Jazzycat1 Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Let's clarify some things . . . Sal's contract was not renewed by the board. None of the creative staff was fired. They all resigned. Steve Powers Staff Coordinator Madison Scouts Doesn't matter how many negative statements these bozo's spout against the Scouts. Even if they don't make finals this year they will come back strong in the coming seasons. They will remain one of the oldest, and strongest corps of all time. Go Scouts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vferrera Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 If you are interested in learning more about the current staff, you can find extensive information here: http://news.madisonscouts.org/?cat=2 They are a very accomplished group with tons of drum corps experience. As for last year, I think they also did a great job. The only problem was that the drill was unmarchable and did not fit the music. Not that it was bad, but it didn't have enough impact given the difficulty level and failed to stage the horns and battery properly. Given a different drill, they might have been top 6 or better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Mello Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Let's clarify some things . . . Sal's contract was not renewed by the board. None of the creative staff was fired. They all resigned. Steve Powers Staff Coordinator Madison Scouts Thank you. I wish we could sticky this on DCP. Please know that most of us support you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kdaddy Posted June 25, 2007 Author Share Posted June 25, 2007 As for last year, I think they also did a great job. The only problem was that the drill was unmarchable and did not fit the music. Not that it was bad, but it didn't have enough impact given the difficulty level and failed to stage the horns and battery properly. Given a different drill, they might have been top 6 or better. I completely agree. Maybe not top 6, but drill that fit the music and wasn't difficult just for the sake of difficulty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orpheus Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Sal's contract was not renewed by the board. None of the creative staff was fired. They all resigned. Well ... that makes it all better, then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scerpella Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 One of the loudest and most thunderous applauses in DCI Finals history was the performance of the '95 Madison Scouts. Madison in the mid 90's had the audiences in America in the palm of their hands, if not the judges. Then Madison came to a crossroads. Would they maintain their mutual love affair with the vast amount of audiences they encountered by playing and performing their typical in your face Drum Corps with recognizeable music or would they try and reinvent themselves in hopes of higher placements. From all public reports, there were strong philosophical differences among the leadership at Madison in the late 90's, and after much reflection, Madison opted to scrap the in your face music that Madison was known for, and instead brought in new management, new staff. Madison decided they would try and march like the Cavaliers, play like the Blue Devils, and even change their uniform.... by even softening the colors . The Madison " edginess " was gone, it's uniform softening so tragically symbolic. In the process, despite moments of advancement, it basically was a Corps on a course that was leading to a loss of it's unique identity..... to the point now of being essentially unrecognizeable. And sadly as you said, in the process the Madison Scouts slowly but surely....... lost themselves. They don't sound like the Madison Scouts, look like the Madison Scouts, entertain like the Madison Scouts,....... and they lost their way where even the pandering attempt to the DCI judges has failed them. Somewhere out there, Scott Stewart is saying......." I told you all it would come to this, but you didn't listen ".Here's one poster that hopes the Madison Scouts can go back to the drawing board in the off season and ask themselves one question....... " What was it that made the Madison Scouts so endearing to Drum Corps audiences and made us so competitive for half a century " ? I believe that the phrase " placement " and " judges " will not be the first thing that comes to mind that answers that question. I think the new ED, horn arranger and staff were actually an effort to do just that. They are trying to maintain that balance between entertainment and scores. Number of issues creating challenges however. First of all as I understand it almost the whole battery defected to Glassmen to follow McNutt. This years group is almost completely new so they will have to grow into their roles. I'm not a percussion guy but when I can hear dirt you know there are issues they need to resolve. Visual wise they have opted for another insanely difficult drill. In fact I put it on a par with Bluecoats. Phantoms was actually less difficult (IMO) and this may need to be addressed as championships approach. But to be fair Ive never seen ANYONE do what Phantom does in the last 30 seconds of Firebird which was an entire corps sprint while playing. Madison has definitely taken a page from Cavies book with this years show concept, begininng and ending with similar moves and tone. And the guard unis are very reminiscent of Cavies a few years back as well. Funny thing, Phantoms guard is heavily male now and are wearing uniforms that at first glance look much like Scouts much maligned unis from last year. I mean WTF?? In my non guard opinion, Scouts guard does too much dancing and not enough equipment work. Beautiful as Faures Requiem is, to me it occupies too much time and represents kind of a "hole" in the middle of their show. I think Scouts are going to be rewriting more than usual this year and top 12 appears to be a daunting challenge. Something that happened in Rockford after the show reinforced the idea that drum crops just is a whole different animal now(going hand in hand with the idea of Scouts battery just up and changing corps) Phantoms age outs were being announced and it seemed like 75% or more of them were rook outs. Whatever happened to corps longevity? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldbandguy Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Boerma - Quit...then tried to come back. Just where did you get this information? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vferrera Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 Well ... that makes it all better, then. Madison has always had high staff turnover. When I marched (78-83), it was about 50% new staff each year. Generally, the new staff were guys who had been trained in The System. That's what provided the continuity. It's all about money. Madison has survived through careful money management. Look at all the other midwest corps that have folded or nearly folded. Even Phantom and Cavaliers have come close to shuttering their operations. Through the 80s/90s/ Madison was able to run 3 corps (Scouts, Jr. Scouts/Capitol Sound, Southwind) and put money in the bank. All while providing a source of quality instructional staff to BD, SCV, Cavies, Cadets, etc. It's The System (ask Scott Stewart for details). Now people are saying they lost their staff because they were loyal to Sal. That's true in some cases, but several staff members were going or gone before Sal was "fired." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bawker Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 So, the Scouts may have an off year...or two...or even three. That's fine with me. I'd rather have a financially stable Scouts in 12th-17th place than have a group that bets the farm just to make it to Saturday night again one year. Rather than make this into a car wreck of a thread and sling mud, how about we have someone speak to the financial side of things, and talk about what the long term business plans for the corps are, as well as the competitive parts. -What differs logistically from now and when Sal Saalas ran the corps? Have the financials been restructured? -How much more/less involvment is there from the alumni, BOD and elsewhere? Let's try getting some facts, and then go from there. ...and for those that know the staff in some regards...what kind of style can we expect in the years to come? The corps seems to still be searching, even five years after Scott Stewart's departure. Thanks! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottgordon Posted June 25, 2007 Share Posted June 25, 2007 I was wondering the other night what corps "improved" the most score wise over a season.Suncoast may be the answer. Nah, Les Eclipses 1986 started the season scoring in the 30s, and went into finals week sitting in 11th, and ended up just missing finals. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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