CozyChopsCom Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 (edited) What were your personal favorite years in DCA? Was it your favorite because you won?Donny Is this a trick question, Donny? The sentimental DA sans flying chairs, not tossing sunglasses? Good question: Hmm, I'll always treasure '94 Empire. Fairy tale season. Thanks, Donny! Dave! Sure miss Mr. B. '95 Mirage Sr.: Taking a brand new corps to its first show on June 15 with a completed show. The huge improvement after that thanks to a good staff and some of the most dedicated performers I've had the joy to know. '03 Kilties: Being asked to be in the F - A - dubba C Syne trio for Gerry Kelsey's book. Phenomenal talent in the Mad Plaid and true drum corps folks. Downside: August was a blur. I ended up filling in on a 3rd shift job that worked 7 nights per week. Physically demanding. I would arrive at August rehearsals and catch a 30-minute cat nap...Drive back to work...Drive back for Sunday kamp. I almost passed out in a Sunday morning horn arc, but I only confided to Jim Sobacki, sop soloist. I was at my wit's end by Labor Day weekend. Thanks to my Michigan pals for sharing rides! '99 Kilties: After going to the initial Oct. '93 Kilties' meeting, only to find it was a meeting, no playing at a meeting where Ken Norman was attending, and that the plan was to compete in '95, do parades in '94, I was annoyed and drove 375 miles home. Kilties did compete earlier, but I was elsewhere. Finally, in '99, I got to wear the plaid. These folks are the epitome of drum corps. I totalled a van the first drum corps show of the season, and my sop felt like a euph with my elbow and my broken ribs, high notes hurt like ####, but the Mad Plaid family inspired me to muscle through it. Dern Hairbear -- He kept bugging me until I finally strapped on the 10-lb. kilt. So glad I did. '06: It's turning into a bodacious season. I got to be "Renegade for a Day" and hang with a phenomenal corps. The fighter pilot sop line is truly my cup of tea. In a few days, they made me feel so welcome. Thanks so much to Mac and JoEllen, Jim McF, Lee, Chris, Gil, J.T., Kelley, the Reneguard and the entire corps for accepting me. Thanks to Larrie, Dugada, James, Tiffany, Travler et al. -- What a lead line! Going to cover the CorpsVets, I ended up sitting in, doing a kinda funny day of reporting, was blown away by David Henry's sizzling charts, the playing of Hunter Moss, Bill Wear, Jerald Sheets, Jonathan Thomas, Andrew Brown, Jenny Stubblefield/Wear, John Zaragosa, John Hoekstra, RJ Scott, Greg Suggs, Dave Leland, Patrick Elmenthaler, Ken Huff, Dave Stollberg, Mike Weiss, and more, DMs Greg Teems 'n Marvin Fontaine...Joined. Being a member of the Rat Pack for this Vegas show is gonna be quite a ride. Wow! Another Rat Pack show. CorpsVets is a great place to hang. Every year is my fave year to cover corpsdom for DCWorld (Subscribe at http://www.drumcorpsworld.com ) and to work with DCA. I've also enjoyed helping with DCI. Edited June 20, 2006 by CozyChopsCom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger Ellis Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 1972 - My first year in DCA - my very first DCA show was in Ithaca NY - followed by the well-chronicled party/brawl - welcome to DCA, kid. The feeling the young guys get when they make their major league debut in baseball must be much the same. DCA Championships in Jersey City at Roosevelt Stadium - Cabs/Sky shootout ending in a controversial championship decision - what a night. 2000 - back on the field at age 50. Playing for the pure enjoyment of it - appreciating the moment of being on the field more than I did when I was younger. And still being able to do it! 2002 - (mini-corps is DCA, right?) - Hanging with my homeboys from Erie. The picture on my office wall of my wife and I with championship medals around our necks says it all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Argul Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 1986. One heck of a weekend in Allentown. 1996. My first year writing for these amazing musicians. 2000. The Corps got beaten up every weekend, but these Bushwackers were......titanium. In many ways, 2000 was the best year for me. Sick, right? Those are my favorites........so far! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sopmedic Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 Ok i will bight........ 1993 - First year in DCA, 15 years old, Gun goes off at the first show to start us off and my mind went completely blank. Forgot my music, my drill, and everything else in between! But I did catch that "bug" and I was hooked. I will never forget that rehearsal the night after pre-lims. I couldn't get over the feeling of being in something that so many people worked so hard for. 1996 - The further away that show gets in time the more memorable it becomes. It is legendary in Caballero land. 1997 - My first year on Lead Sop. I was granted permission by Bernatos to "Move up to the split part" after spending a year on 3rd and 3 years on 2nd. Greg Deamer and Bruce, and Timmy and Ponzo welcomed me and handed me a HUGE mouthpiece. I think it was a Bach 1.5C and they said play with this and EARN" your notes. (It worked) We did OK that year but I never had so much fun! 1999 - 2001- I clump all these years together because it was truly the greatest times of my marching career so far. We didn't win any championships, we didn't win a lot of shows (thanks Brigs!! l ) but the main group of people in that era of the cabs history ended up being my best friends to this day. We had so much fun in those years, drum corps was just the "thing we had in common" that started it all. The partys, the insanity, the relationships. It was unreal. 2003 - We won. How can you not like that. 2006 - I can't tell you what an honor it is so far to be in this years corps. After last years difficult season, this year is turning out to be unbelievable. And marching in this lead line is like a dream come true. Can't wait to see what happens...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHall Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 Good thread Donny! Well 1990 was good because...I think...we came in 4th. If memory serves me correctly we would've taken top brass, anyways, we did "Channel One Suite" and "Something" with a Steve Brubaker drill and a Corky Fabrizio book and Beth Fabrizio as DM. But my favorite year was 2001 and 2002 with Crusaders. I got to work with Donny Allen and to top it off, to work with Steve Cooley who was my horn instructor with the Royal Coachmen in the early 70's. I consider all those cats good friends of mine and hope someday to see them all again soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LegalEagle50 Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 i'm going to say 1990. i only went to prelims and it was my first viewing of everyone. up until then i'd only seen the old DCA Derby, CT show with the limited amount of corps that performed there. it was a fascinating experience for me to see all the different corps in Allentown, to see so many people excited for this activity. (i'd never seen junior corps live at that point either.) :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brigscontrachik05 Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 Nice thread! My favorite year? 2004. Simply because most people didn't beleive in Brigs that year. We lost the Bingo, had less members, name it. We worked so hard, and came out really strong. Our finals performance was the best we have ever put out there, it all came together and it was just IT, compare to any other year where Brigs always had so-so finals performance, winning or not. (in my opinion anyway) I still have to mention 2001 and 2002, just because of the talent we had in the corps. It was just unbelievable. Rehearsing was so easy. I never rehearsed that less in my life and came out with a product that good. lol Good times... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bumo27 Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 2003. We were a machine. 'Nuff said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soloist8603 Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 My favorite years are - - - - - - 1986 - Steel City, we beat Cabs in Hershey (1st loss in 2 years for them) 2000, 01, 03, 04 all my years WITH Cabs getting to march with Ponzo in 2000 then with the bashmaster (Adam Berger) and all the other leads from those Cabs hornlines 2003 (again) because I experienced my one and only Championship and I was lucky enough for it to Cabs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistress Kelli Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 I've only had 3 years but my first one was the best... 2003. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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