Those parents included Marilyn and Ken Zask, Carol and Vinnie
Tesoriero, Ginny Beiner, Anne Henning and Dot Talty. The list
goes on. My apologies to all the other hard working parents that
put in lots of long hours for not mentioning them. The instructional
staff included Joe Gentile and Ginny Reaber, Hank Smith,
Ann Marie Deiman, Pat Herb, George Desposito, Fred Zoeller,
Al DiCroce and Bill Sapienza.

In September of 1980, I heard the corps could use some help.
I came down one night to try and help out. I'm still not sure to this
day how it happened, but I went from being a volunteer to Director
in a very short period of time. I needed the approval of Father
McCormack, but with the backing of that dedicated group of parents
and staff they turned a very nerve wracking situation into one that
I could manage.

The 1980 winter standstill season was uneventful. We competed
in our standstill shows. We won some, lost some. We went up
against our old rivals, St. Joe's and St. Mary's. I think we won
New York State Association, but not Suffolk-Nassau or Northeastern.
This was naturally very disappointing as we felt (of course) that
we deserved better.

Most of the teaching staff (myself included) had marched M&M
in some form after leaving the corps in the early 70's. We felt we
had a strong nucleus of a corps that could handle M&M. The
corps members had been together for a long time. They felt ready
for the challenge too. We only needed to convince the parents who
were holding the whole thing together (and Father McCormack).
Since they didn't have any M&M experience it was a tough sell.
Luckily they didn't know how hard it was really going to be or else
they probably would never have let us try.

We needed to add to our staff in order to reach the M&M level.
Dave Holmes and George Lavalle came on to write and teach drill.
Maureen Sapienza taught the Color Guard. Bob McCarthy was
added to the Drum Staff. Gary Cabrera and Mike O'Neill came
back as volunteers to help the Drum Line and Drill Staff respectively.

The major factors that made this M&M attempt possible was:
1) The Garden State Circuit had created a new category for
small corps such as the Stormy Knights. It was called Intermediate.
We only had to march a 7 1/2 minute drill.
2) We didn't have to sponsor a show. In the Fall of 1981, we
got the go ahead from the parents and most importantly the
commitment from the corps members. We started learning a show.

I have to mention three people, that if it weren't for their efforts,
the corps probably would not have fielded. In the Fall of 1981,
Anne Marie Concannon came back as a volunteer, and became
the Assistant Director. Anne Marie worked tirelessly. I know I
couldn't have done it without her. Bill Bedell had contacts with
the Garden State Association. He accompanied me on my first
meeting in New Jersey, and introduced me to the Garden State
membership. It was even scarier than the first time I stood up in
front of the corps. He accompanied me to most of the monthly
meetings after that. Joe Gentile was a volunteer recruit horn
instructor who knew a whole lot more than he let on. He taught
drill in a pinch and I think even rewrote certain sections when
he saw they didn't work. Joe also managed to keep the parents 
and staff from tar and feathering me on more than one occasion
when I stuck my nose where it didn't belong.

On July 17, 1982, the Stormy Knights took the field at Hofstra University.
It was an exhibition at the St. Ignatius show. We were small but we
were good. It was one of the proudest moments of my life. We won
most of our shows in 1982, and we won when it counted most.
On August 27, we won the Garden State Intermediate Championships.
That was an even prouder moment.

In 1983, we knew we needed to improve if we were going to advance.
We recruited and the corps became stronger. We were undefeated,
and repeated as Garden State Intermediate Champions.

In September of 1983, due to personal commitments, I was
unable to maintain the position of Director. Anne Marie Concannon
became Director, and I stayed on as Business Manager.