The Boston Crusaders rang in the new year with our first production camp; returning brass and percussion members reported to Lakewood Ranch HS, along with all three 2019 drum majors. An exciting weekend of drum corps unfolded, culminating with a Sunday afternoon ensemble performance of the 2019 show music. Both the brass and percussion received music the week prior to the camp and did excellent work preparing the challenging material.

At the end of the Friday night block, Executive Director Chris Holland gave a 45 minute organizational overview which included the zero tolerance policies and key areas of safety and conduct. The organization is committed to on field and off field excellence, thus the highest of standards apply to members, staff, and adults at all times.

Saturday was intensive drum corps from start to finish. The visual team obtained baseline fitness metrics on all brass members, worked on marching techniques, and spent considerable time on movement and choreography. We welcomed back Brady Sanders, and are excited to have added Lin Daffron and Max Applegate to the visual and movement staff. Meanwhile, Dr. Vivien Tucker began individual health assessments on members.

Thanks to Assistant Corps Director and Lakewood Ranch Band Director, Ron Lambert, ample dedicated volunteers were onsite to ensure the weekend ran smooth and efficient. We were also very grateful to have Gina Hagopian present to coordinate and assemble a fantastic kitchen crew. Operations and administrative team members – Jack Kaplan, Mike Pfeil, MaryMason McWhorter – also used the weekend to plan Texas production camp logistics and move-in/tour travel and housing projects.

Our design team, caption managers, drum majors, assistant corps director, and executive director will participate in the DCI annual meetings this week in Indianapolis from January 10 – 13, where the focus will be on safety, health, & wellness. Over 350 people from the drum corps community will be present over the four days, and we are looking forward to representing BAC.

Our next production camps are February 8-10 for brass and percussion and March 15-17 for brass only at The Colony High School in Dallas, TX. We will return to Lakewood Ranch for our April 26-28 production camp and Family & Friends performance.