San Antonio Crossmen

[SCVsopAaron]

Removed out of respect for Crossmen alumni, members, and voluteers...

Edited September 23, 2006 by SCVsopAaron

[SCVsopAaron]

Removed out of respect for Crossmen alumni, members, and voluteers...

Edited September 23, 2006 by SCVsopAaron

[MarimbasaurusRex]

I agree it's a wonderful city and for sure Crossmen bring brand name recognition. But, if this is the same Crossmen, why should we expect any greater success or higher placement by virtue of location? Will two years out of finals be a draw for truly top talent? And if it's not the same Crossmen, what the heck is it? That's an unknown. Marching band success does not equal DCI div 1 tour success or a finals spot. Waiting to see how it plays out. Hopefully it will be huge, but I'm not drinking the koolaid yet.

[Legalhack]

Southwid broke from the Madison organization.

Did Madison actually own SW?

[jwillis35]

There is no doubt this move will upset many, thrill many, and most likely confuse a lot of people. And you have to feel bad for the East Coast kids who still want to march Crossmen and will not be able to. All we can do at this point is wish them luck and much success in Texas.

Here are some things to consider, however, before we get too many complaints and conspiracy theories running amuck on this topic.

1. Not many people on this forum really know the financial circumstances that brought about this move, so we need to be careful about assuming that things were just fine and peachy with the Crossmen. This is a corps that WOULD HAVE FOLDED years ago. I applauded YEA! for stepping in back then and offering to help. Then when YEA! showed a helping hand, people were critical of the Cadets and Hopkins for their motives. All of a sudden the Crossmen are the Cadets feeder corps. All of a sudden they are only holding camps and tryouts together so the Cadets can raid the chicken coup. All these crazy conspiracy theories abounded, and mainly from people who dislike Hopkins or the Cadets and feel that such an organization could not really be doing such noble things just to help. This is the competitive and sarcastic nature of many in this crazy world of drum corps, and it is unfortunate.

2. Having known a number of people who have worked for YEA! and the Cadets and Crossmen, I know that the relationship, while not perfect, has been a good one, and that YEA! has provided many, many services and funds for this corps for 11 years. These are really good people with big hearts who have been doing their best to keep this corps alive. They were proactive and doing something, not just playing armchair general while griping up a storm on this forum. We should be applauding these efforts. And that doesn't mean we will not have disagreements with how they handle some things.

3. I applaud YEA! for continually looking for the best for both of these corps. That is their job. And there is nothing easy about keeping a drum corps alive. It's funny to me that we seem to blame YEA! and Hopkins for their unusual tactics and their methods of operation, and we love to view them as some sort of doom and gloom to the activity as we know it, yet we offer no harsh criticism to those who have allowed corps to fold. We cry about not having a lot of healthy corps these days, but then we slap the people who dare to do something to save one.

4. So that brings me to this: Will this be a good move? I don't know. Who does? It seems logical, and there are many positives. It wasn't like a bunch of towns were lining up in Eastern, PA to say "Hey, come live with us." It wasn't like Eastern communities were throwing money at them and offering to pay off their debt with YEA! I applaud YEA! for wanting to help the Crossmen and for continually working for a better location for them, and for understanding that the best thing for the Crossmen was for them to NOT be affiliated with YEA! for the long haul. And perhaps they were in the shadow of the Cadets, but that wasn't by design. Pretty much every eastern corps has been in the shadow of the Cadets for years. Sometimes I think we hold the Cadets competitive status against them. These partnerships can be a strain, even on a large organization like YEA! It did not work out for Madison and Southwind. At some point each corps must show a fiscal responsibility for itself, and with DCI's new structure most likely going into effect very soon, corps will need to be fiscally sound in order to compete. The best thing that could be done was to make sure that the Crossmen have a chance to compete and be healthy financially. A group from Texas stepped up and said "Yes, we want the challenge, and we can already provide this and this and this," and a deal was done.

Now some have said that this deal was done way to quick, or that the timing was bad. Really? How would you know? When is the best time to move a drum corps from one city to another? I would think now is that time!

5. Now, I do not know the details because my best friend no longer works in the offices for YEA!, but it sounds to me like the Crossmen get a new lease on life, at least in a couple of years if things go well. But it is up to you, Texas, to make this work. The Sky Ryders came calling years ago, and that did not pan out. San Antonio is a great location with excellent talent and facilities for camps and fund raising. My advice to those in the local area: volunteer your time and help fund raise, help with meals at camps, help with other duties, and help on tour. This is the tough part, and there is nothing fun about working bingos all year long. I do that here in Canton for an amazing drum and bugle corps, and while the smoke can just kill me some nights, it is important to serve, and it is important to keep this activity alive.

6. As for whether this move will hurt Revo or other corps, who knows. If Texas is such a big state with all this amazing talent, then there should be more than enough to go around for everyone. And I don't see it hurting the other Texas kids who want to continue marching Bluecoats and Phantom or whoever. For most of those kids, they have already invested several years in one of those corps, and are unlikely to change allegiance at this point. And as for this turf war thing in which many are accusing the Cadets of moving into the Crossmen's back yard and then shipping them out, I just think you need to review your history. The Crossmen almost folded in their "backyard." Nobody was willing to step up and help them, well, nobody except YEA! So please, all this crying about the Crossmen moving is lame at best. When people had the chance to help them back in the early 1990s, no community, no company, no financial backer, no high school, no nothing stepped up and said "We need to keep the Crossmen here in Eastern, PA." Some organization from New Jersey (Cadets/YEA!) decided to help. Had that not been done, the last 11 years would not have existed.

7. The positive here is that we still have the Crossmen. If this high school and their director can make this work, and work really well, then perhaps we will see more corps sprout up in Texas, which would likely encourage more kids to march. It's not a matter of sharing the current pool of Texas kids marching, it's really more a matter of increasing that number. You could fill 50 corps with the number of Texas HS band kids and still not have all of them marching.

Good luck to the Crossmen!

[ValleyKnights]

well, we were told something similar about Allentown.....where's LVK now?

Jeff,

Getting kids was never really a problem for LVK, we ultimately folded because we lacked a real board of directors and never built the internal structure to support "life changes" of those heavily involved in the start up of the corps, when time commitments changed for certain support staff, there was no one to step up and take over. Lack of a solid housing plan for rehearsal was also a key factor. Ultimately, our success was also our death. Expectations grew, the staff and kids proved they could provide a successful corps, the behind the scenes structure and support just killed us. Even at our last rehearsal ever when basically we had no staff left, we still had 38 kids attend.

There are several people who will be meeting in October to discuss the possibility of returning to competition down the road... Jeff (or anyone else) who would like to be a part of it, please email me.

Glen Paisley, MPA

Realtor

The Glen Paisley Team

Patt, White GMAC Real Estate

610-504-4072

www.AllLehighValleyHomes.com

www.LockRidgeNews.com

Edited September 22, 2006 by ValleyKnights

[Legalhack]

Hopefully this will work out well for all concerned. But, two questions come to mind...

San Antonio is a beautiful city, but... other corps have tried to draw talent there with limited success, why would it be so much better for Crossmen? Dallas/Ft. Worth makes a little more sense but that also is not a sure thing. This will be interesting to see if Texas can really support a div 1 corps as so many hope. There are reasons kids don't stick around Texas for the summer.

Also, does anyone else find it weird, on appearance anyway... If eastern PA isn't good for the Crossmen, why is it good for the Cadets? Cadets move into Crossmen's back yard in Allentown... ship the Crossmen off to another region... weird.

Let's not fall into the trap of viewing all YEA! moves through a drum corps centric lens since USSBA has become a larger (an continually growing) part of the YEA! pie. It may not have been an issue of Eastern PA being good for the Cadets as much as the area being good for YEA! and the state line being deemed irrelevant once geography was no longer part of the Cadets name and fine points of geography no longer an issue in recruitment/retention.

Why might things better for Crossmen than for earlier Texas efforts? Well, Crossmen is a name brand for one thing with alumi who may still be willing to keep opening their wallets and current relationships with equipment manufacturers. Start ups lack on all of these fronts.

[MikeM]

Ah, it all becomes clear now.

Move the Crossmen to Texas, home of several BOA champions to draw from.

DCI turns into BOA Summer.

Remember, it was Mr. Hopkins who said Drum Corps = Band.

I wish no ill on Crossmen. I want nothing but for them to succeed. I feel bad for the vets who will now have to triple their work load to be able to afford to march there.

However, I have a suspicious feeling that there are alterior motives behind this move by a certain individual.

These are MY opinions, and are definately speculation.

[Bob984]

The timpani player, one of the pit auxiliary players (remember the Spanish radio announcer?) and at least one brass (who has already commented about this) were from Texas. I'd consider them musicians.

I stand corrected....I got my info from a fellow alum, and he obviously was wrong....sorry.....and don't get me wrong, I still wish them best, but am saddened that they are no longer an eastern drum corps.......

GB

[MikeD]

San Antonio is a beautiful city, but... other corps have tried to draw talent there with limited success, why would it be so much better for Crossmen? Dallas/Ft. Worth makes a little more sense but that also is not a sure thing. This will be interesting to see if Texas can really support a div 1 corps as so many hope. There are reasons kids don't stick around Texas for the summer.

As a div I corps, the Xmen will not be sticking around Texas for the summer...they start touring in mid-June.

I think the RR connection will be a help with drawing members from other texas HS. The RR director must have all sorts of band director contacts he can use to get other bands to recommend the Xmen to their members.