Phantom Regiment Guard - Coed in 2007?

[glory]

Or maybe those 6 woman could have been equal in talent to the last 6 women taken. For all we know...the guys who were taken could have been lower then the rest of the guard or maybe in the middle. Who knows...either way I do not agree with this point.

You presume the women selected first weren't the best available - not usually a valid assumption. As for the men, you're right; we can't know precisely how they compare to the women. We can, however, legitimately presume the small numbers of men (six versus say 36) allowed Phantom to be more, rather than less, selective (though an assumption nonetheless). It's entirely possible, for instance, the number of men selected was based on the talent available rather than some predetermined number. I doubt the same flexibility applied for the women, save one or two spots.

What if you re-phrased the question to say: Could BD or Cadets reasonably expect to lure talent away from PR because they are coed?

You can turn the question around as you suggest. But you can't reverse the impact of supply and demand on the quality of the talent available to Phantom. Phantom must compete against many guards, several with better records, for female talent. Its ability to capture a higher percentage of the more talented candidates depends on many things. One of those is the number of spots it proposes to fill. So long as it takes more females than BD or Cadets or other top guards, it's reasonable to assume in the absence of evidence to the contrary (past performance, for instance) that it's taking less talented candidates to fill the last holes.

I don't particularly care whether Phantom's guard is coed or not. I can say that because I don't much care about he difference between first place and fourth. If they want to win, though, I think a coed guard will help.

HH

[festive]

This is going to be a really popular statement, but:

I'm about as over the all-female color guard as I am the idea of all-male drum corps. I generally don't like anything that is (unnecessarily) exclusionary or exclusive, especially when we're talking about what are essentially public organizations.

I understand tradition. But I also understand how cool it is for the demon team in 06 (or the solo male dancer in 2005) to march in the Regiment, where the guard was previously limited to only females. They are great kids and fine performers and deserved, and got, the chance of a lifetime, to march with Phantom Regiment. When you want to march Phantom, really, marching some other corps just doesn't cut it.

While I understand tradition, I also understand the value of letting people have a chance.

I was personally thrilled to hear the girl from SCV's snare line talk about her experience on the broadcast. That's awesome. She threw down, got her spot, and is therefore an inspiration to others. I found her story very inspiring.

Now, the above being my opinion, a question for someone who might know:

Has a girl ever auditioned for the Cavaliers? You'd think (with the success of the corps and their truly innovative approach to drum corps programming, which is fundamentally unlike any other drum corps in the business) that some girl would eventually want to march Cavaliers. Or no?

Scouts have marched girls before, but they are historically all-male, too. Scouts rock. What's been the history with any girls auditioning for the Scouts?

We've lost all of our all-female corps, so the point is moot for them.

To sum up: If a girl can march and spin or drum or play better than a guy, then the girl should get the spot, and vice versa, and being eliminated from consideration on the basis of one's sex is outmoded and more than a little insulting.

Edited September 12, 2006 by festive

[MHSmirage]

FYI- The PR winterguard will be co-ed. A good friend of mine found out today he made the line.