San Antonio Crossmen

[Jeff Ream]

People are saying they're willing to help vets who want to go from the Northeast to San Antonio, and that's really great of them.

That having been said, it will prove incredibly difficult to raise the $1800 in membership fees plus at least $2500-$3000 for flights

that's gotta be tough. i feel for those kids

[drewbugler]

...

face it, perception or reality, a ton of people viewed them as the Cadets B team after 1999. and beginning in 03, the quality of the corps started going down....

It is so strange....having marched those years, I never noticed the "B" team stuff. Folks often asked me why I never went to the Cadets, and while I thought about it, there were some really great players in the Crossmen, and I enjoyed being around them. Plus, the 00-03 era had some great brass instruction going on. I listen back to those recordings and can't believe I was part of something so great.

Jeff Bridges, Dean Musson, Chuck Naffier, Joe Exley, Mike Ary, Al Chez, Evan Rogovin, and Mickey Chez put together some real good Crossmen hornlines. They knew how to make the show work for the talent they had, and while it wasn't box 5 in all captions all the time, it was exciting to be a part of. I'll take 7th place if it means I can make people clap for some good old fashioned drum corps.

Bottom line. If you get a great instructional staff on board full of people who you want to work hard, keep them around and let them work on relationships with marching members, they will stick around, become better performers, and make your show design better. Having a better talent pool seems great, and funding the corps is even better, but I hope the Crossmen never lose the blue-collar, hard-nosed attitude.

[soccerguy315]

The recent posts dealing with the cost and logistics of travelling from the Northeast to SanAntonio has caused me to wonder if it might not behoove the Crossmen's new management to make some sort of allowances for returning veterans who are unable to make pre-season camps. Given the suddeness of the move and the hardship it will undoubtedly cause many returning members, I would suggest waiving the attendance requirements at most or all camps prior to official move-in. Yes, it might result in a few problems for the corps as a whole and it could potentially add a couple of extra days rehearsal time to get everyone up to speed, but it would certainly go a long way towards helping veterans continue their association with the corps. Why punish the kids?

... they're working on the camp situation. I'm holding out hope there will be some in NJ since the dates and locations were previously up on the yea site before the move was announced. If they keep some of the staff from the PA/NJ area, I think this could be a realistic possibility.

[kevingamin]

Interesting reading from George Hopkins' LiveJournal:

I have struggled with the role of the Crossmen within Youth Education in the Arts for years now.

Many have not been around enough to know that I was the person who approached the YEA! board with the idea of bringing the Crossmen underneath the umbrella 11 years ago. I had asked for the board to do the same the year prior, but the request was rejected. So, in 96 I helped out unofficially, assisting the corps in any way I could. With the help of Jim Coates, the corps got through a year I was not sure they could financially survive, and then in September, we began to work together as a team.

There were struggles for certain over the years. Who gets what? Who had the best staff? Where should my attention be?

I remember in 1999 I was with the Crossmen for ½ the season. In Tennessee I stayed with the corps the full weekend, leaving the Cadets on their own. I worked the ensemble forever, I talked to the kids, I had staff meetings … I did all I could, and, well, the corps performed so very well that night. The same night, the Cadets, who assured me they were under control; well, they were less than stellar.

I have had that kind of struggle throughout the years of the two corps.

I went to both camps, I gave ideas to one, and then to the other. I wrote fund raising letters, I looked at souvie operations, I lined up volunteers and I worried and planned for the transportation issues.

A few years ago, the Crossmen had a disastrous summer of transportation. I had put off the lease agreements and my the time I got to it, I had to move quickly. I never got a chance to see all up close and personal, and well, the summer was ####! Eventually, I pulled 4 buses from Stagecoach, the for profit bus operation of YEA! at a loss for the summer of $40,000.00 ( just in lost net income). We ended up shutting down the bus company a year later.

About the time of the bus issues; 2004; I began to wonder if we could really run two corps. I had looked at this as a personal challenge and frankly, the fact that we are now relocating is for me exciting, but at some level, a failure.

I thought this would work?

I thought we could run two corps together with some sensible financial plan.

I thought over time people would stop referring to YEA! as the Cadets’ organization.

I thought the fans and alumni of both corps would grow to love both corps.

I thought I could convince both corps that competition was for the field only.

I could go on.

I had dreams but … many did not come true.

Read the full entry here.

[MikeD]

It's probably been done already on this thread ( I don't have the time to read through all the posts!), but I'd like to salute Scott Litzenberg for all the work he has done for the Crossmen over the years. He's a class act!

Fran

Not to mention being a great human being!

I judged a USSBA band show last fall with Scott...at critique one guy comes in guns blazing because his percussion score (Scott was giving the score that night) was not what he expected. He starts whining and complaining and pulling the 'who are you and what is YOUR background" stuff. Scott just kept replying calmly. As the guy walked away I hear one of the other staffers from that band say words like: "You idiot...that guy is the Crossmen's director!" :P

[MikeD]

ok average placement yeah you got that. but...look at the popluarity of the corps, which peaked about 1993. the Premier drumline shirt was a huge seller in 91 and 92.....i'd say every drummer on the east coast had one.

That's a pretty subjective kind of thing, IMO. There isn't really any way to prove or disprove that assertion. Including 93, they had just finished 7/8/6/8 from 1990-93 which were a lot higher then the 5 years before that, where they missed finals 4 out of 5 years. As you asserted those high placements probably helped them on a national level.

even in 87-89, when the corps was coming back up, popularity was high, especially close to home.

Could be...I was always a fan, but outside of our area? Who can tell, numbers-wise?

face it, perception or reality, a ton of people viewed them as the Cadets B team after 1999. and beginning in 03, the quality of the corps started going down.

Well, IMO it's primarily those who dislike YEA! and GH who think that. They like to use that belief as yet another rationale for why YEA! stinks...not thinking that YEA! saved the corps and led them to 8 straight years in finals.

every show i attended from 00-03 saw a lot more people at cadets booth than Crossmen's. why? they werent viewed as special.

IMO an unfair comparison. Cadets have been among the elite...and most popular...corps for a long time.

[shawn craig]

that's gotta be tough. i feel for those kids

We also have to remember that transportation costs might not be the only barrier to getting to SA. Not every parent may be so enthused about their teenager, a minor, flying across the country every month alone.

[revoeuph]

If I'm not mistaken, Aaron Guidry and Carol Chambers (my ETSS professor at TLU) will be co-arrangers.

I really hope mark chambers uses aaron guidry, hes the guy that does reagans music, and his music is truly one of a kind, i think he plays for cirque du soleil, but he could really write some cool stuff for crossmen if they used him

[Jim Clark]

Go Bones... wherever you are.

[sunflwrz84]

Since I first read the e-mail, I’ve been trying to figure out my exact feelings about the move. I didn’t live near the corps growing up and I’m still not in the alphabet soup (NJ/PA/DE) from where the Crossmen have hailed for the past 30 years, and their ancestor corps for even longer. But in my years with the Crossmen, I’ve come to love the area and even thought about moving there to be closer to the alumni base. I’d still like to live there because it’s the place where my fondest memories of marching took place.

To the alumni who mourn the loss of a hometown corps that binds community kids together, I’ve spent the last week reading what you had to say and I admit, I’m sad about it too. But the corps will still have that ability to unite people. It’s not just because all the kids are from the same place anymore and it hasn’t been that way for years. It’s now also about the community within the corps--the one that is symbolized by the cross over the heart that was worn last summer by every member, down to the colorguard.

When I heard that a change was coming, I was terrified. I feared a change in competitive or DCI status, or a financial reckoning that would leave the Crossmen for dead. I agree completely with Taylor’s post: if the corps were to die, my heart would go with it. This move gives me hope.

I am acting on this hope. This week I am starting a new line in my budget titled “Bones.” I want to buy at least one plane ticket for at least one deserving vet, whether they’re from the Northeast or Florida or Europe. I would be proud to help them continue the tradition of the corps that has never been a part of my neighborhood and will always be a part of my life.

When all else is gone, it’s the Bones that remain.