principalagent

Waxahachie should slot nicely into the Centennial / Dripping Springs range. Barbers Hill and Chisholm Trail both winning their Areas unanimously may be a sign that they're capable of taking one of the last couple of spots. I would of course look to Aledo, Poteet and Forney as well.

I still can't decide specific placements, so here are groupings instead. Group 1: Leander Hebron Flower Mound Ronald Reagan I think the winner comes out of these four, and I think the captions will go exclusively to these four. Wouldn't be surprised to see ties occur like last year. I'm thinking Leander has a great shot at first, and probably by doing what they did at Austin - being the consistent second place group caption-wise as other groups end up high in one caption and low in another. I also think their strong performance at UIL makes them a contender for performance captions as well. But I could see anyone in this group winning with truly fantastic and well designed shows. All of these groups will have GE scores >54, and probably >55.5, barring any wackiness like last year's Music GE scoring. Group 2: The Woodlands Marcus Bowie CTJ For what it's worth, I think TWHS is more like group 1.5. Their show is coming along quite nicely, but I think it needs more time to grow. They may not catch Hebron on Saturday, but I think they'll jump them in Indianapolis based on what I've seen mid-season. It's weird putting the other groups in 6-8 range, but I haven't seen Marcus yet, in full disclosure. For the other two, I'm not sure their shows have the same effect as last year and definitely not the same execution (although Bowie's design could propel them forward). Group 3: Cedar Park Round Rock Vandegrift While I think they came out of the gate guns blazing and may be cooling off, I could see Cedar Park jumping up. Round Rock could very well play up too. Vandegrift will likely end up in this range, but solidly. Group 4: Wakeland Owasso These are the last two groups I'm willing to put anywhere close to a lock conversation, without quite saying they're a lock for finals. Bubble: Hendrickson Keller Vista Ridge Dripping Springs Friendswood This will be vicious. I don't know what will happen between these five, but I think these five groups have the best chance of claiming the last spot. Here's hoping for a tie for 14th in prelims? Three-way tie maybe? I plan on going to the majority of Saturday prelims - from Flower Mound on - if weather isn't bad in the morning, but am definitely going for finals. I can't wait!

LD Bell won't be in San Antonio finals. They'll be in Atlanta finals instead.

There will be a live stream by Mr. Video.

The rubric doesn't change.

So here's the deal. UIL is doing their best to give kids who do not have the resources and the attention that 5A/6A and even 4A programs have an amazing experience. While I agree that maybe the 5A day wasn't the best day and they could have moved it to the 4A day next year, that wouldn't solve the problem because 4A is now advancing ~25 bands to state, and that number is going to increase as well, considering that we're having another alignment which may add an Area to 4A, along with general inflation of scores. The only difference there is that significantly fewer people care about 4A than the bigger classes. I can honestly say that I truly don't believe that this would have the same vitriolic response on this board if this only concerned 2A-4A's schedule (yellowboard is a different story on this, although they aren't too happy with the current situation either; I do understand that this is an issue of demographics that frequent each board). While this does disadvantage 5A schools and their students in not particularly great ways, we do have to understand that this was likely to happen anyway. As mentioned earlier, 6A finals ran pretty late last year as well, and that's probably going to get worse across all the classes. While we could find another stadium in theory, no other stadiums are as central, large, indoors and acoustically sound as the AlamoDome. It would also be unfair to offer 1A-3A or 4A finals in a smaller stadium and only let the larger two or three classes have access to the AlamoDome. So the only real option here is to limit the number of schools that advance to Area, and to State as well. Which, looking at this year's Area D thread, is not a popular option. Increasing State by another day won't help the problem either, as that will just cause more disruption in school schedules, another issue brought up in this thread. Weekends are also difficult because of the cost of the AlamoDome to rent - also remember that it's a college football team's home stadium. Additionally, Sunday isn't really an option as a competition day in Texas, forcing UIL to find two or three different weekends to hold State. Bottom line is, there aren't really any more options, and while it is kind of a scheduling disaster, this is simply the fairest situation for all bands involved. Someone is going to get some kind of shaft. But honestly, I don't think what time finals is held will stop the best band from winning, and I'm sure all the performers will enjoy the experience of the competition all the same, even if they're a bit tired.

You have to dig for it, but the archives on this website may help!

Actually, UIL just changed their sheets for Region, Area, and State to account for the demand of the music and drill. It's not a significant portion of the rubric by any account, but it's a change.

And I forgot Aledo, who should take the 2A title this weekend!

Also, great for Vista for catching Vandegrift after gunning for them all season. That may be a sign that all 5A LISD bands can jump into finals again in San Antonio this weekend at BOA.

I think Wakeland is the only band at BOA from 5A Area B

Centennial and Dripping Springs will almost certainly be back in the mix. Still crazy that the previous cycle's 2nd and 3rd place missed last go-round.

Waxahachie McKinney Poteet Forney McKinney North are the advancers. First time Sherman has been out in while, if I remember correctly.

http://www.uiltexas.org/files/music/Area_D_5A_Finals.pdf Extremely tight between the top two and next two. Should be interesting going into BOA San Antonio and State.

Are you implying that bands with more "BOA friendly" shows can't be clean enough to also do well at UIL?

Five to state in this area

That is correct. Leander had four first place votes.

Temple Bryan Seguin Cedar Park Leander Dripping Springs Vista Ridge Vandegrift McCallum Connally No order.

Finalists should be announced right about now. Any word?

However, I think it's fantastic that they're putting 1A prelims and finals in the middle of it all to ensure that they have an audience to perform to. I'm sure it'll be the largest crowd many of those kids have ever played for. And these kids 1) attend extremely small schools in less wealthy rural areas and 2) are very far away from San Antonio, generally, which means that parents can't come as easily and create large cheering sections. Since 5A will likely be pretty well attended, especially for finals, that'll be an awesome experience for them.

And a lot of these bands will miss class again on Friday and potentially next Tuesday for BOA and UIL State.

I really believe they should have moved either 1A or 2A to the 4A/6A year. But for now, they only have two days to do four conferences. This was the only option, it seems.

It's at Gupton by Vista Ridge

If I'm not mistaken, UIL changed its policy from "one for every five area participants advances" to "one advancer for every 5 '1' ratings in the area" a year or two ago that would mitigate that issue.

Canyon and Plainview advanced from A Central in 5A. Bel Air advanced from A West in 5A.