Being with a rebuilding/lesser corps

[JimF-LowBari]

I always felt that staying with a local struggling corps and helping to build it into a finalist was much more rewarding then joining an corps that was already an established finalist.

Heh, man do I know this feeling..... (dead last at DCA Prelims my first year, 6th place when I left corps for the first time).

Even had the same Business Manager

[Ageout90]

It is always more rewarding and also gives a feeling of real accomplishmen to be with a rebuilding group and hopefully be along for the upward ride of success,.

As a 20 year old Music Major in NJ, during November of 1988; I chose to join the Crossmen because I wanted to be with the underdog.

The corps was coming off a 14th place finish and had not been in finals for 5 seasons.

In 1989 (my first year) we made finals for the first time in 5-years. It was soo much fun.

Then I stayed with the Crossmen as a member and instructor; by 1992 we ended up in 6th place.

That was truly worth it, and alot of fun to be with a corps that worked and earned everything it got along the way.

[raphael18]

Frankly, most people don't march for enough years to really rebuild a corps. I'd say the average nowdays is probably around 3 years (where people used to march for what seems like forever 5-10 years). So, there isn't a lot of insentive to stick around and do that.

I won't lie - one of my favorite parts of touring in div 2/3 was watching the other corps (not just the div 1s, but mostly). I used to joke that part of my member dues was a season pass for the shows.

[Dash Fieldpaint]

My first drum corps audition experience was with Star for the '92 season. I was invited back to the second camp, but I didn't have the means to get there. My second experience was with Crossmen for '93. I went to about 4 camps, but had to quit for various reasons. I had planned on going out for Star again for 1994, but we all know what happened with them.

I was really set on marching Star after my experience with them '92, so I really had no other urge to march with any other top corps at the time. November 1993 rolled around I heard that Crown (93 Div 2 Champion) was moving up to Div. 1 for the 94 season. I decided to go check it out. I felt like I was at home. I felt like I mattered. We made semis for the first time in the history of the corps that year. My faith faltered when the 95 audition camps came around and I went to the Cadets, which was same weekend as Crown. As soon as I got to New Jersey I knew I was in the wrong place. I didn't belong. It wasn't where I WAS that bothered me, it was where I was WASN'T. In December I returned to Crown. It was like a new corps. We lost a lot of horn vets during the winter, but the small group of us that stayed were backed by an incredibly motivated group of rookies. We ended up with about 15 vets in a 56 person hornline. Nothing killed the morale that season. With continual vehicle breakdowns resulting in over a week of zero floor time, running low on food, constant rain storms following us from state to state, homemade uniforms, the Drum Corps World readers poll placing us 13th every single week of the season, nothing stopped us.

Early in the season we had 3 back to back shows where we placed ahead of Crossmen for the first time in Crown's history. (this was after Crossmen had 5 straight years of single digit finals placements) Those 3 shows fired us up and we never lost the drive. We ended up making finals that year for the first time, 11th place, between Crossmen and Magic.

1996 saw another large influx of rookies in the hornline, this time much more talented than years past, especially for the high brass. Our new brass caption head was lacking, so our talent increase wasn't apparent. We ended up 10th, somehow placing ahead of Colts for the first time in the corps history on Finals night.

I stayed because I believed in the corps, and I was lucky enough to come aboard during an upswing. Seeing the corps now really makes me feel like what I did back then really mattered.

[BAC91]

I joined BAC as it was the hometown corps. I aged-out in 91, knowing that something big would soon happen. BAC just had to be patient. Then, '99, BAC had a full corps and finished 9th. In 2000, the black and red become very RED with a 5th place finish.

PATIENCE!!! Good things happened throughout BAC's history, but we also had fires, bankruptcy, unorganized European tours, etc. I know I could have made it into a finalist corps in '91, but we New Englanders know we have to be patient. BAC is now in finals and the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004.

The corps will never die and I am (not was) a true-blue Crusader.

Eat 'em up, Boston!

[AlexL]

Ask any Blue Star that's been there for three or more years. I know there was a time when many of us thought we would never see the corps rise back to Div 1. ANYTHING is possible.

yeah... i only was able to march 2 years (05-06), but i feel very lucky to have been able to march in the first year back in D1. The support we always had from the alumni, was incredible and moving at times. We knew we were living the dreams of 20 years of members before that, and that was a very special feeling whenever alumni would come talk to us.

[silvertrombone]

Cut me and I bleed Phantom Regiment! First time that I saw a drum corps was a PR rehearsal the week of finals in '91--in the rain, no less! PR and rain--geez. My first year in marching band was 88-89 in high school, so had I known what DCI was, I would have been in Rockford for about 7 years. Sadly, my last name is not Gates and I didn't discover drum corps until '91. Since I couldn't afford to 'commute' to Illinois for rehearsals, and SkyRyders had relocated to Texas in 1990, I began with Sky.

There was a time when, if you didn't begin with PR, Cavies, whoever, you began with Sky! So many people I have met began with Sky, either in Hutch or in Texas. OK, exagerating a little bit, and I know there are others that do the same today. March where you have to in order to get where you want to go.

Great fun that year with Sky--very talented group! And we weren't even the best in Texas. Boy, look out when you get all Texas All-Staters in a corps for a couple of years! Make '94 BD horns look like beginner band class. (no diss, they're that good down here!)

So I did a year with Sky, took a year off, marched with PR a year, and missed my age-out. Oops. Don't EVER skip your age-out!

[JimF-LowBari]

Frankly, most people don't march for enough years to really rebuild a corps. I'd say the average nowdays is probably around 3 years (where people used to march for what seems like forever 5-10 years). So, there isn't a lot of insentive to stick around and do that.

Some of the reasons I got why people don't try out for other corps after they get cut by the top groups started with "I only have one year to do this". This was stated a couple of times in various forms. :(

[SCVsopAaron]

Ya, I think things are very different now, especially in regards to finances, then it was back then... I could barely afford to do 3 seasons... And it's not totally money, but school too... I just got so behind... Graduating in 5 1/2 years rather than 4 because of drum corps, and that's pretty much all my friends who marched too... It's just unrealistic to march for more than a few years... Too hard to do, and I don't mean marching...

[Jami]

I just came off of my first drum corps season in 2002 with the Empire Statesmen and after my first season in DCA, I knew I wanted to go to junior corps. What more logical place to go than a place where I knew the system in Capital Regiment?

Our battery percussion arranger in 2002 at Empire was also the percussion caption head/arranger in 2002 going into 2003 at CR, Kevin Murphy. It made sense to go somewhere relatively nearby (6 hours by car), relatively cheap (in the dues span of things), and familiar as I knew how Murph operated and what would be expected of me. I also prefer to play classical music, so it seemed like the perfect fit.

I was entirely correct. I put in my rookie season in 2003 as a 19th place quarterfinalist, and while it was very difficult in many ways, when Murph approached me on my last day in Florida and asked if I was returning for my ageout season, my response was, "if you guys (you guys being he, and my pit techs Kate and Christine) are back, i'm not going anywhere." I went on to age out with Capital Regiment in their highest placing in their history, 14th place. :)