Colts Update From The Executive Director

Following the announcement of the scores this afternoon, the full corps had a quick meeting in the always hot Alamo Dome parking lot with Jude Boughton, our program coordinator.

Although certainly it is disappointing that we are not working this evening, the mood throughout the Colts is quite upbeat. The kids know the work they did this past week in clarifying the show and getting to be stronger performers of the material is paying off and it started really showing up today.

Earlier this week, it appeared we may be short several points for the finals cut off, but the work we did kicked in and allowed us to do the most electric and exciting show of the year and we ended up missing finals by about half a point.

Our Natalia friends have given us the keys to the town, and we are going to rehearse tonight until 12:30 under the lights. The kids are excited and ramped up for a great evening. We have more changes and adjustments to make yet, and we need to continue to get better at performing the show.

We designed a show that had lots of meat in it and a lot of challenging material, and we have frankly been chasing the show all summer. We have taken out some extra-risky things that we were not getting credit for and the corps around us are frankly quite a bit cleaner in their performance excellence and clarity.

The changes we are making, including a few more we are going to do tonight are making a definite difference and our confidence level is growing.

This upcoming week is full of challenges, with a 550 mile run Sunday night and two in a row 400 mile runs connecting the dots from Pittsburg Kansas on Wednesday to Atlanta on Saturday. But, we built in three rehearsal days leading into Atlanta to give us that extra edge in show improvements.

As I sit here under a big tree and listen to the brass rehearsal across the way from me, I can assure you they are sounding great, working hard and having a great time becoming great.

The toughest things are the most valuable and important, and this is no exception. I can't predict a thing for the next three weeks other than this will be the best Colts corps ever and it will be filled with proud and amazing kids. We will be in the hunt for finals and the corps who are marching tonight ahead of us earned the opportunity to do so. They will continue to have to earn it for the rest of the season, too, cause there's a Red Team coming on fast!

Stay tuned and be proud!

Thanks!

Greg