hsbandnerd212

Here's the link: https://www.txbands.com/#donate

Thought I’d do some trivia here. Total number of appearances in finals at the UIL 6A (formerly 5A) State Marching Contest, 2025 participants edition (2025 finalists are bolded) : -12: Marcus -11: Coppell, Hebron, Ronald Reagan, The Woodlands -8: Flower Mound, L. D. Bell -7: Keller, Vandegrift -6: Permian, Vista Ridge -5: Claudia Taylor Johnson -4: Cedar Ridge, Westlake -3: Pearland, Waxahachie -2: Bridgeland, Cy-Fair, Seven Lakes -1: Clements (2004), Dripping Springs (2025), Dickinson (1980), North Shore (2016), Prosper (2025) Extra Notes: - Hebron, Marcus, and Vandegrift's finals appearances have all been consecutive. - Vandegrift has made it to 6A finals every year since they moved up to 6A. They also have not placed lower than 4th in all of their 6A State Contest appearances, including in prelims. - Permian did extremely well in the early to mid-1980s, placing no lower than 3rd in finals from 1980 to 1985 and winning the whole thing in 1982. This was also during a time when the (formerly) 5A state contest was held every year. This is all according to the UIL Marching Band State Archives and this year's finalists line-up. I’m excluding 2020 since that was a weird year and it only seemed to have one round of judging. I am including 2002 in these calculations since finals would have been held had it not been for inclement weather that year (this only applies to L. D. Bell and The Woodlands). Also, I’m well aware that the number of finalists on a given year has changed over time. Heck, in 2014, the number of finalists was at ten, and as recent as 2002, the number of finalists was at seven!

Having said that, congrats to Cy-Fair and Seven Lakes on making it back into finals! And HUGE congrats to Prosper and Dripping Springs on making it into 6A finals for the first time!!

That is crazy, and I personally think Keller missing out on finals for the first time since 2012 is crazier.

Looks like that video was included in another local news article about the incident. This article also includes a statement from the principal of Vandegrift High School: https://www.fourpointsnews.com/2025/11/03/vandegrift-viper-band-trailer-carrying-instruments-heading-to-state-struck-by-moving-train/?brid=crHjw94kDyTTG98fsjpRag

+1 for Keller! I'm thinking they'll be in finals.

https://www.nfhsnetwork.com/associations/uil/band-competition You do have to pay ~$15 or so.

Is the performance order of finalist bands completely random across the board or is it random only within a top half and bottom half split? I can't seem to find anything on the UIL website that confirms this either way.

Turns out that they did switch panels when they changed performance times, according to hewhowaits on HornRank: https://hornrank.proboards.com/post/106329/thread

Tentative prelims schedule has been posted (with obvious gaps for the Area E, F, and I bands waiting to be filled): https://www.uiltexas.org/files/music/6A_Prelims_2025.pdf

Rock Hill and Braswell came in 10th and 9th, respectively.

Per someone on the HornRank forums (@AshTru9, is that you?), finals have been cancelled due to weather.

Did anyone catch the finalists announcement? I missed it on the live stream.

It's fun to be listening to the judges in between bands, and I'm not sure if they know that the mic(s) are that close to them. 😆

Holy mother of god Flower Mound. I can't comment on the music performance 'cause I was watching on the livestream, but holy smokes the visual performance was unreal. 🤯

I actually had to miss Cedar Ridge this morning because I had a conflicting event during their performance, so IDK how they compare to Reagan and M&G Johnson as of now. 🙁

Watched Reagan and M&G Johnson on the livestream just now. Can't make any judgements about the music performance of either band (since the audio is not great and I can only hear out of one side of my headphones, lol), but M&G Johnson seemed visually cleaner than Reagan. However, I would not be surprised if these groups tied or one edges out the other.

It's kind of distracting, not gonna lie.

Yep, I'm hearing them while I am watching O'Connor now.

Can confirm that the ones for D, H, and J are all high cam, though J's is an off-center high cam.

There's a lot that goes into show designs nowadays, and while I don't claim to know any of that, there are multiple visual elements that could enhance a show, props just being one of them. There could be the costuming of the color guard/dance teams and the design of their respective flags/rifles/etc., the band's uniforms, the drill design, etc. Also, notice that slowbrass said a band with props may score better than a band with no props. The inverse of this can also be true. I'd argue that Cedar Park 2008 is a good example of a show that had zero props, yet was still oozing GE (and it showed in their GE scores). See also: -TWHSParent's post about GE from this year -> https://www.txbands.com/forums/topic/16387-2025-boa-south-houston-oct-4/page/6/#findComment-188767 -If you're really curious, you can read pages 42-43 of the BOA Adjudication Handbook for more info about judging criteria for the Visual General Effect category: https://marching.musicforall.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2025/07/2025-BOA-Rulebook-05.15.2025.pdf

Thanks for doing this! It does look like Areas A, B, C, and G don't have a stream on NFHS as of now, but it's cool that many Area contests are going to be live-streamed. Now to see about the quality of said streams...🙏🏻

(in all seriousness, these are tough calls to make, and my heart goes out to those who have to be making these decisions)

Contest directors be like: The stadium on Saturday:

Then go make it official.