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5A State Marching Contest Schedule


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However, I think it's fantastic that they're putting 1A prelims and finals in the middle of it all to ensure that they have an audience to perform to. I'm sure it'll be the largest crowd many of those kids have ever played for. And these kids 1) attend extremely small schools in less wealthy rural areas and 2) are very far away from San Antonio, generally, which means that parents can't come as easily and create large cheering sections. Since 5A will likely be pretty well attended, especially for finals, that'll be an awesome experience for them.

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While it creates some issues, I'm gonna play devils advocate here and agree with PA...this was obviously a move to allow for those 1A schools to get a chance to perform in front of a substantial crowd, and I honestly think it's a pretty admirable move if this is the case. Logistics wise, yeah, its causes some weird obstacles, but as PA mentioned, this will likely give these schools a chance to play for a crowd 10 times larger than what they've seen before. UIL will get some upset parents over this move...but I say kudos for understanding that the whole point of UIL is to give schools of all sizes a platform to create memorable/once in a lifetime experiences, and I think this does that. 

 

I think it's going to be very neat for the 1A guys to get to perform for the big crowds and in the big dome.  Totally awesome and I'm happy for them!  But why not schedule this on a weekend?  This is gonna be rough on kids and their parents.  School getting missed, getting bogged down in school work and home work, and parents having to miss work.   Maybe it's a blessing in disguise being an alternate.  I know I'm going to miss a good one!

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So here's the deal. 

 

UIL is doing their best to give kids who do not have the resources and the attention that 5A/6A and even 4A programs have an amazing experience. While I agree that maybe the 5A day wasn't the best day and they could have moved it to the 4A day next year, that wouldn't solve the problem because 4A is now advancing ~25 bands to state, and that number is going to increase as well, considering that we're having another alignment which may add an Area to 4A, along with general inflation of scores. The only difference there is that significantly fewer people care about 4A than the bigger classes. I can honestly say that I truly don't believe that this would have the same vitriolic response on this board if this only concerned 2A-4A's schedule (yellowboard is a different story on this, although they aren't too happy with the current situation either; I do understand that this is an issue of demographics that frequent each board).

 

While this does disadvantage 5A schools and their students in not particularly great ways, we do have to understand that this was likely to happen anyway. As mentioned earlier, 6A finals ran pretty late last year as well, and that's probably going to get worse across all the classes. While we could find another stadium in theory, no other stadiums are as central, large, indoors and acoustically sound as the AlamoDome. It would also be unfair to offer 1A-3A or 4A finals in a smaller stadium and only let the larger two or three classes have access to the AlamoDome. So the only real option here is to limit the number of schools that advance to Area, and to State as well. Which, looking at this year's Area D thread, is not a popular option. Increasing State by another day won't help the problem either, as that will just cause more disruption in school schedules, another issue brought up in this thread. Weekends are also difficult because of the cost of the AlamoDome to rent - also remember that it's a college football team's home stadium. Additionally, Sunday isn't really an option as a competition day in Texas, forcing UIL to find two or three different weekends to hold State.

 

Bottom line is, there aren't really any more options, and while it is kind of a scheduling disaster, this is simply the fairest situation for all bands involved. Someone is going to get some kind of shaft. But honestly, I don't think what time finals is held will stop the best band from winning, and I'm sure all the performers will enjoy the experience of the competition all the same, even if they're a bit tired.

Hi PA

 

I don't think anything has gotten totally vitriolic yet.  I think the biggest deal with this is the date.  If this weren't a week day, it wouldn't be as big of a deal.  Make this a Friday or Saturday and I think the problem is (mostly) solved.  Kids don't have to miss but one day of school.  Far fewer parents have to make work arrangements and more people could attend. 

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Well, I remember when all classes had state contest every year in Austin. Each class would have their prelims at a separate stadium, so you'd have to choose which one you wanted to watch. I typically watched the 5A's at Burger Center in South Austin. The finals for all classes were held at UT Stadium. There were around 5 bands per class in the finals and it was nice to be able to watch the best of all the classes perform. If I remember right, 1990 was the last year that all classes went every year and Bowie had just been established in 1988. This was before many of the current top bands were even opened, like Hebron (1999), The Woodlands (1996), Reagan (1999), CTJ (2008), Cedar Park (1998), Vandegrift (2009), Vista Ridge (2003), Cedar Ridge (2010), Flower Mound (1999), and Hendrickson (2003) to name a few.

 

This too was a very long day, but you got to see all classes perform in the finals, which I do miss.

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Bands marched last weekend at the Cowboy Stadium.  They were very positive about the experience.  Maybe having state marching in Jerry's world is great idea!

 

As for 1A students getting a larger audience.  I would be SHOCKED if 5A parents and directors stay for any of that competition.  They will go out to eat, back to hotel rooms, etc...  I think that is a pipe dream.

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Count me as one who thinks this timing would be a horrible decision for so many reasons (safety as mentioned above, bands exhausted for the final performance, missed school the next day, lower attendance for finals from out-of-towners, etc).

 

The first and easiest solution I can see would be to eliminate approximately one hour or more (from 7:30PM to 8:45PM) between announcing the 5A Finalists and the beginning of the 1A Finals.  No reason not to compress the schedule where possible to make this work.  I know the UIL objection would be that they are counting on the additional revenue for Finals Ticket Sales and need to clear the stadium before finals, but since they are trying to fit this all into one day, they need to consider any and all options to end this thing before midnight (and as they say, they are trying to minimize loss of school time and travel costs).  I don't think they will use the same judges for 1A and 5A, so judges breaks shouldn't be an issue.

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