Blue Devils

[90'sMelloguy]

Wasn't 1991 the year Scott Johnson went to SCV?

I dont remember what year Scotty J. went to SCV (you are probably right) but that was not the reason for the strife. Tom Float (battery) & Catherine Float (pit) were the percsussion captions at BD up untill 91.

[90'sMelloguy]

wait... OMG... are you saying that OTHER corps have had difficult times and staff issues in the past that they have overcome and gone on to be successful again???

You mean... you mean to say... ARE YOU SAYING... that Madison's issues this year aren't the FIRST ones to be difficult and seemingly bad in corps history??

And Blue Devils didn't FOLD because of the staff issues and members quitting??

OMG... it's a miracle!! I have been thinking lately (given what I've read about "similar" recent situations...) that any corps having issues like the one's you elude to

are doomed to die.

THANK GOD there is hope...

Very true. I have been saying on these boards that Madison will be fine and I truely believe it. IMO the only thing that could really get them in trouble is major financial woes....which they appear to have none

[danielray]

Speaking about the percussion transition during this period...

In the years between 90-94, the corps was really going through quite a lot of transition, percussion was only one small part.

There was not only a new director, but quite a lot of changes in the staff, program coordination, tweaking a bit of the philosophy in some ways, adding guys to the guard, changing the visual technique program, in a sense, completely redefining the corps.

During this period, there were all kinds of issues that one would expect with a corps that had considerable success, but needed to keep to continue to evolve to keep an edge.

In 1992, for example, adding guys to the guard was a massive change... and really shook things up. If you blink, you might miss a part where part of the hornline was spinning flags. This wasn't really because it was something to really add to the program visually, but was something that certainly helped to buffer this transition, as it was a bit of a controversy at the time.

In 1993, the corps was still stuck in the middle of a transition... I remember a big blow up with soloist being told they couldn't take their shakos off. While it seems like something that would be quite small... at the time, it felt like so much change, all at once.

While percussion scores revealed some of the most obvious and drastic changes during this period, I'd consider that, as a whole, this era was something of a chrysalis and a redefinition... where the corps finally its new voice and new era in 1994.