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George Hopkins

George Hopkins

Life long member, teacher, & director of Drum Corps (1968–2018). Semi retired, - creating, a life including Running+Consulting (https://www.ghops11rings.com/)

Cadets 2006

3 min readAug 16, 2025

MORE LATER — BUT THIS SHOWED IN MY FEED TODAY

Some of the 2006 Characters

This program ( 2006) has been forgotten, or dismissed or … heck, I do not know. Maybe it is just sitting “in the back of the refrigerator”

Today, I had a one minute clip of the Cadets 2006 show, arrive in my feed

The 2006 show deserves many an article and maybe more, but … let's start at the beginning, or should I say the ending

The 2006 show belonged to Marc Sylvester. I always say a single individual is the caretaker for each show. It is the person who “went to bat”, “brought the show to the table”, or “put their ass on the line”.

Example … 1984 was Michael Cesario. 1995 was Jay Bocook. 2000 was me … and we can go on. Sure there is collaboration but it always felt like each show needed a champion to drag us through the tough days :)

Now then — 2006 belonged to Sully

He and I fought over the winter, but, as tends to be the story with me once I was in, I was ALL IN. We had props … lots of props … we needed an additional truck, we had benches, we had costumes, we had voice … we were ALL IN. I remember Marc was actually a little shocked at how IN I was. But hell … if we were going to go crazy … lets go Crazy CRAZY.

But for today, here is a little tidbit …A tidbit nary a judge recognized. I kid you not.

As it seemed to be clear … 2006 … was kind of … a part 2 of part 1 of the Zone. The story went off the rails but, the connection was clear … we thought?

To bring that home, the beginning of the 2006 was indeed, almost to a step … the exact drill and characterization of 2005.

At least until the appearance of the “lady in yellow” .

And with the assistance of the video creator here, you can see …

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The beginning of 2006 was the end of 2005. Visually … almost exactly.

And then , after a trip through 2006’s show complete with characters, references, tricks, and one of the great ballad interpretations of all time … we go back to the end of 2005 ;

kind of like 2006 never happened.

When we came up with this … ( I still remember sitting with Marc in Dr. Ed DiCarlo’s Upper East Side Apartment trying to count all of this out ) for a second :-) I did think Marc was a genius and off his rocker.

And yes, we needed the Hall of Famer Jeff Sacktig to make it happen.

What will amaze you as you watch this … so few people recognized what we were doing. And even when we told judges in critiques, well … let’s say they were less than overwhelmed. Some found it cute. CUTE ? .. un … it was WAY more than CUTE.

It was amazing what the corps did.

It was genius. Marc Sylvester was a genius :-)

Of course, the summer was brutal. Bus breakdowns, competition, trucks that were too small, benches, loading and unloading, other staff who may not have appreciated what Marc created …. it was just exhausting, that I will not argue.

For me, for Marc, for the students, for all of us. It was right up there with the summer of 1984 ( that is another story)

Indeed, a few days after the summer Marc and I met at a Starbucks on corner of 85th and 1st Avenue in Manhattan and mutually agreed to part ways. At least for a while :-)

I think I can say, nary a summer took more from us both, than the ZONE … Part 2 :-) . I would do it again, and as I watched today, the entire show, I had tears … lots of tears … but that will be for my next entry … perhaps complete with a YOUtube conversation with Marc and I

For now … happy end of August

Enjoy … and pass it along

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George Hopkins
George Hopkins

Written by George Hopkins

Life long member, teacher, & director of Drum Corps (1968–2018). Semi retired, - creating, a life including Running+Consulting (https://www.ghops11rings.com/)