jmartin1056

I would appreciate that recipe too if anyone is sharing 👀

Avon 2019 was sloppy at Grand Nats finals, lots of drops, but yes the phrasing was hard. Woodlands have the superior cleanliness matched to the demand. Having seen both shows live. I was truly left speechless when the woodlands ended with that flag feature.

Finalist strong?👀

the activity is richer when ld bell is as strong as they are this yr. it just is.

Avon 2019 was sloppy at Grand Nats finals, lots of drops, but yes the phrasing was hard. Woodlands have the superior cleanliness matched to the demand. Having seen both shows live. I was truly left speechless when the woodlands ended with that flag feature.

That was the greatest color guard performance of a high school ever. Simply incredible.

That was the greatest color guard performance of a high school ever. Simply incredible.

Visually, I think nobody really has come close to The Woodlands over the last 2 days. 

This comment is out of line

Pretty sure September 1st is when they become available to the public, they open but tickets to the bands in August so they can get block tickets together 

I predicted TWHS in second just behind Tarpon Springs on a podcast the other day but I don’t think the nonTexas folks I was talking to were fully on board with that prediction. I know the expectation is always Carmel and Avon at or near the top and that could still happen, but I just have a feeling that The Woodlands might be what I’ll call “an April Surprise.” 😁

I think guards at the top have always tried to push the limits, but it's definitely more encouraged now that we have a "Box 6" on the world sheets. Literally the highest achievement is "setting new standards." So that's what they're chasing now. But it does sometimes seem like we're entering figure skating territory, where the girls will load up their programs with quads or whatever and then fall on half of them and still somehow win. I always want to remind the guards that having the actual fundamental training to pull off the skills is a component of vocabulary scoring, even if sometimes the scores don't seem to reflect that.

It almost seems like the world groups are starting to try and reinvent the wheel in terms of difficulty, but as a result I don’t think we’ll ever see a performance that is clean like those of the 2012-2015 era. Last year at finals, outside of maybe 2 of the top 8,  the scholastic and independent world groups had pretty major and consistent drops in their runs. Today Pride was cleaner than they were yesterday, but still had quite a few mistakes. I wonder if the attempts of difficulty are the cause of the drop in overall scores.

I'm a little surprised, too, but the recap overall looks okay. Avon was 1st in the excellence subcaptions of both equipment and movement. Where they really fell behind were the upstairs captions. Carmel's show definitely has the more compelling staging, so that makes sense to me.
Carmel with an 80. I wouldn't have had it quite that high, honestly. Actually, only 2 of the 5 judges had them hitting 80.
I hope all the SW shows grow on me a bit. At this rate the scores will be even lower than last year at finals.

Surprised to see Carmel widen the gap over Avon with that performance. Both shows grew on me though, as well as Fishers (love their costumes).

I think Avon was more emotionally engaging today, but dirtier in terms of equipment work. They definitely have a very high ceiling. It’s a high risk vs. high reward battle for them this year. Should be interesting if they can get the consistency there to take it all the way. Carmel has such a good use of their props. It’s so hard to say who will take the gold this year. I’m excited to see what TWHS and Tarpon have in store for us.

I know back at the end of January Tarpon was sitting around a 72.5, but it’s hard to say where they’d fit in with all the other groups. Won’t really get a clear picture on them for another 2 or 3 weeks. Certainly excited to see The Woodlands next weekend to gauge how the WGI judges feel about them. If it’s anything like their show last year, I’m sure it’ll be a crowd pleaser.

I thought Carmel had a much rougher run than prelims just now. Avon seemed to give a little bit of a stronger one, but I'm still not sold on the show. There's just not a whole lot that's interesting staging-wise.
My gut is saying TWHS versus Tarpon this year, although I haven't seen Tarpon. I like the incomplete TWHS show I saw a couple weeks ago more than what I saw just now from Avon and Carmel. It's just more interesting and emotionally engaging. Whether they're able to clean it to the level of a gold medal remains to be seen.

I think Avon was more emotionally engaging today, but dirtier in terms of equipment work. They definitely have a very high ceiling. It’s a high risk vs. high reward battle for them this year. Should be interesting if they can get the consistency there to take it all the way. Carmel has such a good use of their props. It’s so hard to say who will take the gold this year. I’m excited to see what TWHS and Tarpon have in store for us.

Avon's is definitely more ambitious and maybe has a higher ceiling, but it's not as polished performance-wise compared to last year -- at least it wasn't in prelims. As far as the music goes, I think the random pop jam out section is probably what really throws me off. The later stuff doesn't seem to fit as well with the earlier stuff, like we've totally changed the radio channel or something.
Carmel's show definitely feels more stripped down, which I think makes it a little less emotionally satisfying. It could use more of an emotional climax. Overall it's very cool, but maybe too chill. That's probably the point though.

3rd - Cedar Ridge

We Are All Winners In Life Every Band Here Deserves First Place Hebron

Congratulations to Vandegrift! 1st state title in the books and surely more to come ❤️ all my love!

This has been the same conversation for years.
When Marcus and L.D. Bell reigned supreme people wondered what was the point. When Westfield and Reagan were the kings people wondered why they ought to keep trying.
These comments and concerns are ingrained into competitive marching. It can be hard to keep missing after trying, but we have to remember some things.
Its more about the results it’s about what you learn through participating and putting effort.
Do the same bands seem to keep reigning supreme? Yes. However we put too much focus on big finalist achievements instead of focusing on big accomplishments on a smaller scale.
Glenn broke their first 80 ever at San Antonio this year, Argyle swept AA as a newly 5A band, Pecos won A with a 2 rating at region. Small accomplishments need to be amplified, because there’s value we don’t see.
Money is an issue, sure.. Any competitive activity at the HS level will always have that inequity at its core, and that’s a huge shame.
I would say “judging bias” is always a big concern, but I rarely see it. Outlier scoring can seem shocking on the surface, but some analysis can usually bring genuine justification.

Shoutout to rocketfan86, I miss his recordings.