Leaderboard

I will second @packwick’s enthusiastic expectation for the upcoming WGI (including the TCGC and NTCA circuits) season! Here’s an update - As of this past Friday, The Woodlands World Guard has CLEARED the 2024 WGI Scholastic World Championship waitlist and will be competing in Dayton, OH for a third consecutive year!

I don't think Westwood is going to GN next year. They had a very busy year this year and i would imagine the student missed more school then they would have liked to so they might not go anywhere crazy next year. They have said they will not be going out of state next year or until they are ready to go to GN. I believe they plan to go in 2 or 3 years. Don't quote me on anything though.

Since I love rumors, I’d love to know more about the rumors of Pearland returning, Cyfair, Bridgeland, and Rouse going next year…

CP gets mega uber respect! Great State 5A win!

Taylor Swift grabbed the first weekend in Nov at Lucas Oil for 2024. Her scheduling people beat out everyone else.

Our band has a band fee paid to the booster club each year that adjusts for how much travel is being done. What can change year to year and is what changes the yearly fee is if the band travel's out of state- airplane cost and hotel or needs a hotel night for BOA San Antonio. If a trip is out of state the fee is generally $1200- $1500 more than if there are no out of state trips- but it’s just a higher band fee for the year- and everything gets paid from the booster club. Our band fee’s pay for just about everything the band does each year- marching and concert season. The things that are the same each year that are paid from the fee’s: Show designer, techs, master class teachers, costumes, prop items, truck drivers to move the band trailer and rental of additional trailers/trucks (for props) for every football game or stadium rehearsal, guard instructors (school doesn’t pay for any of the guard instructor’s salary at all), food for all game days and competitions, and concert season solo and ensemble judges and master classes. The district pays for the hotel night for state when we go and the bus to get there as well- they pay some towards food- but we build in additional money in the budget to feed the kids for more than the $7 per meal they are given. A food per diem is given for the area contest as well The school owned instruments come through the school budget- and 2 1/2 directors (one is shared with the jr high for half the day). Oh forgot to mention fundraisers. The fee’s are calculated with realistic fundraising goals- and there are 3-4 band fundraisers throughout the school year that the earnings go straight to the band as a whole- that was budgeted as an expected amount to lower the cost per student. There are a couple fundraisers that are done as well that students (or parents) can earn money for the individual student accounts and their account balance is lowered if they participate and turn in money for those fundraisers.

It's just money, right?

LD Bell placed 2nd and 3rd? WOW!!

Bit of ancient history here but Carmel also did come down to SA in 2002. 1st: 89.5 - Carmel 2nd: 89.25 - LD Bell 3rd: 87.9 - Reagan

Hey everyone! Hope yall are getting some rest after one heck of a season we just experienced not only in our great state of Texas, but also in the country! I am here one last time to do post-prediction awards and do my closing statement. First, I'd like to thank every single one of you who supported and played along with our Prediction Game. Everyone who goes out of their way to enter in some predictions just to see who they got right or wrong is what makes us continue doing this annually. Thank you all again! Secondly, I'd like to give a shout out to @Clarinot for being the amazing TXBands Administrator/Predictions Creator they are! Without them, this whole Prediction Game would be something else lol. And lastly before we get to the final rankings, I HAVE to thank everyone who reached out to me with an idea or thought, that could possibly make our game even better. Seeing all of that made my heart swell, and as the TXBands Predictions Admin (Said this already to Clarinot, but saying it again) I am so proud to represent a portion of our incredible site. If anyone have ideas on what they think could improve the game, please message me or Clarinot. We'd love to add neat things to the game. Now.... Let's get onto these rankings! Please give a big round of applause to our 2023 TXBands Predictions Winner.... @celesta !!!!!! Celesta showed immaculate skills in predicting since the start of the season. Celesta improved her ranking from 15th in 2022 to 1st this year! Here are the top 10 Predictors, who by the way got the Predicting Badge! Celesta - 586 Points J-Mike16 - 561.50 Points MrMusic5002 - 556 Points Tubalord11 - 551.50 Points brandonlfoskett - 537.25 Points Dave609 - 509.75 Points bxOxAxUIL - 504.50 Points RottenPredictions - 478.75 Points Mars 07 - 459.50 Points crunchycookie3 - 400.25 Points Congratulations to the top 10 and of course everyone else!!!!! Now, some fun facts that I think is cool to know! 1). We had 1,641 Predictors. 2). The total amount of points from everyone came to a total of 29,715.75 Points! 🤯 3). Celesta, J-Mike16 (Me), MrMusic5002, Tubalord11, brandonlfoskett, & Mars 07 predicted all 97 events that were presented in the game this year. 4). These 3 events had the most participation, UIL 6A State (348 Predictions), UIL 5A State (248 Predictions), & BOA San Antonio (232 Predictions) with UIL 6A Area C coming in 4th with 220 Predictions. And that concludes this closing statement (or Announcement if you want to be fancy 😉) Hope everyone had a blast, and let's begin the Winter Festivities as we prepare for next Marching Season Madness!!! See yall around! - J-Mike16 (Your 2022 & 2023 TXBands Predictions Admin) *Drops the Mic*

1. Vandegrift 2. Marcus 3. Hebron 4. The Woodlands 5. Vista Ridge 6. Flower Mound 7. Ronald Reagan 8. Pearland 9. Bridgeland 10. Coppell Next 5: L.D Bell, Cy-Fair, Round Rock, Waxahachie, Keller While I'm at it, here are some caption awards Favorite Opener: Vista Ridge Favorite Ballad: Marcus Favorite Closer: The Woodlands Favorite Overall: The Woodlands

I don’t turn the comments off for criticizing the rankings. I turn them off when people get nasty towards other programs. It’s fine to disagree with the rankings. It’s absolutely NOT fine to tear down the kids in the programs who ranked higher than someone thought they should.

HornRank is something else, that's for sure! I don't have an account over there, and I can't recall the last time I visited the forums part of the site. Just like TXBands, it's a bit of an echo chamber! Honestly, these days, I don't spend as much time talking about band with forums people, but with people I know from back when I was teaching. The fan perspective is of course always at least a little interesting. 😉 The rankings are what they are. I agree that they're primarily good for generating interest in HornRank. I don't take them seriously -- in fact, I don't even know what they are! If you're upset about them, I'm sure there are plenty of people who would be more than happy to explain the process. Actually HornRank is probably the place to get your answer!

Congrats to Avon! They were great! And congrats to Harloff on a very successful first season as head director! My rankings after watching finals on high cam were Carmel, The Woodlands, Hebron, then Avon, albeit all of them quite close to each other. Needless to say I was quite surprised by the final gaps! Carmel was pure elegance, yet again. They produce lush sounds and shape long, beautiful phrases. People underestimate how difficult that is! There's an unmatched attention to detail musically and visually, even if the content doesn't connect with a broader audience and is more cerebral. Their visual performance was quite pristine in finals as well. The guard in particular gave their best performance of the season. I don't think I saw a single drop! The ballad was of course goosebumps central, with that gorgeous, diaphanous blue fabric that was pulled out over the band. The show was a fully formed diamond, just exquisite. The Woodlands show was absolutely thrilling, musically and visually. The show is a real stunner visually -- crystal clear from both the band and the guard, the staging also developing in clear, logical, and creative ways. The 19.7 they received in semifinals from John Howell for visual effect was the accurate score for them in that caption. Their weakness relative to the top was in musicianship and exploring a fuller range of moods and musical colors. Also, to a degree, in trying something new, given the similarities to the Blue Devils 1994 show. Hebron was of course dazzling musically. There was no other band in all of finals that could match their virtuosity. The showmanship of it all! As others have pointed out, fantastic music performances often bleed into music effect. I was a bit surprised that didn't happen as much here, but it's hard to know what the judges will react to emotionally and intellectually. Alas, as we all know by now, judges don't care much about general audience reaction. Visually, I thought Hebron's show was the weakest of the four by quite a bit from a perspective of pure cleanliness -- the guard in particular was a bit distracting with their ensemble flag timing throughout -- but their designers also challenge their members with lots of simultaneous responsibilities and difficult drill. Avon was wearing costumes that looked like track suits for a reason. They just fly around the field. They take off right in the beginning and rarely let up. There's a lot of excitement here, musically and visually. The ending was particularly strong with the recapitulation of the main theme and the picture frames coming together in a jumbled but appealing mess. Purple, of course, works well on the green field, and provides a nice aesthetic pop. The arrangement of Pictures was also refreshing, unlike any we've heard before. Finals, however, didn't actually seem like Avon's strongest run, with a bit of flagging energy and some noticeable visual dirt, ensemble flag issues, and some exposed drops. But, again, challenges are a bigger part of the visual sheets than they used to be, and that's likely where Avon shined. An honorable mention to Blue Springs. Like I said earlier, it's extremely rare for me to see a show with a concept that I've never seen before, even if I found the narration a little cheesy and trite. (Platitudes like "in an ocean darkness" and "there will never be anybody quite like you" abounded.) They gave a great performance, albeit not one that warranted a 4th place finish. Obviously, I disagreed a bit with the finals panel. It wasn't the first time, and it won't be the last. What concerns me more, however, is the reaction I'm seeing to the results from people in Texas. It's not just on these forums, with the (sometimes sort of humorous) accusations of conflicts of interest among BOA's adjudication community; it's also on other chats I'm privy to featuring quite a lot of current educators and some judges. I'm hearing complaints about music being de-valued, about how it's no longer Music for All but Aesthetics for All, which is probably my favorite. 😄 There has even been talk among these educators of Texas bands divesting themselves of BOA -- sort of like how the Midwest Combine broke off prior to the formation of DCI. For me, this is a bit too much like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. If there are issues, directors ought to try working with BOA first to fix them. Meanwhile, the advisory panel needs to take recommendations seriously. A good starting place might be to revise any policies regarding conflicts of interest. I would also recommend the use of double adjuducation panels in major events, like in DCI and WGI, to try to help reduce major shifts between rounds and to get more of an "average judge" perspective, whatever that is. Music already counts for most of the score, but maybe including fine-line performance to a greater degree in the effect captions is in order. But here's the thing: so much of the reason why Texas bands struggle against the National competition has nothing at all to do with BOA and everything to do with TEA and their regulations. With the limited rehearsal time before August, in addition to the 8 hour rule throughout the season, Texas bands are limited both by How well they perform their shows and What they're able to field and reasonably clean. Do you see what I did there? The rules affect success in both the "What" and the "How" halves of the judging sheets. Those arguing otherwise are disingenuous -- well, either that, or I have a bridge to sell them. ("Not being able to rehearse twice as long as 8 hours a week totally has no effect on how Texas bands do! Derp derp!" 😄) Anyway, the point remains, a lot of this issue is because of Texas itself, not BOA. But be careful what you wish for, folks! You might miss only having to rehearse 8 hours a week! 😉

I also love the community over at Hornrank. They are awesome! Though I am still a bit partial to TXBands, as I know more about our Powerhouse State than the rest of the country. However, both sites are top tier! ❤️

Actually that’s not the only reason to visit HornRank. There is a lot of great conversation in the forums there about bands both inside and outside of Texas. I learned far more in HornRank about the intricacies of Indiana marching band (and their greatness), and how overall judging works. I’ve also met some really great human beings there who I now call lifelong friends. I’m definitely not saying HornRank is better, just that there is absolutely a place (and a need) for both that forum and this one. And there’s also the fact that Jeremiah puts a heck of a lot of effort into making the website as informative and “neutral” as possible. He hosts the entire thing himself and was just a marching band kid himself when he started it. Sorry to inject the HornRank plug here but it torqued me a little reading this entire thread. HornRank is just another great place to discuss all things band, just like TXBands is. And yeah, we also happen to rank bands during marching season which is a rather thankless task, but one we do take seriously and enjoy immensely!