1. by: Halee Wright

2. What are the bluecoats? The Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps are a group of 150 young musicians and performers, ages 15-22, who spend their entire summer traveling and competing in competitions around the country. They travel on charter buses, sleep on gym floors and do laundry in laundry mats The practice, outside in the sun, for 14 hours a day.. everyday. They get their food off of a semi truck that was transformed into a kitchen and eat, on average, 5,000 calories a day. In one summer they will travel over 21,000 miles and compete in, on average, 33 competitions and participate in around 4 Fourth of July parades.

4. By Babe Stearn and Ralph McCauley, Canton police officers and directors of the Canton Police Boys’ Club.

5. They did not come out for a season in 1979 and 1983

6. 1987 was their first year in DCI finals

7. 1992 was their first year in World Class

8. 2010 was the first time that the Bluecoats medaled in DCI World Finals

10. You get the shoelace after your first real performance with the Bluecoats and it represents the fact that you are no longer considered to be a rookie.

11. You then get your pennies on the last day of the season.

13. Autumn leaves The song “Autumn Leaves” is the corps’ signature song. It was used in their show in 1987 ( the first year the corps made it into finals) and it has been apart of the corps repertoire since then. It can be heard in every encore that the corps performance in after shows and in impromptu concerts in the parking lot after competitions. The corps will normally gather in a group, wrap their arms around each other and sing this song after they have an amazing performance.

15. 14 hour practices everyday

16. They learn the entire show during this timeAfter their 4 weeks at training they hit the road and are on tour for the remaining 8 weeks of the season.

17. Spring training (a short video showing what goes on at spring training)