"...I saw 27th win Boise, Santa Clara the following night, and the Blue Devils in Seattle. I flew back east and started that tour with the Union show where the results that were announced were reversed later, based upon an admitted judging error. I saw the Blue Devils put together their show and win big at the World Open, and then again at Lowell. Earlier questions of whether the Blue Devils had peaked too early and if Santa Clara was being peaked and groomed for DCI finals were being answered each night as some of the greatest corps in years got better and better and I thought: 'Wow, modern drum corps is here', all the while I kept feeling from everyone I came in contact with that rather than CYO being face-off of the great contemporary corps, that Madison was coming to town to show everyone whose year it was.
Well, I was wrong: modern drum corps is not here, and not because we haven't a two or three-valve bugle yet. I sat at CYO Nationals and watched the Blue devils put on at least as good a show that evening as their record performance at World Open - even better, I felt - and thought that it was they who came that evening to show whose year it was."