Rubisco

Still haven't really seen much! I was searching for some performances from the Flower Mound/Mirage showcase last weekend. There's Red Oak and a couple others on YouTube. No Flower Mound or Mirage, though! WGI has posted drafts of schedules for the first regionals. https://wgi.org/color-guard/cg-calendar/ My Texas Scholastic A "must-watch" lists, or maybe just "probably-should-watch" lists, for those with limited time. 😂 Note that it's simply guards that placed near the top in a round of competition in Texas last year. Nothing more. No guarantees for this season. The rounds listed here are from the current season's preliminary schedules. Dallas Round One: Keller Central and Aledo Round Two: Rock Hill Round Three: Hebron and Emerson Round Four: Burleson Centennial, Mount Pleasant, Wylie, and Cedar Park. Houston Round One: Katy Round Two: Pearland and Grand Oaks Round Three: The Woodlands JV Round Four: Rouse, Cypress Woods, Louis D. Brandeis, and William B. Travis. It looks like Cypress Woods may have dropped down to the regular A class in TCGC (from National A). They got 2nd at TCGC State in National A last year, but I think they may have a new director this season. It'll be interesting to see how they're handling the change. I recall they seemed to be pretty solid on the marching field this year. Not always a reliable indicator, though. I was going to make lists for Open and World, but it dawned on me that I was adding most of the Open guards to my list, so there wasn't really any point. I will, however, single out a few. Friendswood has been super solid the last two years. Last year, they started out their season with lots of mistakes -- they were very wobbly performance-wise. But the (difficult) choreo and overall design were really top notch. They got clean and peaked at the very end of their season, were promoted at the last minute to Open class, and made Open class finals at Worlds over a lot of guards that had spent their entire seasons in the Open class. Impressive after a slow start! I suspect they'll continue to climb the ranks under Stephanie Chavez's care. I may be wrong, but I think the design team still includes that duo of Jack Pursifull and Chad Berkstresser, who designed/taught gold medal Open class shows for Spring in 2014 and The Woodlands in 2004. Maybe for Oak Ridge in 2011 as well, I'm not sure who was on that team. Regardless, this group knows what it takes. I think Marcus' guard looked absolutely fabulous on the marching field this past year, really top-notch. They had success in WGI last year; it wouldn't surprise me if they have even more this year. This is a guard that was World class pre-pandemic. I could easily see them returning there. The graphic for their show announcement, Aeroplane, looks really classy. Will the show match? Coppell still has everyone's hearts, I think. But they need a clearer, more consistently compelling upstairs picture to match the energy of the performers downstairs, something a little more formed, less helter skelter. Hopefully they have that this year and don't flatline. An Insta clip of their show this season (called In Fantasia) looked really good. Bridgeland's guard made a huge, positive impact on their marching band's visual program last year. I see this guard as a significant threat in the Open class. Yes, the flagline was large and clean, and that was a big part of the overall effect, but the weapons were killing it, too. It makes me think that their varsity guard could make a splash this season. Both Flower Mound and TWHS will likely slay in the World class. Flower Mound looked outstanding on the marching field. And their new-ish staff last season demonstrated that they can design an elegant indoor product. As the guard's skills continue to improve, I see finals at Worlds as a strong possibility for them. Meanwhile, TWHS will be in medal contention again. The depth of talent is unreal. I noticed on TCGC that they've started a 3rd guard in regional A. I'm curious if that means their other guards will be smaller and focused on top performers, sort of like Avon these days. 🙃 😂 (Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Avon is amazing.) It also wouldn't surprise me at all if TWHS' A guard wins Houston and gets promoted to Open by the end of the season, depending on how much effort went into the design of the show. Now that we have middle schools like Palm Desert Charter MS straight up making Open class finals, there may be pressure on some of these world class guards, especially if Palm Desert High School ever figures out how to design a world class finals show. Maybe this year!

Both NTCA and TCGC hold their first competitions this Saturday, at Martin HS and Goose Creek Memorial HS. TECA held their first contest this past Saturday. WTCA and WGI hold their first events on February 17th. WGI seems a little later than usual, but to make up for it they're doing 5 regionals in a single weekend, including the Dallas, Houston, and Avon regionals. Dallas and Avon will be streamed on FloMarching. Alas, to my knowledge, none of the local Texas circuit competitions are being streamed. I won't be attending anything, so I'll be waiting for the YouTube videos to drop. Some of the locals here will have to keep me in-the-know!

Absolutely amazing!

Excellent! WGI had Mia Michaels teach a class?! When?! 😲

Does anybody know which events Flo will be streaming? Or if Flo will even be streaming WGI this season? When I go to their website, the only WGI stuff on their schedule is from last season. 🤔

I'm happy for the guard kids! Otherwise they probably would have had to make an Independent guard for future seasons, or just join existing ones. It'll be interesting to see what Rock looks like with both a guard and dance team. The Reagan method instead of the Vandy method. It's good for big impact moments.

I'm curious what the primary motivation is for discontinuing the guard. Behind-the-scenes drama? Recruitment issues? Staff turnover? Visual judging frustrations? All of the above, perhaps? 🤔 Maybe Vandy is about to set a trend. They've won every major contest without a guard, and regularly achieve visual scores near or at the top. I'm guessing they receive fewer comments from upstairs judges about poor flag timing (for their swing flag work), and of course no comments at all about weapons. That stuff is very exposed upstairs! I'll admit that I think there are several Texas bands whose visual scores might also benefit from doing away with their guards -- as long as dance teams are rewarded the same. Not that I would want that, and I'm not sure Round Rock falls into that category.

It's my fault for bringing up the Texas rules. The Firestarter. 😄 Correct. Harry Begian is the name you're looking for. Legendary band director of Cass Technical High School in Michigan, back when the Midwest was more of a hotspot for quality concert band programs. A very passionate man, indeed!

Yet even when LD Bell went 6 years in a row, during an era when they were regularly either the best band in the state or 2nd best to Marcus, they only won Nationals once. It's just really, really hard.

I can only imagine how rancorous some of the private messages must be! Rivaled only by the messages the Chief Judges at BOA are probably receiving right now! 😂

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!

Interesting perspective! The three best bands in Texas the last three (post-pandemic) years in a row have been Hebron, Vandegrift, and The Woodlands, along with what I've been calling "+1s" each season. The +1 each of the last three seasons has been a different band. This year it was Marcus, last year it was Ronald Reagan, and in 2021 it was Flower Mound.

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'm not sure I'd say the visual judges "threw their weight around." It's possible that the non-Texas ones that made it into finals were that much stronger visually. That said, I'm not there, so I'm just seeing things via Box 5, Lord help us. 😄

It's too late. The opinions of the masses are seeping into what remains of my brain! 🧟

Tomorrow is the day. Safe travels to all of the bands attending Nationals this year! And good luck! It'll be a blast. We'll be cheering for you back home. ❤️

A place for those who Slay All Day. Yes, I'm starting this thread a little too early, but I was over at the WGI website just a moment ago and couldn't resist. Unlike BOA, WGI actually posts current entries for their events as the units sign up. No waiting, no mystery! The current winter guard lists for the WGI World Championships in Dayton reveal that Texas will yet again be extremely well-represented. I'm especially excited to see many of the units that have impressed me this marching season on the lists. Hopefully those guards continue to improve and impress as we move into the winter guard season! Independent A Black Gold Eagle Mountain Independent Ether Glory A Origins A Independent Open Glory Independent Ménage ORIGINS Open Redemption Guard Undaunted Independent World Invictus Mirage ORIGINS Third Coast Independent Scholastic A Americas HS Azle HS Cypress Woods HS Eastlake HS Garland HS Grand Oaks HS Hays HS McKinney Boyd HS Pine Tree HS Prosper HS Wylie HS Scholastic Open Bridgeland HS Clear Brook HS College Park HS Dawson HS Friendswood HS James Bowie HS Jordan HS Little Elm HS Marcus HS McKinney HS Ronald Reagan HS Westlake HS Scholastic World Flower Mound HS Moe and Gene Johnson HS

*Me diligently looking up the historical scores even though I've posted a list of all-time BOA San Antonio finals scores on this very forum* 😄 I think you might be right, at least for finals scores. I'm not sure for prelims. I think a 19.6 may be the highest score for visual effect too, although it's shared by a few others -- Reagan '22, '19, and '18 (sheesh!), Marcus '12, and TWHS '06. Vandegrift tied Hebron's 19.7 (!) from last year for highest ever music score in BOA San Antonio finals. I thought they may have beaten Reagan's overall effect score from the previous record in 2019, too, but I was incorrect. 58.7 to 58.5. Vandegrift was just a bit stronger across the other captions to topple the record. This probably belongs in the other thread. 😄

This is how I see it, too. It's going to be a great contest! Texas will be very well represented!

I really, really want at least 7 Texas bands in finals, but will "begrudgingly" accept 6. Only half of finals, what a disappointment! 😂 I really do think there's a strong possibility for two Texas bands in the top 3 here. Musically, I find both Hebron's and The Woodlands' shows quite a bit more exciting than Carmel's or Avon's, although I know that's not all there is to effect, and both Carmel and Avon are visual aces. Really, I could shake them up and spill them out of a hat. Nevertheless, I've got my fingers crossed for a Texas win. Also, I'm hoping for a first-time visual caption finals win for Texas. I think TWHS may do it. Their visual scores at BOA San Antonio were giant. 19.5, 19.6, and 19.6 -- that translates to a 97.5 for individual and two 98s for upstairs.

Way to go Vandegrift! They were my pick for champion after watching finals. Actually the top 5 and captions are pretty much perfect. I loved The Woodlands' show, but Vandegrift did "out-music" them here, if that's a word. 😂 Now, the question is whether this will be a repeat of 2019, where the 2nd place BOA SA band wins Nationals and then everybody's arguing who would have actually won Nationals. Because I think that might be a possibility! 😂

My battery was about to die. What a fantastic way to end the night! Vandegrift and The Woodlands both killed it! Vandegrift is just so powerful musically, never a wimpy moment in that show! So clean and expressive, too. The Woodlands is visually masterful and continues to redefine what a top visual program in Texas looks like. Great job!

Vista Ridge just blew me away! Nearly gave me a heart attack with that opening statement. Unbelievable sounds coming out of those instruments! It's like listening to a top drum corps!

LD Bell was a complete delight. I loved the costuming, the set pieces, the staging, the music, all of it. I also love that we're seeing more and more top high school bands that are directed by women! ❤️

Wow! Reagan just made a major statement. Their drill writer is a master of what I call "hang on the wall" beautiful drill. Gorgeously ramose! And while Vandegrift may be known for their dance team, Reagan's maybe impresses me a little more. They were fantastic! Guard did great, too. Another one to watch out for at WGI. Also, random, I know, but I loved their hair! 😂