More often than not, the top caption scores go to the top scoring corps overall. It’s most common to see a drum corps in, say, the top two or three overall, take home caption award glory.
Every sample has its outliers, though, and now and then, a corps will buck the trend to an eye-catching degree. 2023’s percussion caption, for example, saw The Cavaliers, an eighth-place overall finisher, take the top spot in the percussion-centric scoring race.
Dating back to 2010, here’s a look at a number of examples of individual sections breaking their way to the top of the leaderboard despite their corps’ overall placement outside of the top three.
8th Place
2023 Cavaliers | Percussion
Show Title: “Where You’ll Find Me…”
Finals Caption Score: 19.600
The Cavaliers’ percussion section started making major headlines midseason when they made an attention-grabbing first place finish at a hotly-contested mid July showdown in San Antonio.
At every major regional event or notable meet-up of top competitors thereafter, the Rosemont, Illinois corps solidified its spot at the top of the percussion caption.
Stream 2023 Cavaliers' "Where You'll Find Me"
6th Place
2010 Phantom Regiment | Percussion
Show Title: “Into the Light”
Finals Caption Score: 19.600
2010 came as part of a long string of strong percussion scores for the Rockford, Illinois corps, which had taken fifth in the caption the year prior despite a ninth-place overall finish.
Regiment’s closest competition through three nights of the DCI World Championships in 2010 came from The Cavaliers and Bluecoats, but no one came within two tenths of a point of the corps’ top-ranked percussion section.
Watch 2010 Phantom Regiment's "Into the Light"
6th Place
2019 Boston Crusaders | Color Guard
Show Title: “Goliath”
Finals Caption Score: 19.900
In the second of what ended up being three consecutive George Zingali Award for Best Color Guard wins, Boston Crusaders’ color guard section stood out, playing the role of fierce Israelite soldiers in the corps’ program, “Goliath.”
The Boston corps, which had been neck-and-neck with The Cavaliers throughout the 2019 season, fell behind down the stretch, but its color guard held serve for a back-to-back caption award, earning a near-perfect score at the DCI World Championship Finals.
Watch/Listen 2019 Boston Crusaders' "Goliath"
5th Place
2018 Boston Crusaders | Color Guard
Show Title: “S.O.S.”
Finals Caption Score: 19.550
Boston Crusaders’ first-ever George Zingali Award was the first of many competitive statements the corps made in the late 2010s and early 2020s.
The Boston corps, in fact, took second place in color guard at the DCI World Championship Finals, scoring a hair behind Blue Devils, but first-place finishes in the Prelims and Semifinals competition averaged out to a caption award win.
Watch/Listen 2018 Boston Crusaders' "S.O.S."
4th Place
2019 Carolina Crown | Brass
Show Title: “Beneath the Surface”
Finals Caption Score: 19.700
2019 was a standout year for the ever-impressive Carolina Crown horn line.
Despite taking fourth place overall, a production featuring an array of complex music — as well as Ennio Morricone’s beautiful “Gabriel’s Oboe” — set the table for a first-place brass finish to round out Crown’s most successful decade to date.
Watch/Listen 2019 Carolina Crown's "Beneath the Surface"
4th Place
2016 Santa Clara Vanguard | Percussion
Show Title: “The Force of Nature”
Finals Caption Score: 19.300 & 19.500
2016 marked the first of four consecutive Fred Sanford Award for Best Percussion Performance wins for Santa Clara Vanguard, but was the only one in that uninterrupted streak that didn’t correlate to a medalist overall finish. The Santa Clara corps earned second, first and third overall in the three respective years that followed.
2016 was one of a handful of years during the 2010s that featured two percussion judges; Santa Clara Vanguard took second, 0.05 points behind the World Champion Bluecoats, from one of said judges at that year’s DCI World Championship Finals.
Watch/Listen 2016 Santa Clara Vanguard's "The Force of Nature"
4th Place
2015 Cadets | Brass
Show Title: “The Power of 10”
Finals Caption Score: 19.800
The Cadets’ only Jim Ott Award for Best Brass Performance of the 2010s — and its second of the 21st century — coincided with a noticeable uniform change, as the corps donned all black in 2015.
“The Power of 10” provided plenty of challenging material, largely inspired by Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 10,” for a talented Cadets brass section.
Watch/Listen 2015 Cadets' "The Power of 10"
4th Place
2014 Santa Clara Vanguard | Percussion
Show Title: “Scheherazade: Words 2 Live By”
Finals Caption Scores: 19.700 & 19.800
Santa Clara Vanguard took home five Fred Sanford Awards during the 2010s — including its streak of four consecutive wins that started in 2016 — and the first came in 2014.
Playing Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Scheherazade,” Santa Clara Vanguard was the only corps to take a caption award away from the 2014 Blue Devils, who ousted all corps by more than two total points with a record-setting overall score.
Watch 2014 Santa Clara Vanguard's “Scheherazade: Words 2 Live By”
4th Place
2011 Carolina Crown | Brass
Show Title: “Rach Star”
Finals Caption Score: 19.500
2011 marked Carolina Crown’s second of now eight Jim Ott Awards, with the first originally coming in 2009. The corps took fourth overall with its high-energy “Rach Star” production, but its brass section made impressive use of popular music, the likes of which included Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and The Rolling Stones’ “Paint it Black.”
Carolina Crown outscored the eventual World Champion Cadets by just one tenth in the brass caption on all three nights of the 2011 DCI World Championships.
Watch 2011 Carolina Crown's "Rach Star"