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20 tubas is absolutely insane… I’m in a 6A band but we only have either 8 or 10 😭 (granted, our school JUST moved up to 6A)

Really curious to see what happens at this Area now that were getting into the band camp timeframe and everyone is going to be pushing to hit the ground running. I'd LOVE to see a big shakeup and changes in the Area finals results with groups pushing into finals this year. I wonder if Paetow will keep the moment up that they had going through last year after the split that took a chunk of their kids to open the new katy school Freeman High School. The head director at Freeman was one of the directors at Cinco, and now Cinco has a new design team apparently? Im really hoping there's going to be a TON of different interesting results this year!!! Just no results like that one time back in the day with Cedar Park nearly not making Area finals due to interesting judging ordinals, and then they ended up like 3rd at State - judging panels be like, 3-1-2-5-27 🤣

Freeman opened pulling students from Paetow, Katy, and Morton I think? I'd need to check the weird attendance boundary lines that Katy ISD likes to do to not mess with one schools attendance more than others.... *looking at the big red tiger in the room.... I'm really curious to see how Freeman comes out of the gate this year for their first go! Does anyone know what their program is looking and sounding like right now? I've been trolling a couple of things now that I'm back from vacation trying to get an idea of what people are doing in their band camps - side note, Pearland looks friggin HUGE from the one video I saw the other day that got posted of them rehearsing things indoors. There was something like 20 tubas?!?! #TexasBands

Boston and Phantom…wow Deserved and not surprised as well tomorrow night will be insane

Attention everyone Phantom has now passed Carolina Crown. And Blue Devils has gotten passed by Boston Crusaders!

That's a whole other level, but it would be fun to go in that general direction, hah! When they played their halftime show in Katy in '21 they got a standing ovation from our crowd.

It really is, I think I’ll call this the “new” generation of Area I, oldies with some new faces in the mix and some talent switches. I think Katy could maybe take a direction the woodlands takes? Something jazzy considered their 23’ show.

I definitely like how USBands is adding a contest for the best of the best in the state. It would be really cool if this contest was LOADED with talent in all of Texas, instead of just DFW area bands. This could potentially be BOA SA's competitor in the future.

Well, it appears that there are some new faces at this comp, so finals is gonna be tough this year. With that being said, here's my predictions: 1. Birdville 2. North Crowley 3. James Martin 4. Fossil Ridge 5. Saginaw 6. Chisholm Trail 7. Cleburne 8. Castleberry 9. Weatherford 10. Midlothian Heritage

Weatherford high school is doing Mozart this year! It’s going to be a fantastic program.

This is my last update for the stadium, the Region 24 site has the stadium labeled at McKinney ISD, which Im gonna believe since the region site typically isn't inaccurate, which is kind of a relief (partly since it's in my backyard essentially) but also since I think MISD stadium is much better for holding a major competition over Little Elm. The sound in the stadium is also pretty good for performing and logistics are good for spectators, with the main issue being logistics to squeeze all of the bands in, which will most likely be crammed in the visitor lot for the semis. This will likely give McKinney Boyd/High a slight advantage given the minimal travel time for both schools, as well as being comfortable performing at their home stadium they also get to rehearse over the season. It wouldn't make say McKinney Boyd magically go from 7th to 4th with home advantage alone of course, but for predictions and their consistency, the McKinney schools are both gonna have 2 strong runs most likely which places more confidence for them, in my opinion lol

So, something I would like to mention is that Parkway HS out of Louisiana is pretty good. Don't know how they have done in recent, but I did get to go against them back in 2017 and they got 2nd place, ahead of us. So I could see them place within a decent spot. When it comes to seeing who could win, it will definitely be between Richardson, Argyle, and Boswell.

Seeing that Richardson won this comp last year, barely, but they also were only 2 out (I think) of finals from area, and I expect them to come back strong next season. Them, Argyle and Boswell will definitely be top 3, with Brennan and Steele not much far behind.

100% agree. That group is truly awesome.

Katy has grown quite a bit over the last few years, I can see them possibly advancing on to the SMBC this season, it’s just SUCH a strong Top 5 especially with our typical state goers such as Cy-Woods, Bridgeland, Cy-Fair, and Seven Lakes.

As always, this competition is going to be really tough, with so many great bands and especially with such a strong Top 3-4. It seems to me that 4/5 through 9/10 could go in just about any order because they're all so close. It's a shame they're all fighting for 1 spot, maybe 2, depending on who you consider locks. It's nice to see Katy in the conversation in that second group. Numbers are way up in the program, even from last year, and they've been on a good run of making the finals. We'll see how it comes together this year, but I think we'll be pretty good. I'm looking forward to seeing the great shows!

This is FACTS. The crowd went NUTS for Phantom! It was so exciting being there on Saturday.

I too have them winning in my predictions (For now before I change them up) 1. Argyle 2. W.E. Boswell 3. William J. Brennan 4. Byron P. Steele 5. Richardson 6. Mount Pleasant 7. Harker Heights 8. Samuel V. Champion 9. Guyer 10. Parkway/Paschal

I WAS RIGHT! I had so so much fun, and I got to enjoy the shows, along with see my friends who were performing! The Troopers & Mandies were definitely my favorites to see, but Blue Stars hold a special place in my heart. Overall, I enjoyed my experience, and I can’t wait to do it again sometime!

juuust remembered that Dawson is also performing at Midwest in December. doubling up on the convention performances this upcoming school year!! well-deserved. fantastic concert programs for several years now. attendees in Chicago are very fortunate to get to hear them.

Definitely, I actually have them winning this. Also, I wouldn’t sleep on Steele or Brennan either, given that they made area finals in a challenging area last year. Now with that being said, here’s my top 10 predictions: 1. Argyle 2. Steele 3. Brennan 4. Richardson 5. Boswell 6. Boerne Champion 7. Haughton 8. Paschal 9. Guyer 10. Parkway Also I would take this with a grain of salt because I’m not familiar with a lot of these bands and I’m just kinda going based off of results and some straight up guesses.

late to this link party… Shadow Creek HS 2024 ”Tianlong” featuring Firefly by Ryan George and music from Spirited Away by Joe Hisaishi

Will be fun to see how Argyle does here against Richardson and Boswell before heading up to San Antonio and Grand Nationals

This will be fun!

List of participating bands: Group I Grand Saline HS Group II Gainesville HS Goose Creek Memorial HS Killeen HS Sanger HS Waco HS Group III Airline HS (LA) Akins HS Boerne HS Haughton HS (LA) Midlothian Heritage HS Mount Pleasant HS Paschal HS William J. Brennan HS Group IV Argyle HS Benton HS (LA) Harker Heights HS Northwest HS Parkway HS (LA) Samuel V. Champion HS Group V Byron P. Steele HS Guyer HS Richardson HS W.E. Boswell HS