Rough couple of days for the Maroon Team

[tubamann]

Ouch! Even the much-malingned Cadets have a bad day once in a while..As a person in the bus business, I can tell you it could have been worse as far as the bus..A hand-grenaded 6v-92 would clear about $15,000!

From YEA:

A Day in the Life of the Cadets

At 6:00 am on the way to Westminster, Maryland, the Cadets’ percussion bus, “9303”, blew an engine seal as it climbed a hill on the way through Maryland.

The bus made it to a rest stop where the admin team moved into action:

- The buses, the food truck and most of the caravan moved on to Westminster, getting the kids in at 8 am and on the floor for three hours.

- Brian Toth, the transportation manager called Tim Gallagher, the transportation manager for the Crossmen, and Tim brought a bus out to the Cadets who were about 90 miles from their school.

- Hopkins directed an off load of equipment from the bus to the Cadets’ equipment truck

- After discussion with Hop, Brian and Tim, arrangements were made with Bernie’s in Allentown to repair the bus.

- Brian arranged a tow at about $2,000 but, the bus will be somewhere, where we know the people and they have some sort of commitment and understanding to us.

- Hopkins had the YEA! search down a rental bus for 2-3 days.

If all goes as planned, the guess at the additional cost is $10,000.00. On the good side, the corps does not have a show this Thursday night, and the general travel pattern over the next week does not involve all too many miles. On the bad side, it is the July 4th weekend and if the repair does not get done by the 1st , it could be a difficult and expensive time.

On Wednesday night in Huntington, WV a bizarre series of events caused the percussion section to “come apart at the seams” for more than 30 seconds during the percussion break.

The “breakdown”, according to George Hopkins, “was the worst I have ever witnessed on a drum corps field. At one point, I thought I would have to re-start the corps”.

So what happened …

After the tom feature there is a 4 count hold for applause, after which the red queen says “do they always have to do that”.

The vocal is on count 5. On Tuesday, Marc Sylvester changed it to count 7 and never told anyone.

Now, at the Tuesday night show, with Hopkins at the audio panel, the entrance for the red queen was missed … it never happened.

At rehearsal, when the corps works in ensemble, we always stop following the top feature.

So … no one knew of the change. Until …. The show in Huntington.

With the voice two counts late, and coming in on count seven, the snares, who face backfield, were not sure of the counting. They were expecting to enter on 1, not 3? Meanwhile the keys followed the major and came in on one. The first snare was two counts late with the voice, the second snare tried to rebound, the third followed the first, the fourth did not play etc …

Unfortunately, this is a 100 count phrase so for 100 counts, it was nothing but a jumble. It was impossible to make sense at all of anything being played.

In the post show meeting with the members, Hopkins referred to it as catastrophic while nothing that things happen, it was in the past, and all we could do was learn from this huge error.

The students’ reactions ranged from upset, to anger to confusion. It was indeed, a night to remember.

Interestingly … the corps still was judged to be the victor despite this huge gash.

The percussion field guy heard it … indeed, the corps was almost a point out of first in field percussion.

But other captions did not mention the debacle, whether they were not sure what they witnessed, or, they just did not know what to say about it.

This will be a performance that we talk about for years much like the 1996 performance at Massillon when 30 members of the horn line fell on one move …

Or the 85 finals when one half of the corps entered a count before the other side! Amazing stuff, but kids are kids and live performance is live performance.

It is why we do it.

And why we lose our hair.

The corps is in Westminster on one piece, as of 11:00 am on Thursday.

We have rehearsal from noon to 7 pm and a laundry evening. Friday features rehearsals, a 400 attendee Music is Cool clinic and the YEA! Sponsored Westminster Drum Corps Show.

Edited June 30, 2006 by tubamann

[tubamann]

Ahh..good old I-68. That ###### roller coaster of an interstate has destroyed many an engine.

for those of you who dont know, I-68 runs from Morgantown, WV to Fredrick, MD. For a corps caravan, it is a nightmare of a road filled with 6, 8 and 10 mile long steep grades..you are either overheating your engine or burning your brakes! the "dragonfly effect" "dragon" up the hills, and "flying" down the other side!

[IllianaLancerContra]

Ahh..good old I-68. That ###### roller coaster of an interstate has destroyed many an engine.

for those of you who dont know, I-68 runs from Morgantown, WV to Fredrick, MD. For a corps caravan, it is a nightmare of a road filled with 6, 8 and 10 mile long steep grades..you are either overheating your engine or burning your brakes! the "dragonfly effect" "dragon" up the hills, and "flying" down the other side!

Yeah, but IMHO it sure beats the Penn Turnpike

[John Schmitt]

I usually spend whatever I save in tolls on gas. It is prettier though.

[shawn craig]

Yeah, but IMHO it sure beats the Penn Turnpike

Sure Does!!!

I thought I was gonna die a few time on that. And it always seemed to rain or snow whenever I took it.

[retroguy]

On Wednesday night in Huntington, WV a bizarre series of events caused the percussion section to “come apart at the seams” for more than 30 seconds during the percussion break.

The “breakdown”, according to George Hopkins, “was the worst I have ever witnessed on a drum corps field. At one point, I thought I would have to re-start the corps”.

So what happened …

After the tom feature there is a 4 count hold for applause, after which the red queen says “do they always have to do that”.

The vocal is on count 5. On Tuesday, Marc Sylvester changed it to count 7 and never told anyone.

Now, at the Tuesday night show, with Hopkins at the audio panel, the entrance for the red queen was missed … it never happened.

At rehearsal, when the corps works in ensemble, we always stop following the top feature.

So … no one knew of the change. Until …. The show in Huntington.

With the voice two counts late, and coming in on count seven, the snares, who face backfield, were not sure of the counting. They were expecting to enter on 1, not 3? Meanwhile the keys followed the major and came in on one. The first snare was two counts late with the voice, the second snare tried to rebound, the third followed the first, the fourth did not play etc …

Unfortunately, this is a 100 count phrase so for 100 counts, it was nothing but a jumble. It was impossible to make sense at all of anything being played.

In the post show meeting with the members, Hopkins referred to it as catastrophic while nothing that things happen, it was in the past, and all we could do was learn from this huge error.

The students’ reactions ranged from upset, to anger to confusion. It was indeed, a night to remember.

Interestingly … the corps still was judged to be the victor despite this huge gash.

The percussion field guy heard it … indeed, the corps was almost a point out of first in field percussion.

But other captions did not mention the debacle, whether they were not sure what they witnessed, or, they just did not know what to say about it.

This will be a performance that we talk about for years much like the 1996 performance at Massillon when 30 members of the horn line fell on one move …

Or the 85 finals when one half of the corps entered a count before the other side! Amazing stuff, but kids are kids and live performance is live performance.

It is why we do it.

And why we lose our hair.

Awwww, Breaks my heart :P :P

[JimF-LowBari]

Sure Does!!!

I thought I was gonna die a few time on that. And it always seemed to rain or snow whenever I took it.

Better (and cheaper) palces to stop on I-68 also. Have relatives in Huntington and I-81/I-68 to Morgentown is the way I drive even with the turnpike closer to my house.

Thinking of Cadets breaking down on the mountains between Morgentown and Charleston :sshh:

[Spirit Age-Out]

...and they still won Ensemble Music and GE Music? Whatever...I give up.

[MikeD]

...and they still won Ensemble Music and GE Music? Whatever...I give up.

But their percusssion mark was very low...as that would be the primary area such a mess would have had an impact.

[jwillis35]

...and they still won Ensemble Music and GE Music? Whatever...I give up.

It could be that what they did right was still good enough to win those captions. This is not uncommon. I have seen this kind of thing since the early 80s. There have been many times when corps like Cadets or BD have had off nights, even to the extent of major breakdowns in certain sections, yet they have won those captions and usually the show. They win because they are THAT GOOD. Do we discount all the good for 100 counts of bad? And when such a break down occurs, does this mean that Phantom or Spirit are automatically entitled to the top position? What you don't hear, but what I am sure took place, is that those other corps were NOT perfect and probably had major issues with their show.

DCI's judges are not out to get the other corps, they DO know how to judge (contrary to what many believe), and they are highly trained. They know what they are going, and while the amplification issue will certainly need some reworking in terms of its presence on the judging sheets and how much weight it carries, rest assured that the scores that are given are coming from great people who are doing their best to give you the correct scores and the best assessment for the corps.

Jonathan