Not Marching DCA After Ageing Out

[ACustom19]

Gotta love hearsay.

[MiamiSun76]

Bravo for standing up for hboyce, and for standing up well.

I, too, am not inclined to march senior corps at any point. Personally, the shower incident he described would be more than enough to keep me away from senior corps forever, if I had witnessed it myself. Now I haven't met any senior corps members personally, but I do read what they say on here. The attitudes of many towards today's junior corps shows is really quite a turn-off. I became a fan of the activity because I love what I've seen the past five or ten years. I wouldn't enjoy being in a group where members mock today's junior corps shows, despite the fact that the shoe was on the other foot however many years ago.

So much misunderstanding and arrogance.

1st, I don't see how "standing up for Hboyce" is commendable. He extrapolated the behavior of one person into the norms of an entire group. Being from Indiana, surely you understand stereotypes..............

2nd, how old was this now-famous whizzer? I ask because from what I see year in and year out there are more 16-21 year olds in DCA than there are post-25ers. Even in my own ice age adventures in a competing DCA corps, at 25 I was the 3rd OLDEST member (in a full corps). My guess would be that "The Whiz" had some junior corps eligibility left and would have been a boor wherever he was.

3rd, I think you're far out with this mocking thing. Again from the ice age, I wouldn't have gotten very far mocking the junior corps of the day, because the person teaching me was also teaching top 5 DCI corps (Dennis DeLucia) It's no different today. I KNOW that DCA members don't stand around mocking the work of Key Poulan, Wayne Downey, Myron Rosander, Larry Kerchner..................... while they're being taught by them. I also don't think that these individuals, talented as they are, have a DCA persona and a DCI persona that they move between.

I can buy the answers posted here by many: burned out; put off things for DCI that have to be dealt with now; No DCA corps close by. That's why most DCA corps don't build on recent DCI D1 age-outs. As one director told me "They've either just gotten their high school diploma or their AARP card.

[MiamiSun76]

Of course, I admit to having never seen a senior corps rehearse. If I get the chance, and am proven wrong, I will gladly rescind these comments. :)

Same work ethic, less time.

I'd suggest not making such comments UNTIL you've seen a quality DCA corps rehearse. Then you can talk out of your mouth with your head on your shoulders rather than what the arrogant comment above implies.

[Jeffreelancer]

The best of the best are appealing to me, not because of the chance for a ring, but because I know I'm most likely to find that work ethic in those groups. Much of what I've heard from and about senior corps doesn't make me think I would find what I want there, meaning that in the end I wouldn't be enjoying myself.

I agree that a good work ethic is needed to be able to make it in this activity. One thing everyone needs to remember is that in junior corps you pretty much live drum corps for the summer and you have time to take the show to the stellar levels they are achieving today. In senior corps we have very limited rehearsal time even in the summer so a good work ethic is pretty much required otherwise nobody will want to watch the product you put on the field and I doubt it would be very enjoyable to perform.

Also on the subject of alcohol, I have seen that adults (no matter what activity) tend to use alcohol as a way to relate to each other. Just about all adults have drank and it is accepted in our society to drink at just about any type of function other then working. I am not saying that it is right and I do not condone drinking at show sites, but it is part of our society that most members of junior corps have not been subjected to on a routine basis. This may be one reason why the myth exists that all senior corps do is drink and party all of the time.

[MiamiSun76]

And I'm sorry that some involved with Div 1 don't give credit where credit is due, if this is the case and I'm reading this correctly.

I think you're reading it correctly. I think the place to deal with it is on another website or, at least, on the individual corps forums here. This thread isn't going to help anything.

BTW, I believe the top 7 DCA corps were on Bb's this year, with more surely to follow as finances allow.

[Matt_S]

So much misunderstanding and arrogance.

Misunderstanding? perhaps. I arrived at the opinion you quoted after reading many of the things that are said on DCP, and things can get rather distorted on these forums. I fail to see what part of my post you consider to be arrogant.

1st, I don't see how "standing up for Hboyce" is commendable. He extrapolated the behavior of one person into the norms of an entire group. Being from Indiana, surely you understand stereotypes..............

No, he did't extrapolate the behavior of one individual. He explained that he had met several individuals from senior corps, and that none of them gave him a favorable impression of senior corps. He never claimed that all senior corps members were one way or another. Are there great people in DCA that he could meet? Without question there are, and if you'll read closer, hboyce acknowledged that. However, his experience told him that there are plenty of ######## out there, and perhaps more than he wanted to deal with.

3rd, I think you're far out with this mocking thing.

I can only speak my impressions formed from the words I've read on here, often to the tune of "DCI sucks, come to DCA!". No, it's not everybody, I'm not buying into a stereotype, but it's a fact that I've heard many disparaging words from people on these forums towards DCI, making it hard for me to respect their efforts in DCA.

[MikeD]

So much misunderstanding and arrogance.

1st, I don't see how "standing up for Hboyce" is commendable. He extrapolated the behavior of one person into the norms of an entire group. Being from Indiana, surely you understand stereotypes..............

What the original poster said was that he had experienced a number of senior corps folks, and they ALL left him with less than a positive outlook on senior corps. Not that all are that way, but that all he had seen were less than stellar. IMO that will certainly color his impression, as that was the sum total of his first hand experience. Not one person, but more than one.

Of course, he is wrong about DCA on the whole, but from his perspective, why should he even bother. If it WAS one or two folks, I'm sure he'd think differently. The impression he gave was of a larger sampling than that.

What I stand up for is how he formed his initial opinion...and it's validity to him based on his experience, not that it is true in reality.

Goodness, give me the Cabs alumni playing "Cherry Pink..." and I'm happy! :P

Mike

[oldbaritone]

Did I not just say "Every senior corps member I have ever met..."? Would that not imply to you that I have met some?

But let me tell you a story. In 03 we had a show in NJ. And for some reason (I don't remember why) every corps was showering at the show site. It was all div 2/3 corps and some senior corps.

Anyway, I'm walking out of the shower area when I hear shouting. Some senior corps guy is purposely pissing on someone else. Mind you there are 14 year old kids in there too watching this and even if that wasn't the case it is an extremely disgusting act.

Other than that my interaction with senior corps members hah been rather meaningless conversations that give me the impression that "this guy is a ######" and somehow alcohol comes up in the conversation. That or they were already drunk.

Look, I don't care if former DCI members march DCA or not. If its something they want to do, fine; if not, its not something they want to do. However, this shower incident is pretty bizarre. You say it happened only 2 years ago in 2003. Do you by any chance remember what corps it was? I belong to an alumni corps and I have two children, ages 16 and 13. I can't even imagine anyone I know acting badly around children. My kids have free run of the stadiums and every one of my co-members knows who they are and actlike a surrogate parents in my absence. At the DCA championships in Scranton they again had free run of the place. My daughter especially seemed to gravitate towards the Renegades and they couldn't be nicer to her.

Also, in my experience, people seem to talk a lot of trash about the beer they're going to drink etc, but I don't see it much in actuality.

[oldbaritone]

I think you're reading it correctly. I think the place to deal with it is on another website or, at least, on the individual corps forums here. This thread isn't going to help anything.

BTW, I believe the top 7 DCA corps were on Bb's this year, with more surely to follow as finances allow.

I don't think that is the case. Buccaneers, MBI, Bush and Hawthorne with Bb's and Syracuse, Empire, and Renegades on G.

[MiamiSun76]

I don't think that is the case. Buccaneers, MBI, Bush and Hawthorne with Bb's and Syracuse, Empire, and Renegades on G.

I stand corrected. I'd assume that those still on G are there for financial reasons and not "making a statement"?