Bluecoats set new record as streak continues through San Antonio

SAN ANTONIO — The overarching theme of their production, “change” is embedded in every aspect of the Bluecoats’ 2024 season. Saturday at the DCI Southwestern Championship presented by Fred J. Miller, Inc., the Canton, Ohio corps altered the record books, and took the 2024 DCI Tour to new heights.

Bluecoats’ final score of 93.025 eclipses the previous DCI Southwestern Championship high mark set just last year by nearly half a point. Saturday also marked the corps' first win in San Antonio since 2019, as they continue their undefeated streak through the 2024 summer season.

“It was just an absolutely amazing feeling,” Bluecoats drum major Antonio Gamez said. “But the work doesn’t stop here, it keeps on going. We’re going to take the victory while we have it, and then, starting Monday morning it’s back to the grind.”

The July 20 event, which featured 24 performing groups spanning three competitive divisions, included an array of exciting competitive finishes.

View scores and recap from Saturday in San Antonio

 

1. Bluecoats » 93.025
2. Blue Devils » 91.875
3. Boston Crusaders » 91.850

Bluecoats’ record score came with plenty of top caption numbers, but no lead was more staggering than the corps’ advantage of 0.625 in general effect. The Canton, Ohio corps also finished first in music and visual overall.

After the two tied for second place at Tuesday’s DCI Broken Arrow event, Blue Devils narrowly defeated Boston Crusaders by 0.025 points at Saturday’s event. The two tied in total visual, while Boston took overall music by a razor-thin margin of 0.025 and Blue Devils took the top general effect scores by just 0.05. 

Blue Devils also took home the night’s top brass score, while Boston Crusaders topped the charts in percussion and color guard.

 

4. Carolina Crown » 89.925
5. Phantom Regiment » 89.625
6. Santa Clara Vanguard » 87.525
7. Mandarins » 87.225

Carolina Crown narrowly edged Phantom Regiment for fourth place Saturday night, fending off the Rockford, Illinois corps by just 0.3 points with slim leads in general effect and overall visual. 

Phantom Regiment outscored Carolina Crown — which it hasn’t ranked ahead of at a DCI Tour event in over a decade — in total music, as well as visual analysis, which was a strongpoint for the corps, finishing second overall. 

“We had an awesome run tonight,” Regiment drum major Keri McCourt said. “We’ve been working so hard on a couple sections in the show and both of those clicked so well today, and I couldn’t be more proud of the corps.” 

Regiment hasn’t finished a season amongst the top five since it earned a bronze medal in 2012, but currently sits firmly in such company with a strong lead of 2.1 points over Santa Clara Vanguard. 

One of the season’s more hotly-contested races logged another installment, as Mandarins and Santa Clara Vanguard met head-to-head for the ninth time this season. Prior to Saturday, each corps had outscored the other in four of those meetings. 

Saturday, Vanguard broke the tie, largely on the wings of advantages in the music captions, particularly percussion and music analysis. 

The final difference was close, though; as the two vie for a spot in the top six, Mandarins kept within 0.3 points overall thanks to solid scores in the visual captions.

“I honestly thought Saturday’s run was one of our best runs of the season,” Vanguard drum major Maddy Heintz said. 

 

8. Blue Stars » 84.938
9. The Cavaliers » 84.675
10. Colts » 83.350
11. Troopers » 81.875

After falling out of the Top 10 in 2023 for the first time since 2015, Blue Stars appear poised to make a return this summer after an eighth-place San Antonio finish. 

It was quite the close race, however, between Blue Stars and The Cavaliers, who have been neck-and-neck in recent weeks. The two corps tied in overall visual, but the Blue Stars earned a strong advantage over the Rosemont, Illinois corps in general effect, nearly a half a point, while The Cavaliers posted strong music scores to help keep them close.

“I thought that we had a great run tonight,” Cavaliers drum major David Harrell said. “I’m very excited about the progress the corps has made throughout the past few weeks.” 

Colts fended off Troopers by a strong margin for the 10th spot, outscoring the Casper, Wyoming corps by just under 1.5 points thanks especially to high scores in the visual captions.

 

12. Madison Scouts » 80.050
13. Crossmen » 79.925
14. Blue Knights » 79.100

Earning the coveted 12th finalist spot at the midseason point, Madison Scouts made major headlines. The storied corps hasn’t finished a season above 15th place since its last DCI World Championship Finals appearance in 2017 and ranked 16th at season’s end a year ago. 

Madison’s standout finish was fueled by especially strong scores in the visual captions. 

“Today’s run was fantastic,” Madison Scouts drum major Lex Rodrigues-Monteiro said. “We’ve been working hard this past week to make some changes in the show really stick, and that performance was the culmination of all our hard work.”  

READ: Madison Scouts on top in hotly-contested 12th-place battle 

After trailing Blue Knights by one tenth of a point June 16 in Abilene, Texas, Crossmen flipped the script in the corps’ hometown, riding strong general effect and visual scores to an advantage of 0.825. The Texas corps nearly overtook Madison Scouts as well, trailing the 12th position by just 0.125 points.

“Today’s run was excellent,” Blue Knights drum major Laynie Metsker said. “We did what we set out to do and that’s all you can really ask for.” 

 

15. Pacific Crest » 77.375
16. Spirit of Atlanta » 77.350
17. The Academy » 75.000 
18. Music City » 74.350

Pacific Crest and Spirit of Atlanta were two of the day’s most closely-competitive corps, separated by just .025 points in their first meeting of the summer. While Pacific Crest outscored Spirit of Atlanta by a strong margin in general effect, Spirit made up ground with leads in the music and visual captions. 

In the week leading up to the San Antonio event, the Southern California corps spent time bringing the centerpiece of its production — the late Spanish artist Frida Kahlo — and her vibrant personality to life. 

“We did a lot of character work over the past week,” Pacific Crest drum major Bridget Barragy said. “Frida is definitely a big personality, so we want to make sure it shows through in all of our movements. We also did a ton of cleaning. It’s that part of the season where you want to take what you have and lock it together.” 

In the two corps’ first head-to-head meeting of 2024, The Academy held a slim advantage over Music City, outscoring the Nashville corps by just 0.65 points. 

The Arizona corps found its strongest competitive footing over Music City in the visual captions — and ranked as high as 14th in percussion — while Music City scored ahead of The Academy in general effect by four tenths of a point.  

19. Genesis » 70.225
20. Seattle Cascades » 69.225
20. Jersey Surf » 68.875

Thursday in Waco, Texas, Genesis had led Seattle Cascades by 2.8 points, with Jersey Surf another 2.1 points back from Cascades. All three were noticeably closer at Saturday’s event.  Genesis still led the pack in final score, but just 1.35 total points separated the trio. 

“Today’s run was great,” Genesis drum major Mason Gould said. “The energy from the crowd was responsive, and I think that fed into the performance. The corps kept giving and the crowd kept giving back even more.” 

Genesis found its competitive footing most noticeably in general effect, while Seattle Cascades posted strong visual scores and Jersey Surf ranked as high as 18th in color guard. 

“We’ve been practicing how we want to perform, and this performance is exactly how we’ve been practicing,” Cascades drum major Zoe Arampul said. “We wanted nothing more than to come out and have a good run, and we did exactly that.” 

 

1. Guardians » 64.375

Saturday marked Guardians’ third of what will be four total performances on the 2024 DCI Tour. The corps improved on its most recent score, a tally of 63.600 earned July 19 in Houston, by 0.775 points.

The corps will complete its summer schedule on July 22 in Mesquite, Texas. 

“Our season is coming to an end a little early, but we are all pushing through,” Guardians drum major Kimberly Vela said. “We all love doing drum corps and we are so thankful for everything the drum corps has done and the fans that we have.” 

 

Arsenal » Gold Rating
Zephyrus » Gold Rating

A pair of established SoundSport teams, Arsenal and Zephyrus, also made the trip to San Antonio for Saturday’s headline event, kicking off the lineup and both taking home “gold” ratings.

For Arsenal, based in El Paso, Texas, the DCI Southwestern Championship marks the conclusion of its 2024 set of DCI Tour appearances.

“This is the first time in the Alamodome for most of these kids,” Arsenal drum major Alexandra Vanderwolf said. “We told them that there’s going to be the biggest crowd they’ve ever seen and the crowds already love them. It’s just even more amazing to see how much support that this little corps can get.”

Tusla, Oklahoma’s Zephryus made its first-ever Southwestern Championship appearance, fresh off of performances in Denton, Texas and Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Zephyrus, which is currently going through an evaluation process to join DCI’s Open Class in the future, also completed its longest tour since its founding at the Alamodome.

“Saturday’s run was definitely the best performance we’ve had this year,“ Zephyrus snare drummer Justin Woolsey said. “We’ve added a lot from even our last performance, and it felt really good today.” 

With the DCI Southwestern Championship presented by Fred J. Miller in the books, World Class corps will make their way toward the final two events on the DCI Texas Series presented by USBands — July 22 in Mesquite and July 23 in McKinney — before the summer tour begins to head east. 

VIEW THE 2024 DCI TOUR SCHEDULE

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