An Oral History Of The DCI Southwestern Championships

As Told By A Nerd Who Claims The Alamodome As A Second Residence

Hi. My name is Daniel and I practically live at The Alamodome during the Summer and Fall. I know marching arts events like the DCI Southwestern Championships on an intimate level. No, that is NOT sad. The popularity of this particular event has popped off double time in recent years because it is the first event of the season where all of the World Class units get together and attempt bash each other’s heads in. Allow me to walk you through the history of one of the best drum corps events of the year with a little personal history spritzed in there as well.

1993 - 2000s:
The Beginning
The first DCI Southwestern event was NOT held in San Antonio. Blasphemy. Anyways, the event was held at Rice Stadium in Houston. It was the last Division I (World Class) event held before DCI World Championships in Jackson, Mississippi. Yes, kiddos. Back in the olden days, the DCI World Championships event site traveled across this great land before BIG OIL STADIUM took everything over. The Cadets (photo below) won the first DCI Southwestern event and they did a standstill encore afterwards. Rumor has it that Star Of Indiana waited in the tunnel with baseball bats. The event returned to Houston in 1995. The Madison Scouts won that one with their show titled Pollo Con Crema And All The Freaking Soprano Soloists.

The Cadets Victory Encore At 1993 DCI Southwestern

Remember The Alamo (Stadium)
In 1998, DCI moved the Southwestern event to Alamo Stadium in San Antonio. No, not The Alamodome. I’m talking about Alamo Stadium. This is a stadium owned by the San Antonio Independent School District and was built as part of a works project back in the 1940s. Over 9,000 people attended the event thanks in part to the Texas Bandmasters Association (TBA) Convention that was held in town on the same weekend. Today, both events still line up together on the calendar. At this point in history, we are not yet attempting any fancy scheduling or seeding. There were only ten units at this event. The Blue Devils won. People complained about traffic. What’s new?

Dome Sweet Dome
The Alamodome won the rights to the DCI Southwestern event in 1999 and people LOVED IT!!! Air conditioning??? Decent acoustics??? AIR CONDITIONING??? Ohhh, lawdy! DCI was so hyped about this that they added this event to their Mid-Season Collection CD. You read that correctly. At one point, DCI would produce audio recordings and send them out to you in a nice compact disc. If you don’t know what those are, you probably get charged $600 extra when renting a vehicle. I was a Freshman in High School and started getting in to Drum Corps. The Blue Devils won.

Obsession And Fancy Scheduling
DCI Southwestern 2000 went to The Cadets. The lineup only consisted of nine groups. This would be the last year that the event would such a small number of units. Fancy scheduling had arrived in 2001. The Afternoon Show featured some Div. II/III (Open Class) groups and every Div. I group that was NOT in the top eight during the season. The top four groups from the Afternoon Show got to perform at the Evening Show along with the top eight drum corps units so far. Definitely had that Prelims/Finals type format I was so accustomed to during the Fall. This format would continue until 2009. Then, the event basically became the Drum Corps version of the Royal Rumble.

I was one of the Drum Majors of my High School band and the leadership team decided to go to the event. I sat on the Side Two 30 yard line and I don’t remember closing my mouth the entire time I was there. I was hooked. Before the event, I watched Santa Clara Vanguard do their clinic before the show. After they finished, I went to the lot and watched the Madison Scouts drumline warm up. My friend and I followed them across the street TWO BLOCKS DOWN FROM THE WARMUP LOT. Not sure why they went so far away.

2006 DCI Southwestern, Supporting My Friend Kelly With Blue Stars

2010s:
Unanticipated Scheduling Conflict
Those three words you just read made me ugly cry for weeks. Because of an “unanticipated scheduling conflict”, the DCI Southwestern Championships would not be held at The Alamodome in 2010. The unanticipated scheduling conflict was Dallas Cowboys Training Camp. So yeah. We got kicked out of our home so that the Cowboys could learn how to be the most penalized team in professional sports. Instead, DCI split up the units for two consecutive nights of shows at a district stadium on the northeast side of San Antonio. While I appreciated the effort, it just wasn’t the same. MOM SAYS WE HAVE McDONALDS AT HOME!!!

Show Etiquette
During the 2010 event, an alumnus from a corps that shall go unnamed sat right next to me during their former unit’s performance and proceeded to scream their lungs out….for the entire 10 minutes. I’m serious. The entire time. The Drum Corps activity was starting to finally grown out of the random screaming during the quiet moments of a program. Unfortunately, this person sent us waaay back to the Stone Age. The person apologized after the unit finished up and then left. Thanks. The following year, back at The Alamodome, two members from a corps that shall go unnamed sat in front of me and made out for almost half of the contest. Yes, they did this while other groups were performing! Why can’t people go do that stuff behind the dumpster at Bill Miller BBQ like you’re supposed to?!?!?!

“It’s An Abomination!!!!”
In 2012, I was going through a bit of a rough patch in my life so I booked some last minute tickets. I had a blast!! If there is such a thing as decompressing while having your ears blown off, I experienced that during this show. Before the Blue Devils went on, someone stood up and started yelling at their friend sitting next to them. The “conversation” was loud enough that I could easily hear this from ten rows behind me.

”Have you seen the Blue Devils this year?!?! It’s an abomination!!!! They are destroying the activity!!!”

Drum Corps fans are really neat.

2013 To Present:
Experimentation
In recent years, performance order has changed plenty. Average scores over a certain time. Straight up rankings from the previous Saturday. Currently, we use rankings from the previous week and then draw in pods of three to prevent slotting (Fake word used by those not in 1st Place).

Remember Drumline Battle??? They used to do that during Intermission.
DCI Individual and Ensemble Contest???? That happened during the week of DCI Southwestern.
Heck, we used to have two kiddos spin around several times and race towards a gong on the other side of the field. We don’t do that anymore for some reason. SOMEONE ANSWER THAT DAMN PHONE!!!

The DCI Southwestern Championships is the Texas version of Allentown. The contest is going to live as long as DCI does. It is a LONG contest to get through, but if you can take it all in, your reward at the end of the night is complete exhaustion from watching all these awesome performers in one venue. If you did it right, you should not have any energy after the DCI Southwestern Championships. Enjoy the contest this Saturday and do it right.

The document has been updated to reflect that DCI Southwestern 2000 did take place with The Cadets winning the event.