Hello everybody! Welcome back to this new edition of Spotlight Friday! This week the spotlight is on cjbuckley1997, the owner of the drum corps White Star, drum line Lithium Indoor, color guard Illumination, and the MN Tiger Marching band. Connor has seen many successful seasons here on FMA, and has several medals to show for it. With most of his success in his Div 2 days, he managed 5 gold division 2 medals, 4 silver, and 3 bronze, with most of them happening in season 47 and up. With his true dedication for excellence here on FMA, there's no telling what the success of his groups will be in the future.
With all of the success he has had in the past, there must have been a reason for being here in the first place, and staying with it. Conner said, "I've been here for a little over a year, this is actually my 10th season! I found FMA through another marching arts site, but I ended up liking this one a lot better, it was a lot more interactive." I like how connor worded that- "It's a lot more interactive." This site is not only a game, but it's a community. I don't think you can find that in very many other places.
"Marching arts has been my passion since I started with it, so the more I get, the better. Once I started having more success in D3, it became abundantly clear that this is something that I would want to stick with."
With all of the success Connor has had, some groups simply do better than others. When I asked which of his groups was, "the better group," he answered, "I would definitely hace to say White Star. By the time we finally got going, and got competitive in D2, White Star came out and won back to back championships. Even though they weren't our first group to win a medal in D2, they were our only group to win multiple D2 championships." Which also has to be considered when judging a group and comparing it with others, just because it wasn't as successful at one time, doesn't mean it won't come back and be more successful than others."Adding to that, they are our first group to make it to division 1, even though they're getting crushed right now, which is what we were expecting."
I then asked what he though his most successful season has been so far in the circuit. He answered, "It has to be season 50, no question. That was the season we swept division 2. We won everything by a pretty big margin, and all of my groups had by far their best seasons scoring wise. I think White Star was undefeated the whole season (They were), and all of my other groups medaled in every show, and then didn't lose at the back end of the season." I just wanted to point out something, doing a clean sweep of championships is not an easy thing to do. Especially in D2 and D1. You pretty much have to rehearse your groups everyday, and you have to do it right. You can't just click random buttons. I very good job to Connor for managing to do that.
I then asked him what his show, The Dark Forest, meant. Why that one exactly? "This year we had some trouble finding a good repertoire, so we decided to go with the original concept, 'The Dark Forest'. It's a fast and intense show, and it has some pretty cool moments." Drum corps fans likes their impacts ;) "The percussion book is definitely a step up, but the rest of the show is pretty challenging in general." The shows tend to get more challenging and complex has groups go up in division, that's something that I have always noticed.
With the amount of success he has had with his groups, I had to ask him what his key to success was, and what he planned to do in the future. "The best key to my success has been consistent rehearsals, and that's the key in general. You can have all the staff you want, but if you don't have the rehearsal to back it up, you cannot have success." This is very true, you must have consistent rehearsals if you want to get yourself up there.
With all of Connor's understanding of how to get yourself up here on FMA, I asked what is, in his opinion, the most challenging part of FMA. He answered, "Again, it’s the rehearsing. That comes at two different level. For one, it’s the obvious part of being consistent with your times. It’s about getting on every 6 hours, not letting your energy max out, because every time you do that, you start bleeding points. If you sleep and you won’t be on for 8 hours, make sure you fundraise as to not waste rehearsal. Then there’s that second level of balancing what you rehearse. That one is more nuanced definitely, and there’s no real formula to it, so you just have to eventually figure it out. I do it one way, but there’s definitely multiple ways to do it. But the better strategy you have, the more success you will have. For example, you can't just click random buttons." I like that, and I think that is advice everybody should take. You have to use strategies when rehearsing your groups if you truly want them to be successful.
Finally I asked him if he had any future plans or changes here on FMA. He answered, "Well I definitely hope to stick around for a long time! As for more shows in the future, I hope to actually design more shows, with more than just a concept. And in the end, honestly, I wanna win it all, a D1 Championship. Now that’s gonna take a lot more time to do, but I’m not leaving any time soon."
And that's all for that one! Thanks to Connor for being a part of this, and everybody reading! Sorry there has been some delays with the coming out of these things. I'll get into the habit of doing these EVERY Friday at some point. There will definitely be one next Friday. Thanks all! I'll see you next time on Spotlight!

Very well written! Thank you for giving me this opportunity!

Its about time you got your recognition, Buckley. You always gave the D2 drum corps a run for its money with White Star. I wish you the best and hope to see you give D1 a run for its money too :)

nice work with a fast upcoming powerhouse in the activity

Awesome write up!