From: mlz@mlz.SPEECH.CS.CMU.EDU (Marce Zaragoza)
Newsgroups: alt.drumcorps
Subject: Senior (DCA) Corps
Date: 15 Apr 92 17:38:23 GMT
Organization: School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon

In article <urcat.703124400@mcl> urcat@mcl.mcl.ucsb.edu (Eilidh) writes:
> a number of people have mentioned "Senior Corps" in their
> postings....should I be right in gathering that this is
> corps for all those age-out folk like myself (who really
> would like to keep going?  22 is not *ancient* by any
> means!!!  Heck, life's just beginning!!)  Are there
> any senior corps in Southern CA?  (Or sort of that region?)

I seem to be one of the few Senior Corps people reading this newsgroup (which,  
by the way, is fantastic!), so I thought I'd field this one.

Senior corps are not only for those who have aged out, but also for those  
younger folks who aren't yet ready for junior corps and for those who can't  
give up their lives for an entire summer to march on the DCI circuit.  (As far  
as I know, there are no age limits - lower or upper - to march DCA.)  It's also  
great for woodwind players (like myself) who would like to get involved in the  
activity.  (I started in with the winter program, and by summer was good enough  
on bass drum one year, keyboards another year, and French horn my last two  
years to make the cut.)  

I marched in the Erie Thunderbirds in '80 and '81 and with the Steel City  
Ambassadors (from Pittsburgh, PA) in '85 and '86.  I have known people from  
both corps who played in these corps as a kind of training ground for DCI, and  
our alum have gone to SCV, Garfield (oops, I mean the Cadets of Bergen  
County!), Blue Devils, and Madison (Erie's former soprano soloist went to  
Madison and eventually became an instructor).  Our instructors were, with some  
exceptions, fantastic.  In fact, SCA had the best drill designer/instructor  
I've ever had the pleasure of working with, Rick Morey, a DCI M&M judge.   
Senior corps can be a very good experience whether you go on to DCI or not.

As Dave Chapek correctly mentioned, DCA is Drum Corps Associates.  The activity  
is mostly concentrated in the northeast, but it has been creeping westward (Hi,  
Minnesota Brass, from an early fan!).  Some of the senior corps you may have  
heard of, besides Erie, SCA, and Minnesota, are the New York Skyliners  
(Manhattan), the Long Island Sunrisers, the Hawthorne (NJ) Caballeros, the  
Connecticut Hurricanes, the Westshoremen (Harrisburg, PA), the Yankee Rebels  
(Baltimore, I think?), the Reading (PA) Buccaneeers, the Rochester Crusaders,  
and the Empire Statesmen (Rochester, NY).  Gee, did I forget anyone?

OK, I'm ready for the flames that senior corps are inferior to junior corps.   
This may be so - in some cases!  However, please consider that senior corps  
generally consist of folks who have lives outside the activity - jobs and  
families.  Our schedule was to practice 4-5 hours every Sunday through the  
winter, switch to all day Saturday once the weather broke, and once summer hit,  
it was Wednesday night (after a full day of work for most of us), Friday night  
practice then ride all night to the show site, Saturday all day before the  
show, do the show Saturday night, then ride all night back home (after a party,  
of course!).  And the 50-year-old guys enjoyed it as much as the 15-year-olds!   
But with that sort of limited practice time, I think we and the other senior  
corps accomplished some pretty amazing things!

If you'd like a chance to experience senior corps (without feeling like you  
wasted an evening because it's "just not DCI" :-), the Hershey Spectacular,  
July 11th at Hersheypark (PA) should be a great show.  It's a DCI/DCA show, 5  
or 6 of each, for which I will post the lineup at a future date.

Dave Chapek, I also have a rain show story...maybe someday when I have the  
time!

Off my senior corps soapbox... :-)

Marce