The Repository | CantonRep.

com | Sunday, July 24, 2016H13

PRO FOOTBALL HALL OF FAME ENSHRINEMENT FESTIVAL

Bluecoats remain fan favorite after nearly 30 years
By Kelly Byer
Repository staff reporter
CANTON The Bluecoats
Drum and Bugle Corps
already has made history this
summer.
After more than a dozen
performances, the Canton
unit has finished no lower
than second at every event.
Weve started off the
season having our best season
ever, Executive Director
David Glasgow said.
He said this years show,
titled Down Side Up, is
modern and innovative in its
use of electronic music and sets
that include a 9-foot-tall slide.
Its not the first time the
Bluecoats crowd-pleasing
shows have led to success.
In 1987, the drum corps
played Autumn Leaves,
which included a snare drum
feature that boosted them
from obscurity to a top-
ranking corps.
That was the ultimate
year for the corps, said Ted
Swaldo, the director at the
My Old Friend
time and current director
emeritus.
After that turning-point
season, members shortened
Autumn Leaves and began
performing it at the end of
shows.
It has become the corps
tune, Swaldo said.
Breakthrough year
In 1987, the Bluecoats
broke through nationally,
reaching the Drum Corps
Internationals finals. The
unit finished 11th out of the
elite top 12 corps.
They have placed in the
finals all but one time since.
The 128-member corps
achievement was noted in a
Canton Repository editorial:
The rise of the Bluecoats has
been a struggle marked by hard
work on the part of everyone
connected with the organiza-
tion, including those who live
with the reality of raising funds
for the program annually.
Scott Swaldo, Teds son
and current president of on staff that year. He said
the board of directors, was the years between 1984, his forms in the Canton area, ship base with institutional
TIM MCGRAW
ALBUM: Live Like You Were
Dying
SONG: My Old Friend
This years performance,
Aug. 8, will feature eight
drum corps from across the
nation. Board of Directors
member Randall Lamb said
tickets already have sold well.
I look for the event to
actually be a sellout this
BLUECOATS.WIKISPACES.COM year, he said.
n The Canton Bluecoats during the 1987 Drum Corps International World Championships. The event begins at 7:30
p.m. at Paul Brown Tiger
An alumni group per- combined with a leader- Stadium. Tickets can be
purchased online at DCI.org
fathers first as director, and the Bluecoats coordinate knowledge, have led to its or by calling 317-275-1212.
1986 the first year the Blue- the Cleveland Cavaliers and recent successes. Prices range from $20 to $45
coats placed in the top 25 as Browns drum lines, and the Weve always been able and increase $5 at the box
well as the pivotal 1987 season organization is develop- to have a strong connection office the day of the event.
were building years. ing musical activities with from year to year and decade The lineup includes: The
That really began the En-RICH-Ment of Stark to decade because of the fact Bluecoats; Blue Knights
next phase of the Bluecoats County. that really, truly, we have (Denver); The Cadets (Allen-
history, which really laid the Locally, were doing many of the same people town, Pa.); Carolina Crown
foundation for the modern more, Swaldo said. involved, he said. (Fort Mill, S.C.); The Cava-
Bluecoats, he said. The Bluecoats success has Drum corps, open to liers (Rosemont, Ill.); Madison
grown as well. The group has those between the ages of Scouts (Madison, Wis.), Phan-
Modern corps placed in the top six corps 15 and 21 sometimes 22 tom Regiment (Rockford, Ill.);
The corps has evolved from for roughly a decade, plac- travel during the com- and Santa Clara Vanguard
a primarily volunteer organi- ing second in 2014 and third petitive summer season. (Santa Clara, Calif.).
zation to a professional one in 2015. The Bluecoats regularly per-
over the years that followed. Glasgow said a combina- form during the Pro Football Reach Kelly at 330-580-8323or
Its now building a wider local tion of talented instructors, Hall of Fame Enshrinement kelly.byer@cantonrep.com.
presence, Scott Swaldo said. designers and performers, Festival. On Twitter: @kbyerREP

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