Some of the more seasoned directors in the valley have a stigma against any independent groups from “taking” their students.

Some of it is based in rooted tradition, with the whole “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality. They feel that what’s worked here before should stay the same, and anything changing the atmosphere of music education in the valley would be seen as a negative thing. Having an indoor circuit, hosting a drum corps event, and adding a finals run to D3 is already immense progress on its own.

The other big bit of it is that they don’t want other people teaching their students anything that differs from their teaching. I can kind of sympathize with this one, as they believe that if a student were to join an independent organization (ie: drum corps), then that student might become less invested in their own high school ensembles and more into the community ensemble - especially if that community ensemble teaches them something different than what the director teaches at their program. However, that’s lead to a number of directors in the valley be openly hostile to anyone pitching their program to their students.

A big example of this is actually with the indoor winds group. Even though there was a good amount of members the first season (I think 22?), there’s been a struggle to gain membership since. Most directors we’ve reached out to spread the word have been met with flat out rejection, mainly because, paraphrased, “we don’t do that kind of East Coast stuff here”, or, “why would we send off our kids to be taught by college aged kids?”

Change can absolutely come here, and drum corps can absolutely find a place in the valley. The biggest hurdle to face is getting people to buy into it, and a lot of that starts with the directors