Day 63

Date: July 17, 2011

Time: 12:52am (CST)

Playing on iTunes: "Believe" by Disturbed

Location: Minneapolis, MN Day 5

The last day here in Minneapolis...a big day ahead of us. The most important show of the year was upon the corps. The big Minneapolis regional. Joe Roche, the corps motivational staff, is a man who has come from the army who is a part of this group that comes in and gives us the inspiration we need all day to get through. He really keeps the corps moving. At the beginning of everyday here's there to help us with PT. We call it "Joe Roche PT" because it's usually very high level physical training (even though the pit rarely does it on tour).

This morning, Joe showed us a video clip about these 6 kids who died in a plane crash that were part of a football team. There was a predeceasing football team from the same school that did a pregame talk at the grave site in honor of those fallen football players. The coach talked to the kids and told them that even though the competition may look better on paper, you have a bigger heart and love for the game than they do. And THAT'S what matters. Joe told us the opponent for us as a drum corps is the program of drum corps. The physical and mental capacity needed to do everything we do is our opponent. And we have the heart and the passion to be that opponent. That inspiration really brought the corps to another level as a whole. We took those rehearsals and the show tonight by storm!

Today we got our new mallets from Vic Firth. We've been waiting for this order for a while and it is finally here. All the mallets you see below are our new "show" mallets. We use two sets of mallets; ones for rehearsal and ones for show. The reason for that being, we have to make sure that our show mallets are in top condition and look great when out on the field as everyone watches us. Just the same as a horn player needs to shine their horn before they perform at a show. We use our rehearsal mallets a lot more often than our show mallets so they become worn much quicker.

Hello Minneapolis!! Today was the day where we would bring our changes to life and show the rest of the drum corps world what we had done for the past 5 days. All of the other world class drum corps were there, as you read in my blog yesterday. It was a sold out show. Tons of people there and ready to cheer on all the drum corps.

Although we did not come out in first place tonight, we did have an amazing show. My dad saw the show live online and said it brought tears to his eyes. So we definitely made an impact with some people. We know what we need to do and we will do it. But we are definitely working hard regardless the outcome.

The pit setting up in our warm up zone.

DCI Minnesota

1) The Cavaliers - 87.350
2) Carolina Crown - 85.950
3) Blue Devils - 85.900
4) The Cadets - 85.550
5) Phantom Regiment - 83.100
6) Bluecoats - 82.900
7) Santa Clara Vanguard - 80.850
8) Madison Scouts - 79.850
9) Boston Crusaders - 79.400
10) Blue Stars - 78.850
11) Blue Knight - 78.500
12) Troopers - 74.700
13) Spirit of Atlanta - 74.450
14) Glassmen - 74.300
15) Colts - 73.250
16) Crossmen - 72.850

CPit 2011 Spotlight

Twenty-one-year-old marimbist Andrew Monteiro is marching his second year with the Cadets. This is his "age out" year, since he is turning 22 next year he will be too old for the activity of drum corps. Before Cadets, he marched at the Blue Stars out of Wisconsin. Outside of drum corps, Andrew is an Economics major and is also focusing largely in marketing at NYU. He is originally from South Brunswick, NJ. In his spare time this summer, he writes the front ensemble music for his high school back in South Brunswick, NJ for the upcoming marching band season. No only a talented marimba player but a great writer/arranger as well. This summer Andrew is most looking forward to performing near his home town so that all of his family and friends can see the great time and effort he, as well as the drum corps, has put in with the Cadets. His excitement about the show this year really shows in his performance energy and would like to share that excitement with everyone out there who is able to see the show! So come on out and see the Cadets!!

Thought of the Day: "After you do what you need to do, how will you be remembered?"