Jump to content

Jeffrey L. Gorman

Members
  • Posts

    152
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

Jeffrey L. Gorman last won the day on July 7 2019

Jeffrey L. Gorman had the most liked content!

Recent Profile Visitors

681 profile views

Jeffrey L. Gorman's Achievements

Newbie

Newbie (1/14)

45

Reputation

  1. There are problems with your ideas. The UIL would not change its parameters for BOA. The fact is that less than 200 High Schools compete in BOA. The majority of High Schools in the state would not vote for this. The number of Bands competing in BOA in Texas have been rather consistent at about 200 schools. That is less than 20% of the High Schools. The problem most people do not seem to understand is that BOA support is primarily in the class 5A & 6A Ranks. UIL makes its decisions on what is best for ALL Schools and most of the smaller schools cannot afford the luxury of BOA. That is a true fact. As regards to what the MHHSA and MSBA Have in their rules, the big problem is that MS has less than 20% of the schools in TX. Distance is far greater. Vicksburg to Tupelo is little over 240 miles. Compare that to the 800 miles between Houston and El Paso or the 369 miles from Abilene to Shreveport, LA. I think MS and Arkansas and Oklahoma also have good Contest ideas, especially Arkansas. However due to our size we take much more time to get a consenus of everything in the Band Program and all other parts of Texas HS Activities.
  2. I think there is interest in starting middle school programs, however the cost is high and many schools do not have the funds that the more affluent schools have. I live in a District where 59% of our students are on 3 meals a day provided by the school system. The fine arts department two years ago asked if Guard was worth more to the Music programs than Middle School Orchestras. The Orchestras won hands down. We now have 4 middle school orchestras (out of 9 Middle schools and one 50 piece HS Orchestra). The cost of start ups were similar in that they would have to hire certified teachers for the Teaching Guard like new orchestra directors(we have two who split up the 4 Middle Schools among themselves). One other thought I grew up in CA where Junior High and MIddle School Bands march in competition Parade Contests. They did this when I was growing up in the 60's and they still have numerous street marching contests. If the Band needs flags then it is easier to get a Guard Started. I know of very, very few middle schools in Texas that do any marching. There is the reason why there is not much interest.
  3. It seems that many folks, especially those in other School systems have questions about Highland Park. Remember this, they last were in 6A in 2014. They always seem to come in just under the 6A enrollments. Obiviously they have found a way to do this on a frequent basis.
  4. The UIL is making the cutoff for 5A at 2220 students. Highland Park comes in at 2209 students which means 5A Again. This is from the UIL Re Alignment listed yesterday.
  5. They have been in 6A before, making the finals of the 2014 Area C 6A Marching Contest. I do agree they are very small for competition in 6A. They were the 2nd Smallest Band in the 5A State Championships.
  6. Highland Park won the Midlothian Marching Contest and the Mansfield Preview Marching Contest. They also finished first in the AREA C Prelims and won the Area C 5A Marching Championships. Do not expect them to move up to 6A. Highland Park always tends to come in under the 5A enrollment limit. They have a very well funded Band Program.
  7. I have a serious question for you. In your region how many of the schools are Class 1A to 3A. How many are class 4A to 6A. I live in a Region where 40 of the 66 schools are 1A-3A. 10 are 4A, 9 are 6A, and 11 Are 5A. How does the numbers compare. Question 2. How far due your Schools and Bands travel to football games, both non-league and region. In my region most of the Schools in the 3A leagues travel approximately 50 to 75 miles one way for a football game. Thus a football game requires lets say three busses for a 100 member group which includes Dance Team(most small schools do not have Guard Units) Who pays for the travel to the games. The School system does because these are UIL activities. Question 3. Travel to UIL Region Contest comes from the School Systems funds since it is a UIL Contest. The Band has to raise its own funds for a BOA event. Figure just what the travel costs are. How many students in the school take the bus to and from school. If it is a rural school, it is much more difficult to force parents to come and pick up their students at school, especially if they live 15 to 20 miles from the school. That is a real travel situation in the small schools. Question 4. What is the closest BOA event to schools in the PanHandle. Try about 150 miles one way. If it is to Odessa then make it 260 miles one way. From Amarillo to San Antonio is 510 miles one way It is well over 150 miles from NE TX to Houston. It would seem that none of BOA events is in these rural areas. Few schools would allow their Band to travel on Saturday to an event this distant after the students had participated in Football, Debate, Band. FAA or other activities on Friday. Question 5. In the small UIL Schools it is not unusual for 50 to 60% of the Band members to also be involved in FAA, Cross Country, Drama, and other school activities taking place during the fall semester of the school year. What % of a large 6A School's Band Members are involved in other activities that require the Band to work with other school functions. I believe that big school Band Directors feel that what the Band does is the most important activity in the school during the fall. And they can force their students to choose between Band and other things. That does not work in the small schools. Question 6 Please give me an estimate of how many Small schools can fund BOA Travel, which would include Busses, lodging, meals, and lodging for chaperones, drivers and staff. Question 7 If you have read these topics, you will have noticed about the differences in the judging contexts of BOA and UIL. If it is this much of a challenge to differentiate between these two types of judging for big schools with multiple staff such as Drill Writers,Percussion Section Leaders, Guard Staff, how do you think small schools with one Band Director and one Assistant(who usually teaches the Middle School Band full time and HS Band is a part time job) will be able to change things. These are some of the differences and challenges small schools in TX come into when they have to decide if they want to spend money being used for a Trip to Disney World or one to San Antonio for a Band Contest conducted by BOA. You can guess what the kids want. I think there will be some, but not many Bands in the small classes who think attending a BOA contest is just great. Things are just very different in Classes 1A-4A Schools.
  8. I think that if the costs for BOA was not as high as it is. some Bands could do it. Remember 3A Schools have between 300 and 450 students. Compare that to the 6A Schools with over 2200 students and from major population areas and you can see the difference. I agree that they do well with small enrollments and more limited financial support. Unfortunately Money plays a big part in Bands attending contests now.
  9. One thing about UIL if you do not like the way a Band has been judged in Prelims, you can have the assurance that 5 different judges will do the Finals in your Class. Having a different panel of judges for Prelims and Finals I think would make it less likely that one Band will be trampled by the Judges.
  10. Results of the NMSU TOB Finals on Nov 2 at NMSU Stadium. Las Cruces, NM Score 93.8 Hanks, Grand Champion 91.9 Eastlake & Pebble Hills, 2nd Place Tie 90.9 Coronado 88.6 Onate 86.4 El Dorado 86.0 Montwood 84.8 Americas 83.0 Franklin 81.0 Horizon.
  11. The situation with the Rose Parade brings out some very unpleasant memories about how the BOA got Bands in the Rose Parade. First let me explain I grew up in Southern CA and marched with the Spirit of Troy in the Rose Parade while in College. I also worked with Bands in CA that were trying to go to the Rose Parade and had to deal with the Tournament of Roses. The story is not a pretty one. 1. The TOR wants Bands that are at least 250 members. The Bigger the better. . In 2005 Nacogdoches represented TX(Great Band but not enough folks for the TOR) The next year Kingwood represented the Lone Star State. Better but still not gigantic. The year after that guess who represented TX, the then 550 member Allen Eagle Escadrille who were lucky enough to be marching in the same Parade as the Longhorn Band who were playing in the Rose Bowl. 2 ln 2008 the TOR made it known that they wanted large Bands. CA schools may be excellent Parade Bands but with one exception they number about 100 to 140 members. The TOR went through the motions of going to Band Contests throughout CA in the hope of finding a good enough(Big Band) for an appearance. Son of a gun they could not find a big Band. Now please understand that the TOR invites one Band from CA every 4 years and they are coming again in 2021. THAT IS ARCADIA, which not only is next door to Pasadena but is the 300 plus member monster on the street. They have been to the TOR 17 Times and if the truth was known they are the only Big Band in CA that can look good against Bands from out of State. 3. This is where BOA comes in. Folks from BOA met with the Tournament of Roses to try and get a selection committee to send the best Bands from BOA contests to the TOR. The began to look at Bands who were top notch winners in the BOA contests. However the TOR folks did not understand that Drum and Bugle Corps style Bands followed DCI type of Marching . The TOR thought that the Bands would march like the " COMMANDANT"S OWN" USMC Drum and Bugle Corps who march a whole lot different than the BOA Bands. 4. The Rose Parade is a 5 1/2 mile monster to march with a requirement to play 3/4 of the time. The TOR Bands choosen to Pasadena were in most cases a very big disappointment to the TOR. CTJ was great in their Field show before 5,000 folks two days before the Parade, they were in the words of many CA directors who watched their performance" Abysmal " on the street. Other BOA Champions such as Broken Arrow, Dobyns Bennett and Round Rock also did not impress anyone in the parade. 5. What is not mentioned in this agreement was that the TOR could replace a BOA Band with another Band if they thought the other Band would be a better selection About 3 years ago the Eagle Escadrille from Allen made a return trip to Pasadena. When the TOR offered them an invitation, they happily accepted and BOA sent no Band that year. Allen by the way did a decent job on Grandioso on the street. 6. I think the agreement with the TOR and BOA was not a winner for anyone. I do not blame Bands for not wanting to go and spend several Hundred Thousand Dollars to march down a street. Trust me it is not worth it. .
  12. Results of the NAMMB Marching Contest. The following Bands were awarded Superior Marching Awards * Class 2A 1. Timpson 2. Beckville 3. Carlisle San Augustine Class 3A 1. New Diana 2. Hemphill 3. Ore City Class 4A 1. Spring Hill 2. Carthage 3.Pittsburg Bullard Chapel Hill Center Henderson Brownsboro Class 5A 1. Lufkin 2. Cleveland 3. Lindale Whitehouse Class 6A 1. Longview 2. Kingwood.
  13. I find this a really stupid comment. FYI, if you were following the UIL Music program web site a couple of years ago, it was decided that the time limit had to be enforced because many of the Bands that had large items to get off the field were consistently going over time because the Directors felt that UIL would never enforce this rule. As you might be aware, last year the Biggest Band in the State of TX was rightly penalized because they did not plan how to get all the performers and props off the field after 8 minutes. Interestingly enough, the folks at Allen did not complain about this. Being late off the field is a direct fault of the Directors of the Bands in Question, who cannot plan their show well enough. Further it seems that many folks in the Thread love to critique UIL for just about everything. I saw someone say that it was the old men at UIL who are the problem. Wrong answer. BOA schools are less than 15%of the UIL and have been consistently that number of schools over the years. I live in a School district that choose Orchestra funding over the cost of entering our Marching Bands in BOA events. Those of us in the music field felt this was a better use of our funds. Many other school districts also have choosen not to do BOA. I have no problem with Bands that do BOA, I Just wish that some of their fans knew more about why the rest of us have decided not to go that route instead of trying to make us like you folks in rules and ways of doing things. Also in regard to old men, today 6 of the 32 HS Bands at NAMMB Contest(Military Marching) are lead by Female Senior Directors. What is the percentage of senior directors of the BOA Bands that have Female Senior Directors. I think BOA does many good things, why not talk about that and stop ******** about the rest of us. Also the NAMMB contest is being streamed free of charge.
  14. 32 Bands from TX, NM, and AZ will compete in the 42 annual NMSU TOB at Las Cruces, NM on Saturday the 2nd of Nov 2019. The UIL Region A 2019 5A Marching Band Champion, Hanks HS of El Paso, will compete prior to their departure to San Antonio for the UIL State Marching Contest. Bands Competing and times of performance at the MNSU stadium are as follows 8:30 Morenci, AZ 8:45 San Elizario, TX 9:00 Cloudcroft, NM 9:15 Silver, NM 9:30 Gadsden, NM 9:45 Los Lunas, NM 10:00 Deming, NM 10:15 Irvin, EP, TX 10:30 Burgess, EP, TX Break until 11:45 11:45 El Paso, TX 12:00 Andress, EP, TX 12:15 Jefferson Silva, EP, TX 12:30 LA Cueva, NM 12:45 Albuquerque, NM 1:00 PM Riverside, EP, TX 1:15 El Dorado, NM 1:30 Alamogordo, NM 1:45 Las Cruces, NM 2:00 Centennial, LC, NM 2:15 Mayfield, LC, NM Break 2:45 Eastlake, EP, TX 3:00 Montwood, EP, TX 3:15 Onate, LC, NM 3:30 Horizoon, EP, TX 3:45 Eastwood, EP, TX 4;00 Hanks, EP, TX 415 Chapin, EP, TX 4:30 Coronado, EP, TX 4:45 Socorro, EP, TX 5:00 Franklin, EP, TX 5:15 Pebble Hills, EP, TX 5:30 Americas, EP, TX 5:45 Announcement of Finalists 8PM Finals Start Hanks is coming off winning the UIL Area A 5A Contest and will be one of the favored Bands with Coronado and Americas , both UIL Class 6 A Bands and previous winners of this contest being their biggest challengers
  15. The NAMMB announced the lineup for the Texas State Military Marching Band Contest, being held on 2 NOV at SFA Univ in Nacogdoches. The lineup includes 32 Marching Bands including the appearance of Longview in Contest for the first time in Many years. Other new Bands are Whitehouse and Athens. Schedule is as follows; Class 2A Overton 1:00 Joaquin 1:15 Cushing 1:30 San Augustine 1:45 Harleton 2:00 West Sabine 2:15 Timpson 2:30 Carlisle 2:45 Beckville 3:00 Class 3A Ore City 3:15 Hemphill 3:30 New Diana 3:45 Class 4A Hardin Jefferson 4:00 Bullard 4:15 Athens 4:30 Pittsburg 4:45 Chapel Hill 5:00 Center 5:15 Carthage 5:30 Henderson 5:45 Brownsboro 6:00 Spring Hill 6:15 Class 5A Whitehouse 6:45 Montgomery 7:00 Huntsville 7:15 Vidor 7:30 Lindale 7:45 Jacksonville 8:00 Cleveland 8:15 Lufkin 8:30 Class 6A Kingwood 8:45 Longview 9:00 Awards Ceremony begins at 9:15 PM
×
×
  • Create New...