2002 Magic of Orlando Drum and Bugle Corps Brass
I was truly honored to march (2nd Baritone - WHATWHAAAAT) in the 2002 Magic of Orlando horn line. We were a hornline made from scratch, that had to truly earn our keep that year (We DID the work). That was the hardest working group of people I had ever marched with and I thank God for that summer because it was one of the most important journeys I had ever taken in my life (at 17).
After I marched in 2002, I really wished I could have been there in 2003, but life has a way of twisting and turning and I never really had the opportunity to march ever again in DCI (never got to age-out like a good amount of friends I marched with). Ben Harloff had given our brassline some very important food for thought during every-days (spring training) during a visual rehearsal in which I recall him stating the importance of not taking what you have for granted. He had marched in Star of Indiana and he stressed the importance of what it means to have something so inspiring and meaningful not be taken for granted (and of course how we should put some thought into why we were doing what we were doing and what we wanted to accomplish as a group). It’s a full turn of irony considering we went from not being an active corps in 2000 and 2001, to forming almost a whole new corps in 2002 (with a handful of Magic vets who had come back to keep it alive, and a lot of members from Boston Crusaders who simply wanted to be taught by the celebrated Gino Cipriani, as we all did - and the mass majority of the corps being a mix of rookies and various vets of other drum corps like Patriots I think and Brigadiers, and Blue Devils and Cadets, Crown, etc) - to eventually shutting down and not ever existing anymore (which almost gave Harloff’s lesson a sense of prophetic insight).
When Ben Harloff gave us that important guidance, we knew he was right and we all quietly listened because there is a significant tragedy in a corps that was once thriving to simply not exist anymore. So, that mindset pretty much kept our motivation going - to know that what we had could easily be gone and that’s that - and it eventually was gone after 2006.
I still wish I could go to cheer for my corps, but I’m thankful to be able to cheer for other groups where people are doing things Magic would have done if the corps was still around today. (Rest In Peace, Magic)
