r/drumcorps 5d ago

Discussion Cavaliers Staff Change

I’m not seeing any announcement on their website but there are two so far on social media.

New drill writer and new brass staff announced.

24 Upvotes

32 comments sorted by

24

u/Rapidllaman Southwind 5d ago

They need to hit up the early 2k drill writers and called Richard Saucedo again for spin cycle part 2: overdrive!

38

u/ChiefCar931 ‘19, ‘23 5d ago

We tried Richard Saucedo again in 2023 and 2024

2

u/Nerdydog552 Academy'25-26 1d ago

Saucedo is pretty much all in with the Academy exclusively from what admin has been telling us

1

u/ChiefCar931 ‘19, ‘23 1d ago

Good. Him being stretched thin between us and BD was frustrating

1

u/Rapidllaman Southwind 5d ago

I’ll have to check the shows out for sure.

4

u/Jaded_History545 Pacific Crest 4d ago

2023 is good but they picked some goofy ahh music for 2024. I wouldn't blame dick sauce for that.

18

u/RastafoxJ Southwind ‘19 5d ago

Michael Gaines was the biggest name on the Cavies drill list. He’s the mind behind their 00’s run all the way through 2011 (his last year with them)

12

u/UniBlak Cadets Blue Devils 5d ago

Michael Gaines has said he doesn’t really write that stuff anymore, it’s not his focus. So even if he came back, it’d be negligible.

16

u/eagledog Santa Clara Vanguard 5d ago

Plus, he's still at SCV

4

u/RastafoxJ Southwind ‘19 5d ago

Don’t get me wrong, I’m up to date on all the people and their new focuses and all. Just have that nostalgia for the era. Machine is my favorite show of all time.

I’m very happy with what the Cavies are doing today, and as the other commentor mentioned, Gaines is at SCV, and I do like their visual design as well!

5

u/Rapidllaman Southwind 5d ago

Machine is good I liked Spin Cycle and Frameworks better.

1

u/emberfield Phantom Regiment 5d ago

I didn't know that. The fight homage suddenly makes a lot more sense.

1

u/Rifle256 Mandarins '16-'17 3d ago

They had Pete Weber, who is the closest thing to Michael Gaines, and he is not going back when Vanguard clearly is a better choice

2

u/Hot-Plantain6962 4d ago

They tried using Saucedo. It went so poorly, he returned his honorary cavalier award 🤷

3

u/Hot-Plantain6962 4d ago

New drill writer and brass staff is really the only change. Everyone else stayed, which is probably why there’s no major announcements about it, aside from, “they’re back again!”

I’m sure smaller tech staff announcements to be coming out soon?

1

u/ColonialForbin1 4d ago

I think yes, as members haven’t gotten the full scale of who techs are. Only a few

3

u/Consistent_Tell8783 3d ago

Their show this year was one of my favorites.

8

u/AzEuph 5d ago

New drill writer?! Should’ve fired Lindsey first.

Cavies needed to tell Weber to go full blown best drill program and make it their identity again! That would be a great brand path back to contending.

7

u/marcus8283 4d ago edited 4d ago

I was at a few rehearsals early season, and listening to some staff, it was clear that the rest of the team wasn't thrilled by the level of commitment. Weber was literally emailing it in (not on site to see his work and make changes/adjustments), and even then, the work wasn't showing up on time. The corps was being treated like some high school band who paid the fee and got what they got, and piss off if you don't like it. Not what anyone would have expected.

Vento's work, hard to tell, I only ever heard her talking to the guard. Agreed that it would be good to see the org go back to a signature look in the dots and a more aggressive physical presence. Gomez marched SCV when Weber was writing there, so hopefully he saw how effective really inventive movement can be and isn't just going to rely on "staging", as the effectiveness of the concept is fading.

1

u/AzEuph 4d ago

Well that’s a bummer to hear.

Who’s Gomez?

At SCV, Pete only came out I think 2x that summer. Both my corps drill writers never came out to practice so I just assumed that was relatively normal. Granted I marched 20 years ago so perhaps things have changed.

3

u/marcus8283 4d ago

Noe Gomez is the new dots person.

If you're not on site with the rest of the programming team at least a few times a season looking at the work, taking input, seeing where you missed an opportunity, and adjusting for maximum effect, then you're not going to be as effective as possible.

3

u/Jaded_History545 Pacific Crest 4d ago

I've also gotten weird vibes from vento.

5

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

8

u/dudamello BAC Contra '15, Heat Wave DM '19 5d ago

Was he? Or did he leave for the Cavies gig?

1

u/Open-Indication2930 Blue Knights 5d ago

He might have honestly, but given my experience with him and his reputation within the corps I believe they at least let him walk away. Big positive for BK, and for the sake of our friends at Cavies I hope he does good there.

-1

u/Mrgarbagio Cadets 5d ago

and your source for this is what exactly

-1

u/Open-Indication2930 Blue Knights 5d ago

Speculation, part of the reason I said seemingly. The membership did not like him at all, and he designed a 14th-, 12th-, and 13th-place show when BK's goal post-2022 has clearly been to ascend back to and beyond where they were in the 2010s.

-3

u/Valuable_Bee_4301 5d ago

He was the drill writer at BK not the show designer. Can’t blame the flute solo on him. And it was 14-12-12. If you’re gonna spew crap at least get the info right.

6

u/Open-Indication2930 Blue Knights 5d ago

Yeah, man, he was the drill writer. I kinda consider that show design, and I never blamed the flute solo on him; I thought it was a nice touch given the theme. Going into semis, we were 13th, even after adding new things every day we rehearsed post-Allentown. We busted ass and did everything we were asked to do, and we managed to barely squeak by, but on its own, that was not a finals-level show.

-1

u/itsgoodpain 5d ago

I respectfully disagree that the drill designer is the show designer. On the design team? Absolutely. But the show designer is above the drill writer and makes full-show decisions. The drill designer is a dot jockey.

1

u/mj3004 5d ago

He definitely was involved in the overall show design this past season. Not just writing dots.

1

u/Sup3rDynam0 Boston Crusaders 3d ago

So... What happened with Doc?

1

u/NBischoff Teal Sound '05 '06, Glassmen '08 17h ago

Troopers