Star's guard

[EKBari]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but outside the top corps, very few used weapons during the late 80's.  It was only in the early 90's that they became more widespread.

Not true at all.....almost everyone had Rifles in the late eighties

Off the top of my head...1989

12th - Crossmen - yes

11th - VK - yes

10th - Freelancers - no

9th - Suncoast Sound YES!!!!!!!

8th - Bluecoats - yes

7th - Madison Scouts - yes

6th - Star of Indiana - yes

5th - Cadets of B Cty - yes (high guard)

4th - Blue Devils - no

3rd - Cavaliers - yes

2nd - Phantom LOL can't remember but I say no

1st - SCV no

1988

12th SkyRyders yes

11th Bluecoats yes

10th Spirit yes

9th Suncoast yes

8th VK yes

7th Star yes

6th Phantom no(high guard) <interesting>

5th Cavies yes

4th Garfield yes

3rd BD no

2nd SCV yes

1st Madison yes

1987

12th Skyryders yes

11th Bluecoats yes

10th Spirit yes (high Guard)

9th Suncoast yes

8th VK yes

7th Star yes(pandas twirled them)

6th Madison...um, of course !!

5th Phantom no

4th BD yes (yellow ones)

3rd Cavies yes

2nd SCV yes(first toss was a quad)

1st Garfield yes

......Most defiently corps used weapons in the "late" eighties, if Im wronf with some of these, please let me know...Im not too proud !!! : )

~G~

Again, correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't those the "top corps?"

[EKBari]

You're forgetting how many corps were still in Open Class, A and A-60

[byline]

Could it be an instructor issue?  Maybe they don't have anyone that can choreograph and clean rifle and sabre work.  Just a thought.

I could be wrong about this, but I'm thinking a fellow from Cavaliers (who marched rifle) was their guard instructor.So his ability to teach and clean rifle shouldn't have been an issue. I suspect it was more a choice of what the corps wanted the guard to do, much like Santa Clara's choice of going all -flag in 1978. Many guards went all-flag from the late '70s to about the mid-'80s, and then rifle began to make a comeback. (I was actually afraid rifle would die out altogether. All that kept that from happening, IMO, were the all-male corps and winter guard.) If you asked people back then why they preferred all-flag, they insisted it was because flags had higher visual impact (more GE) than rifles. I never really understood that comment, since there's nothing more thrilling, IMO, than a rifle line nailing a quad (or higher). But for some reason, that was the prevailing sentiment back then.

For whatever reason, I never much cared for Star's guard. Most years, my feeling about them was that they were "fluff" . . . they were there for ornamentation, but what they did wasn't very substantive. I thought they finally looked like a real guard their last year, 1993. You probably want me to define "real' guard, and I can't. Obviously, it's very subjective. But they didn't really hit me as a clean, high-impact, interpretive, cohesive guard till that last year.