Blue Stars Build Momentum, Aim Higher for 2026 DCI Season

Blue Stars left their April camp with more than a fresh set of reps. The corps also left Indianapolis with a better read on whether 2026 can be the year the climb turns into a breakthrough.

The full corps gathered April 24-26 at the Indiana State Fairgrounds for its first full-ensemble camp since winter, and the weekend doubled as a hard checkpoint before spring training and the summer tour. Color guard callbacks ran alongside the ensemble work, and the corps laid on housing at the fairgrounds plus airport shuttle transportation from Indianapolis International Airport, a sign that this was a serious full-dress rehearsal for the season ahead, not a routine meet-up.

Music arranger Andrew Markworth said the aim was to get as much of the program on the field as possible before the next phase of work, while also tightening technique and helping the ensemble lock together. That matters for Blue Stars because the corps is not starting from scratch. It finished eighth at the 2025 DCI World Championship Finals with a score of 91.175, moved up one place from Semifinals to Finals, and landed inside the top eight in five of the last six competitive seasons. That is a stable floor, but it is also the kind of profile that starts to demand more.

Drum major Joely Martin pointed to veteran retention as one of the clearest signs that the corps has something to build on. A returning core gives Blue Stars a cleaner path into harder material, and that is where the 2026 conversation gets interesting. Last season, the corps already showed it could make a late push in Indianapolis. The question now is whether that push can start earlier and last longer.

The staff picture suggests Blue Stars are trying to answer that with continuity. The corps announced in fall 2025 that most of its 2026 design team and caption heads would return, while CEO Brad Furlano said the organization was welcoming back its designers and adding Jacob Gall to the instructional team. Travis Larson also returned to lead the brass staff, and Jim Wunderlich remained part of the music leadership structure. For a corps trying to raise its ceiling, keeping the people who shaped the sound and the caption identities is not a small thing.

That continuity showed up in the numbers too. Blue Stars were sixth in brass at Finals, one of the sharper markers that the ensemble has room to grow without reinventing itself. With more than 75 events across more than 30 states on the 2026 DCI Summer Tour and World Championships set for August 3-8 in Indianapolis, the April camp looked less like a warmup and more like the first real step in turning consistency into contention.