Division 1 corps in TEXAS!

[Band_Freak]

  Xenon said:

Crossmen will come in 2nd from now on.

2nd to what? Revolution? 2nd in Finals? Somehow I seriously doubt that.

 

 

 

Let's keep one thing in mind, the X-Men are ***NOT*** starting everything from scratch. The history, tradition, alumni, and vets are coming to San Antonio. There will be no massive influx of rookies or DCI noobs. Crossmen vets will return, other vets will tryout, along with vets from OTHER corps (Cavvies, Regiment, etc) who don't want to sell their left kidney to fly out there for every camp and summer. Competition will be tough for anyone affiliated with Reagan, regardless of their relationship to Mark Chambers.

[mbui]

No worries. It was just a joke.

 

Daniel was referring to Ronald Reagan's past placements at BOA Grand National Finals where they placed second in 2003 & 2005. Now the Crossmen/Reagan affiliation.....again, just a joke. =)

[Band_Freak]

  mbui said:

No worries. It was just a joke.

 

Daniel was referring to Ronald Reagan's past placements at BOA Grand National Finals where they placed second in 2003 & 2005. Now the Crossmen/Reagan affiliation.....again, just a joke. =)

Ahhhhh I see now...and it is funny. Maybe the Cavaliers will win by .05?

[Skippy]

Should have done this 3 years ago.

[MartinHorn]

How do you think the sudden influx of Texas kids will affect the Crossmen's placements from now on?

[Moose]

  MartinHorn said:

How do you think the sudden influx of Texas kids will affect the Crossmen's placements from now on?

I think the goal for everyone is to get the Crossmen back into finals. I can see that happening in 07, but with hard work. Its all up to how hard people are willing to work, and I know Mark Chambers and his staff are gonna work as hard as they can.

 

In the future (08, 09) I can see the corps steadily climbing, just as Boston and Crown did as soon as they were set free from YEA!. I think that YEA! does a good job helping these corps out, and now its time for the Crossmen to be independent.

[G'townPIT]

So didn't the Sky Riders try to come to Texas in the 90's and then dissolved after a couple of years? I don't know any specifics about that, I think they went bankrupt etc... But I don't think something like it will happen to the Crossmen. Too many people are pumped up about it for them to fall apart. And they definitley have the financial backing to support a div 1 drum corps considering they are in Ronald Reagan territory. It will definitley be interesting to see how they turn out.

[aggietrumpet327]

Wow. If this had happened a year ago, I probably would have tried out for Crossmen instead of going all the way out to california for SCV.

 

As sad as I'm sure this is for their local supporters up in the northeast, it's very exciting news for those of us in Texas. Hopefully this will be a very good move for their organization. Good luck, Crossmen!

[Band_Freak]

  MartinHorn said:

How do you think the sudden influx of Texas kids will affect the Crossmen's placements from now on?

I doubt that the influx of TX kids will overly impact the X-Men one way or the other. It must be assumed that if TX kids are willing to travel to CA and IL and other places, then THOSE kids will be willing to travel here.

 

I imagine that there will be more than a few DCI vets who will take a nice long look at joining the X-Men. Moving from one D-I Corps to another year after year is very common. I would seriously expect Vets from SCV, Spirit, Glassmen, and so on to give them a second thought. If I were a TX kid in high school (Reagan or elsewhere) I would be working my butt off because there is going to be some outstanding competition for those spots.

[aggietrumpet327]

  Band_Freak said:

Moving from one D-I Corps to another year after year is very common. I would seriously expect Vets from SCV, Spirit, Glassmen, and so on to give them a second thought.

While that does happen, I'd be willing to bet it's not too common. I know personally, even though Crossmen would be MUCH easier on the pocketbook now, I'm going to do everything possible to return to santa clara. I couldn't dream of aging out with any corps other than Vanguard. And I can probably say the same for most of the people I marched with there.

 

I'm thinking Crossmen are going to attract a lot of Texans who've wanted to march but haven't been able to afford it, and people who've marched with smaller corps before and finally have a chance to march with a local div 1 corps. And I really really hope that the vets from the Pennsylvania area will be able to find a way to afford marching with their corps, which is now out of area.

[Fortisimo]

Hmmmmm, very interesting, and exciting, indeed. WE FINALLY HAVE A DIVISION ONE CORPS.

 

Ok, now that that's out of the way, I would have to say I feel obligated to try out for them now- how could I possibly justify missing out on being part of the birth of this new legacy? Besides that, I would like to think that, what with band owning so much in TX, now the Crossmen will see a sudden spurt in performance. This may not prove to be true, but hey, it makes sense to me. If you look at the higher ranking corps, such as PR, they often have a rather high percentage of Texans. We wil see, I suppose. We will see.

[Band_Freak]

I fully expect a jump in rankings, but it would be very arrogant to assume that it would be solely because of Texas kids joining en masse. Seeing what Mark Chambers did in just 3 years with Reagan lends much more credibility and weight to that argument.

 

Can you imagine what he could do WITHOUT the 8 hour rule? I can see the opening speech at summer camp now:

 

"WELCOME TO THE CROSSMEN! (wait for applause) While most of you are new to DCI, but not Texas, let me give you a wake up call. Texas bands are limited to 8 hours of practice per week.....you will be doing 8 hours of VISUALS today!!! Have fun!"

[bariphonium]

No doubt Chambers will enjoy the freedom of not having an 8-hour rule, but will he be able to take the pressure of being two full-time directors? No band can be great without tremendous effort from both staff and students, and Reagan is by no means an exception. At the same time, being the director of the Crossmen probably isn't freeing up his schedule. By the time HS marching season is over, he'll be getting ready for DCI tryouts, then camps, and before long HS concert season will roll in. Then comes summer, and suddenly his break will be gone, replaced with non-stop DCI. I'm wondering if he's bitten off more than he can chew.

[aggietrumpet327]

There are quite a few drum corps directors who have full-time jobs in addition to their responsibilities as a corps director. Jeff Fielder has only just now been made the full time director at the Cavaliers, after having a separate full-time job for the last 16 years he's been the director there.

 

I'm not exactly sure how the Crossmen's staff works, as every corps' hierarchy is a little different, but Chambers will have a full staff in charge of the Crossmen. There'll be a tour manager who will handle much of the logistics that are involved with the corps being on the road all the time, and caption heads heading up the instructional staff. Running a drum corps is a very different job than being the head director of a marching band. I'm sure he would not have taken the job had he not felt like he could handle both.

[TubaRed_89]

That is just to cool, I think I might have to audition for them!

[TX Suh-nare]

Does anyone know whether or not there will be staff changes? I've heard that a lot of corps have been sniffing around for new staff members, especially with brass and perc. I just wanted to know if Bones was any exception.

 

Also, I know there will be an influx of TX HOPEFULS, but how many do you think will actually make the corps?

[Band_Freak]

Well obviously Chambers can run the Corps however he wants. Only he knows for sure what will happen as far as staff and Reagan obligations vs. X-Men.

 

I would not be at all surprised if we saw some major staff moves within RR in the next 1-3 years. Running a 330 member band (one of the finest in the nation) PLUS a major D-I Corps on the rise (no doubt going to be SWAMPED with TX band kids) will take its toll after a time.

 

Again, what he does staff wise is up to him....I know I would be delegating left and right. LOL

[bariphonium]

Don't forget that NEISD (the school district that houses both Reagan and Churchill) is opening up a new high school at the beginning of...... next year, I believe? Chambers might lose some good assistant directors to that school's head director position.

[Band_Freak]

It is WAY WAY WAY too early to be speculating on who might go where or when. According to that ISD's website, the new HS will open in 2008 so there is plenty of time for a lot of people to do a lot of things.

[bariphonium]

OK, so I had my dates off by a year. My big anticipation is still who's going to be on the new Crossmen's staff.

[Band_Freak]

Here's something fun to do......put your own staff together. No, seriously! If you could pick any TX high school director (NO FAIR GOING STRAIGHT TO JEFF FIEDLER!!!) and placing him on the X-Men staff, who would YOU get? Also, this has to be an ACTIVE director as well...no retired guys allowed.

 

Visual/Drill: Mark Chamers (Reagan)

Visual/Individual: Jeremy Spicer (Cedar Park)

Visual/Color Guard: Mike Sloan (Churchill)

 

Music/Arranger: Key Poulan

Music/Brass Caption Head: Jeremy Earnhardt (L.D. Bell)

Music/Percussion Caption Head: Kennan Wylie (FM Marcus)

 

Fill in the blanks! Who would you want on staff from TX?

[Lustra.exe]

  Band_Freak said:

Here's something fun to do......put your own staff together. No, seriously! If you could pick any TX high school director (NO FAIR GOING STRAIGHT TO JEFF FIEDLER!!!) and placing him on the X-Men staff, who would YOU get? Also, this has to be an ACTIVE director as well...no retired guys allowed.

 

Visual/Drill: Mark Chamers (Reagan)

Visual/Individual: Jeremy Spicer (Cedar Park)

Visual/Color Guard: Mike Sloan (Churchill)

 

Music/Arranger: Key Poulan

Music/Brass Caption Head: Jeremy Earnhardt (L.D. Bell)

Music/Percussion Caption Head: Kennan Wylie (FM Marcus)

 

Fill in the blanks! Who would you want on staff from TX?

darn you! i read what you put for the caption heads first and i was like

 

 

then... i read what you put above and then i was like .

 

i hate you.

[HashBrownJM]

  Lustra.exe said:

darn you! i read what you put for the caption heads first and i was like

 

 

then... i read what you put above and then i was like .

 

i hate you.

Amen, brother. Amen.

[bariphonium]

  Band_Freak said:

Visual/Drill: Mark Chamers (Reagan)

Visual/Individual: Jeremy Spicer (Cedar Park)

Visual/Color Guard: Mike Sloan (Churchill)

 

Music/Arranger: Key Poulan

Music/Brass Caption Head: Jeremy Earnhardt (L.D. Bell)

Music/Percussion Caption Head: Kennan Wylie (FM Marcus)

The only change I might make (without some serious research) would be to have Tom Bennett (University of Houston) as the Brass Caption Head. That man *really* knows what he's talking about for music.

[Comax2003]

I'm gonna be completely honest. One of the best people to put on the staff would be Mark Koehl from Reagan. Either Visual Individual, or Brass. The man is a genius, and a great guy who knows his stuff. I learned all I know from him, and he is one of the people that elevated the Reagan program to what it is today, along with Chambers. If one of them tried to do it without the other, I don't think Regan would be what it is today.

 

Mark Koehl gets a nomination from me.

 

As for the rest, well, you guys have picked some great people