First of all let me just say.....Ouch.
Cedar Park was excellent before Jeremy Spicer, in fact the year before he was here we were 2nd place in the state(we have not done that good since then).
The year he showed up was a BOA year, and we did not place in finals. The next year he was in charge we got 20th in state. The year after that we got 12th at BOA finals, and this year 4th at state. It's not about the director. It's about the students. Last year our brass consisted of mostly sophomores and juniors. This year those powerhouse brass players are either all juniors or seniors (more air = more volume). Plus our staff this year is equally as excellent. Spicer seems to know quite a bit about marching from his personal experience, but the best he ever did in corps was 2nd. Our new head of visual for marching band, (Bob Chreste) got 1st the year spicer got 2nd.(Hmm) He is also older and has more experience in teaching marching. I believe this program has been getting better for the past few years, and has nowhere to go but up.
But hey, I don't really need to say all this, because the field tells all.