principalagent

Preliminary history book post: Second cycle in a row that a band completely new to 6A makes state finals! And they join the band that did it the prior time. Congrats Waxahachie! The 5As can play with the big boys just fine! Along with Waxahachie, Vista Ridge and Cedar Ridge are also first time 6A state finalists! Additionally, this is Cedar Ridge's first time in state finals in any class. They are the only completely new band in this group. Marcus now has the longest streak of state finals appearances of any band here. 2006 on. They have a long, long way to go though to get to a record. Thank Westfield for that. Eight of the bands repeated from last year. 11 repeated from BOA San Antonio this weekend. I have a hunch it would have been 12 if Waxahachie attended. This year marks the first time three Leander ISD schools have made 6A state finals. Fully, 2/3 of that school district has now made the top class's UIL state finals. The only district with a better ratio than theirs is Lewisville ISD, with 4/5 having ever made it. And of course, both LISDs make up half of finals. EDIT: adding that Vandegrift and Flower Mound have never missed state finals on any year of advancement to the SMBC. This might also be true for Waxahachie but I'm too lazy to dig that deep sorry. Others to come when prelims results are fully released.

That's the right 12 as far as I'm concerned. I might make one switch but I'm not at all pressed by it. Wish I were still in town! That's a great show ahead.

He’s completely kidding lol

I don’t think John Horn will advance, but great showing with an entertaining show in their first appearance at the SMBC!

Round Rock with the toughest draw of the day between the fan favorite break out and the returning Champion.

Can we just turn txbands into a Vista Ridge appreciation message board? They’ve been nothing short of iconic this season.

Boldest predictions ever

I still get very stressed out about my alma mater. Sometimes I think more than I did when I marched!

I just don’t think bands do marching drumline anymore because it’s a cost and time suck - especially if the marching show is different than the band show.

Oh the crowd was LIT for Vista Ridge. No group got even remotely close to the response they did. The standing ovation started when they still had the better part of a minute left in their closer. They probably had to turn the audience mic *down* on Flo!

Depends. It was during region week this year and most often during area.

5A!

They are by far the most likely to come back. Couldn’t tell you when, but I’m sure it’ll be on an even year.

Agh! I actually had that typed out, but some of the formatting of the quote took that sentence with it! I also have a cynical reason why Carmel will come back, but I won't express that publicly

"Bagpipe Nonsense" I can't. Also I'm not sure where the idea that Bowie and Leander wouldn't have made finals last year comes from. Round Rock did, and Bowie and Leander both made finals comfortably last year before falling. Also Cedar Park did in fact go to state in 2017.

Everyone else is afraid. Tarpon Springs and Broken Arrow both don't want to risk losing a regional, and Blue Springs doesn't want to lose a medal (and end up in the bottom half). Avon now gets to say they did it, but lost their streak of medals in the process. It's cost prohibitive for Dobyns-Bennett and Wando isn't a band that travels much. Every other band - quite literally every other one in question - would be in grave danger of missing finals. For better or worse, this regional is Texas's turf. Other bands can come at their own risk.

The path is paved for a Rouse medal. I'm fulling expecting the Austin area to sweep again, but maybe Wakeland has something to say about that.

That ignores the two times they made finals before 2013! And they were actually 18th with FloModern. And I actually think that show should have made finals so I just sit and act like it did.

Time to change the mood in the thread with some history booking!! Of course the band of the hour is Vista Ridge!! Their second ever super regional finals performance, and they shot up from 14th to 4th between them!! And set the score record for all time best San Antonio 4th place score. I think this score also lands them in the top 10 regional scores of all time, but I need to double check some Broken Arrow and Tarpon Springs scores to make sure. It is definitely in the top 15. Speaking of jumping from 14th, Congrats to Leander on their 3rd Super Regional Class Championship. For the past 9 years now, a Leander ISD band has won the 3A Championship at San Antonio. Vandegrift once, Leander three times, and Cedar Park five. Only the very first class championship since the 3A/4A split went to a different band, by .4 from Cedar Park. Additionally, this is the district's third time sweeping 3A class placement. They also managed this in 2013 and 2014. And likely would have in 2015. This marks the very first time three Leander ISD schools placed in the top half in San Antonio history. Congrats are in very special order to Flower Mound on their win! They now hold the second highest regional score of all time by the slimmest of margins. Like mentioned earlier, this senior class has won San Antonio three times in four years - perhaps the best record of Texas bands in this measure. The only comparable record comes from any of Bell's senior classes between 2009 and 2012, who all won two San Antonio regionals in three years - considering that LD Bell is only a 10-12 school. However, I would give this accolade to Flower Mound in full, due to how much more competitive the landscape is now. Hebron was decently out of finals at the very beginning of the decade, and now has made themselves into even more of a mainstay than they were before that blip. This is their 3rd San Antonio medal, and they have not dropped out of the top half since making it back into finals in 2012. They're not the same band that did Soulja Boy on the field once Someone else mentioned this, but it definitely bears noting that Claudia Taylor Johnson has not fallen out of the top five in the last eight years. If they make it one more year, they will break Marcus's record. And speaking of Marcus's record(s). They were VERY close to having the longest streak of Top 10 performances (and I still think they might have it but just did not extend it). They are now the band with the second most consecutive San Antonio finals appearances. The first goes to... Ronald Reagan! The hometown hero! This year was the first since 2005 that they won a round in San Antonio. While they couldn't repeat in finals, they can be happy with the third highest Regional Score of all time. While without their big brother band for another year, Cedar Ridge has kept a Round Rock streak alive in finals. The district has been represented for eight years in a row now. This is also their highest placement ever. In some interesting recap fuzzies: Pearland is the lowest placing band in prelims with a single digit caption placement. 9th(!) in ensemble music from 25th place. Friendswood in 37th has the same fun fact for a finals level placement - 10th in individual visual! While this could be used as judge fodder, I think it's truly a testament to how hard it is to judge this competition. This year marks the closest two Keller ISD bands have gotten to making finals together at San Antonio. There were no new San Antonio super regional finalists this weekend. If you choose not to count Avon, this is the second year in a row that has happened. The last time there were no new entries to finals was in 2012. Nine of those finalists repeated this weekend, but not one in the same placement. The Austin Area continues to exert a regional dominance, with the highest representation in finals by count for the sixth year in a row (including a tie in 2015 that would likely not have been a tie under differing circumstances) The three finalists that did not repeat from last year all made their last San Antonio Super Regional appearance together in 2014. None of them repeated in the same place. 11 bands in total repeated from that finals. 10 Grand National Finalists performed Saturday night in finals. That is down from 12 last year. It goes without saying however, that all 14 bands could make it whenever they are ready. This is what I could come up with for now.

This will never happen because of various structural reasons, but otherwise, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised in the least if CTJ just went full Star of Indiana / Onyx and did a completely independent thing a la Blast instead of competing. I actually think they would kill such a production. But we’re here instead

Cedar Ridge might be a good example of that proposition. The issue is that San Antonio is so stupid competitive that bands jump around ALL the time. It’s hard to make a regular gain year over year.

Quite literally the smallest possible margin under it. The honor belongs to CTJ. Reagan and Hebron both set score records for 2nd and 3rd place. I believe Vista Ridge did as well for 4th. Reagan now has the 3rd best all time regional score. It should be something like: CTJ 2017 - 96.625 FloMo 2018 - 96.6 Reagan 2018 - 96.4 Marcus 2007 - 96.2 Marcus 2012 - 96.1 Hebron 2018 - 96.05 Churchill 1997 - 96.00

While I do think that competitive inertia is a thing in judging - a truth that isn’t always convenient - the bands that keep making state finals over and over again deserve it. This isn’t to say that other programs aren’t deserving too, but there are legitimate reasons why about two-thirds of the programs repeat each SMBC or BOA San Antonio: staff consistency, design team consistency, and students who just know the game at this point and grow up in it. I get why that sucks and why it might even be “boring” to some. But I don’t know what the answer would be besides asking these bands to be less good or asking judges to underscore them? Besides, to make this argument kind of dismisses the experience of bands that actually *do* break into this group, like Flower Mound breaking in to hunt for a medal in their first trip in 2014, Leander making their first top class state finals appearance in 16 years last cycle, North Shore beating the socioeconomic odds last cycle, and Vista Ridge and Waxahachie both likely to make the top class state finals this week - and on Hachie’s first year too!

Vandegrift should shoot up to medal contention. Their music scores in finals were indicative of that - second overall.

Now that we have the recaps, Prosper is gonna make finals here and they’re gonna make it comfortably.