it. It clearly works.

[jjeffeory]

19 hours ago, wormster79 said:

BK hopefully makes some adjustments to their design team in order to stay in the top 12–let alone move up.

 

This team got them back.

No I didn't love the design, but the previous team got them out, the current one got them back, that's an improvement.

[kdaddy]

3 minutes ago, jjeffeory said:

This team got them back.

No I didn't love the design, but the previous team got them out, the current one got them back, that's an improvement.

Kind of - SCV taking the summer off got them back.

(not suggesting BK make changes, but the design staff got a lot of help from SCV)

[keystone3ply]

2 minutes ago, kdaddy said:

Kind of - SCV taking the summer off got them back.

(not suggesting BK make changes, but the design staff got a lot of help from SCV)

Just got back, but "I want to get away"!  

[jjeffeory]

8 minutes ago, kdaddy said:

Kind of - SCV taking the summer off got them back.

(not suggesting BK make changes, but the design staff got a lot of help from SCV)

Well, that's a fair point.

[84BDsop]

19 minutes ago, gbass598 said:

Longevity helps you maintain it. Just because you do something a long time doesn't mean you are good at it. They've been fortunate to have a team that has fostered success and then those people stick around.

If you look at a lot of professional sports teams, you can turn around an organization in a few years with the right people involved. Staying at the top longer than that is where the longevity is required.

I'm just surprised people don't try to copy how BD functions creatively. Not copy "what" they do but "how" they do it. It clearly works.

Been wondering about that for 4 decades....

[ContraFart]

2 hours ago, saxfreq1128 said:

Disagree on all fronts, all these corps are doing great — Crown leveled up on 2022 in a huge way with a mature, caption-winning show, BAC has a team that has achieved the near-impossible in their rise over the last 6 years, and Bloo has once again proven they’re they’re among the most inventive corps on the field.

The BD team’s secret is longevity. Wouldn’t the way to compete them also be longevity? Let these design teams cook! 

Would the longevity argument still work if Keith Potter and Leon May were still at Crown, or Gino and Colin never left Cadets? To me a HOF designer/instructor is a HOF designer/instructor. It only took JD Shaw and Michael Gaines 2 years to bring a title to SCV and Gaines did not even write the drill his first year. 

Also if you look at BD, besides Chandler, Johnson and Glyde, everyone else in high positions have not been in those positions very long. At the same time, what BD does so well is cultivate their future leaders from inside the organization. Downey got to train his successor and still stick around as an advisor. I am sure whenever Scott Chandler retires, he will do the same. 

Longevity can be a reason for BDs success, but its not the only reason. If adding Shaw and Gaines can win you a title in 2 years and adding all the names at BAC can bring you from 12th to 2nd in 4 seasons, then maybe its more about quality than longevity.