In a surprise move this week, the Presidents Drum & Bugle Corps announced they are reorganizing as a senior corps -- not a division III DCI corps -- effective January 26, 2002.

"I feel as though a big weight has been lifted from my shoulders," said corps director Bill Clendenon. "DCI is going in the opposite direction we want to go . . . We want to bring back fun into drum corps and the excitement we’re missing is there in a senior corps."

The Presidents, originally formed in 1950, holds a place in history as the first drum corps from Tennessee. The corps eventually folded in 1972, and in the previous years they enjoyed the spotlight of two presidential inaugural parades, numerous gubernatorial inaugurations and two decades of national competitions.

In November 1999, the corps returned to active status and spent the next two years working its return to the competition field. Unfortunately, in the spring of 2001, as final preparations were underway for their first summer tour in 29 years, the corps failed the DCI validation assessment.

"It was time to get out of the junior corps business [and] everyone was in favor of the change," he said.

DCI was set to evaluate the Presidents again, but that will likely not happen now. Phantom Regiment Director Pat Seidling said in an interview that raising a corps in Tennessee is very difficult because of state restrictions on nonprofit fund raising. He said he had wanted Southwind to move there when he was the director of that corps, but changed plans when he learned of the restrictions...