The Hall of Fame weekend of 2008 had a rousing sendoff Monday evening as roughly 8,000 spectators jammed the home stands at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium for the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival Drum Corp International Competition. The competition featured eight of the nation’s top corps, whose members ranged from ages 16 to 21, including the Stark County-based Bluecoats. “Think of this as marching band on steroids,” said Phoenix native Stuart Schulman. Schulman competed with the California-based Santa Clara Vanguards for five years as a drum major. Now, too old to compete, Schulman teaches the Vanguard tuba players. He said the corps, which has members from all over the U.S. and members from Canada and Japan, has been practicing daily and has competed across the country. Next week is the final stop at the national competition in Bloomington, Ind. “We compete at high school, pro and college stadiums,” he said. “We had a competition at the Georgia Dome (Atlanta), the Alamo Dome (San Antonio) and Stanford Stadium. ... This is one of the larger high school venues we compete at.” The spectators came from all over the state. Hundreds, if not thousands, of high school band members came along with their high school bandmates. Norton High School’s Lorin Curnutte and Kayla Simpson were among those. The two said they’ve both attended the annual event every year they’ve been in high school. “I love watching the drum corps,” ...
Anytime
The Hall of Fame weekend of 2008 had a rousing sendoff Monday evening as roughly 8,000 spectators jammed the home stands at Paul Brown Tiger Stadium for the annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Enshrinement Festival Drum Corp International Competition. The competition featured eight of the nation’s top corps, whose members ranged from ages 16 to 21, including the Stark County-based Bluecoats. “Think of this as marching band on steroids,” said Phoenix native Stuart Schulman. Schulman competed with the California-based Santa Clara Vanguards for five years as a drum major. Now, too old to compete, Schulman teaches the Vanguard tuba players. He said the corps, which has members from all over the U.S. and members from Canada and Japan, has been practicing daily and has competed across the country. Next week is the final stop at the national competition in Bloomington, Ind. “We compete at high school, pro and college stadiums,” he said. “We had a competition at the Georgia Dome (Atlanta), the Alamo Dome (San Antonio) and Stanford Stadium. ... This is one of the larger high school venues we compete at.” The spectators came from all over the state. Hundreds, if not thousands, of high school band members came along with their high school bandmates. Norton High School’s Lorin Curnutte and Kayla Simpson were among those. The two said they’ve both attended the annual event every year they’ve been in high school. “I love watching the drum corps,” ...