Day 91

Date: August 14, 2011

Time: 2:45am (EST)

Playing on iTunes: "Angels in the Architecture" by Frank Ticheli

Location: Indianapolis, IN Day 4

Well...I can say it. We are World Champions. The 2011 Cadets have won the Drum Corps International World Championships. I still cannot believe what is going through my mind right now. Amazement, excitement, anxiousness, adrenaline, sadness, just a lot of mixed emotions right now. I am absolutely speechless at the performance we put on tonight.

Building up throughout the day up until the finals performance, we had an amazing amount of support with a huge amount of alumni, friends, and family of the corps coming to see us. There was a breakfast for all in the morning followed by a first hand day meeting. Everyone who liked was able to attend the breakfast (free of charge) as well as come and join us for our finals day meeting and a little age-out ceremony before we started rehearsing. Here’s some pictures from the morning:

Finals day breakfast

Parents at the day meeting

Age-outs from the pit

Age-out parade

All of the age-outs

After the load of activities this morning we got to work. An extremely short day since we didn’t really start until around 11:30 and lunch was at 1...that’s cool though. Iain said that all we really needed to do was warm up and we were good. A crazy amount of rehearsing wasn’t needed. He said we were ready and all we needed to do was go out and do what we knew and were taught how to do.


Here is an awesome story during the day. So parents of a mellophone in the corps have been reading this blog and they saw that the pit liked Gatorade and candy, and also that we had received it every once in a while from visitors throughout the summer. I got pulled to the side by this one man I never seen before and he told me that he had "something for me". It was a cooler of Gatorade and candy for the pit! What an awesome thing these people did for us. We all greatly appreciate it! Thank you again!!

John and Teresa Pryor

Once arriving at Lucas Oil Stadium, there was some confusion about where we were going to rehearse since there was a huge storm coming right toward us. Of course this happens on finals day! It’s okay though, we were able to find an inside area to rehearse. And lucky enough for us we got to change in the visitor’s locker room. Man was that nice, large, and open! So much space. Probably because the football players are so large in the NFL...

So here’s a funny story. We go on last tonight and the Blue Devils go on directly before us. The Cadets get a warm up spot right near the gate to the stadium. This area is used as a walkway for all of the hornlines and drumlines to walk through to get to the gate. There is a garage door that opens every 10 or so minutes to let corps through into the stadium and then it closes once they enter. So that was our first thing to deal with was stopping every 10 or so minutes for a bit so we could let the corps in without the stadium being able to hear us warm up. Our second thing to deal with was the Blue Devils pit. They had no where to warm up outside and so they came and joined us inside in the same area we were in. An interesting scenario, huh? So how this shook out was, The Cadets would get a chance to play a section, then Blue Devils would get a second to play a section of their show warm up, then the door would open so we would have to be quiet, and repeat that cycle a few times. As stressful as this may sound, it was not as bad as it seems because like Iain said, we didn’t really need a warm up. We knew how to go in and just perform like the Cadets we are. We were ready. 

As for the show..............I cannot describe to you in words the emotion coming from that stadium. The corps was fired up and the crowd was on our side. Every show we have had, the end of the percussion feature and the end of the show has gotten the standing ovations. A short, maybe 5 second standing ovation after the drum feature, and then an average 15 second standing ovation at the end of the show. But this time, the end of the drum feature brought an endless standing ovation that trickled into the ballad. There were also various short standing ovations throughout the show that night. But as for the end of the show, I cannot even tell you how amazing this was. If you have not seen the show, after our company front, we play extremely loud and then have another minute or so of marching fast and playing louder and getting louder. Once we hit that big chord after the company front, the crowd stood up and stayed up for the entirety of the rest of the show. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of that happening in drum corps history. It was an absolutely amazing feeling. Indescribable. The fact that we can produce the kind of emotion to get a crowd to STAND for the ENTIRE ending of the show. Mind you they weren’t even cheering that loud the whole time, they just continue to stand and watch us. Then the last 30 seconds of the show I couldn’t hear anything but the crowd. I wouldn’t be surprised if on the official DCI recording you wouldn’t be able to hear the corps because the audience was so loud. An absolutely amazing and unforgettable feeling.

2011 DCI Finals Retreat

All of the corps went out onto the field and they present all of the awards and the scores. This is called 'retreat'. That is when we were announced as the 2011 DCI World Champions. Unreal. I will never forget this feeling. We then proceeded to do an encore performance of the show since the winner of DCI World Championships every year performs their show one more time. We were hoping that this last performance would be our best, but I’d say although it may not have been our best, it was definitely the most bittersweet performance. Realizing that it was the last time you’d perform the show to just have fun and unleash all of your emotions. 

Cadets percussion section

DCI World Championship Finals

1) The Cadets - 98.35

2) Blue Devils - 97.80

3) The Cavaliers - 96.85

4) Carolina Crown - 95.30

5) Phantom Regiment - 95.05

6) Santa Clara Vanguard - 92.20

7) Bluecoats - 92.05

8) Boston Crusaders - 90.65

9) Blue Knights - 89.20

10) Madison Scouts - 87.50

11) Blue Stars - 86.20

12) Spirit of Atlanta - 85.35

I did have a couple of visitors come see the show! My girlfriend Bonnie and friend Sean Donnelly (UMass). They got to sit right under the judges press box right on the 50 which is a prime seat during the performance. It was great to see both of them!

For the rest of the night, I just reflected on the season and my life. I knew that this was the best decision of my life and that I learned so much from this experience. Never will I forget everything I learned here and the people I worked with. It’s been a great season!

Thought of the Day: “Life is about the process, not about the goal.”