Hard Core Band Fan

I was there all day today and think that Reagan and CTJ are in for sure. Also, the following bands have a really good chance: Pflugerville Cedar Park Hendrickson Round Rock Several more have a good chance as well: Westlake Anderson Churchill SFA Keller Central Haltom The difference between the first and second group to me was the the first group had slightly better performances today. They all did well, but I think the first group will score higher. To answer an earlier question, Round Rock did well today. Much better than at Area. The guard killed it as did the percussion, and the horns did a fine job.

What? I was in no way claiming that Round Rock had beaten "all the bands out there in previous competitions". I was referring to two particular bands that they had competed with in both competitions and was not "equating" Westlake scoring to UIL scoring. I was only making the point that there was a wide discrepancy from one competition to another. That and having viewed all the bands at both competitions and many other competitions as well, that there was a sliding standard at Area D. I'm not saying anyone did anything wrong, just that they deserved to compete in the finals. Someone asked what happened and I reported what I had seen. As far as my observation, I make this with 40+ years of attending marching contests and not as a layman. I'd be making the same claim if I observed it with your band or anyone else's. This is not the first time I've seen this happen, nor do I expect this to be my last.

Actually, there weren't many tuning issues. Round Rock got robbed. The show wasn't perfect, but was quite good. I didn't see any perfect shows all day. It was very cold, very windy, and despite this they performed very well. They were a victim of a sliding standard so well known in UIL area and state competitions. It's tragic, but a fact of life in Texas. With BOA scoring, the result would likely have been much different. Going against 2 of the bands making the state cut at the Westlake contest, Round Rock beat them convincingly. In fact, they took every award and caption available. Neither of them even came in second. In fact, they were 5th and 8th. I heard at least 5, maybe 6, bands in the finals that did not perform as well as Round Rock in the prelims. That's too bad for these kids, but I hope they know they didn't fail. The system failed them!