AllenBandDad
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Posts posted by AllenBandDad
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You mean West?
Northwest
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I feel like the state should have a limit on how big high schools can be. I feel like being in a big school actually hurts a student's education, as students can feel lost in the crowd and the teachers have less one-on-one interaction with students who need that time. I have a theory that bigger schools lead to more school shootings, as teachers and other students have less interaction time with students who are headed down that path and don't recognize the signs that that student is about to do that and can't get the student the help he/she needs.
I disagree, and I don't think statistics will support your theory. The student/teacher ratio at Allen is the same as smaller high schools, so students have just as much one-on-one interaction with teachers.
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Yep. Frisco ISD designs all of its schools to remain 5A.
Sort of a tangent, but this ties in to one of my pet peeves - people who move to Allen, then complain about the high school being so big and demanding that Allen build another high school. I always ask them why they didn't buy a house a mile north in Frisco.
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TWHS squeaked by Cedar Ridge (54 yard FG as time expired). On to playing Allen in Waco on Saturday. We are the last team to beat them in 2016, but I don't think our team this year is as good as that team was.
Looking forward to the game. Unfortunately, the Allen band will be very shorthanded because All-Region auditions are this Saturday. 200+ of the band members won't be making the trip to Waco.
On the football side - the team and fans are really looking to avenge the loss in the 2016 semi-finals. Expect a big and fired-up Allen crowd.
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In the olden days (like the 50s, 60s and 70s) it was common for a band to learn a new show for every home game. Keep in mind these were what we now call "spirit" style shows and were easier to learn. If your entire show was march tempo (120bpm), that's 720 steps for a 6 minute show if you move nonstop. So if you're doing military style or block drill with 16 and 32 count moves with lots of standstill, you'd have a full show with only 20-25 sets. You'd just have a lot more music to memorize....but considering it's mostly just marches and stand tunes, a lot of bands are memorizing those anyway.
This is what college show bands like Texas Tech, UT, Baylor, etc. do today, though the music is more than just stand tunes. My son is in the Texas Tech Goin' Band - they learned 6 different halftime shows this year, plus their pre-game show. (see all of them here: https://www.youtube.com/user/GoinBandRaiderland/videos). One of them was a wedding show - they had an actual wedding ceremony during the show for a couple of band alums.
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Ten concert bands. Wow. I bet the concerts go for over 4 hours!
Two nights, about 4 hours each night, especially when jazz bands also perform.
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I am the designated halftime show recorder. I’m currently working with a base model Sony video camera. It has decent picture quality but not enough wide angle view to cover the entire field from atop the press box. I’ve requested a taller stadium/press box. It’s “under consideration”...
Our band marched 212 this year and at several points the show stretched end zone to end zone. My trusty Handycam can only get roughly 20 to 20.
What do other band parent/videographers use to record your band’s halftime show? Does anyone have a suggestion for better wide angle viewing?
With a band that stretches from end zone to end zone, I've had the same challenges videoing the Allen band. My regular Sony video camera works OK when I can shoot from the press box at Allen's stadium, but that's a very high vantage point. My go-to for the wide angle is a GoPro with an external microphone connected to the mini-USB port.
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Well because of Plano's structure of their schools, they definitely have JV bands, but it's because all of their high schools
are grades 9/10 only so they just play for the JV games. But they all have their own shows and compete at UIL with them. The Senior High Schools only have 11th/12th (for the most part, there is a small exception at Plano East due to the IB academy in the school which allows the kids in that academy to be part of band in 9/10th grades).
I think for the High Schools who perform their own shows, this is a great lead into the Senior Highs and marching, and it can build confidence. However, I do think it affects the Senior Highs ability to compete with some of the other 6A's schools that are not limited to just 11/12th grade.
I always wondered why Allen doesn't have a JV band. I know a large band is impressive, but it can hurt them too in the competitions.
While Allen doesn't have a JV band (for many reason, most of them expressed in other posts in this thread), they do have a large number of alternates/shadows for the competition show. Probably just under 100, though I don't have the exact number. As far as the large numbers hurting in competition, I disagree. It's all about fundamentals and show design. Over the past couple of years, the competition show design has been done in a way to take advantage of the size of the band, instead of trying to do what other bands do, but just bigger.
For concert season, the band is divided up into 10 "normal" sized concert bands.
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Allen beat Prosper tonight to win their 13th consecutive district championship. As far as anyone in Allen is concerned, football season has 7 weeks left to go.
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Oh my goodness, how epic that must have been passing out new uni's to the Amazing Allen Band!!
I'm not sure "epic" is the word she would use. Monumental is probably a better word.
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I've been a "Pit Bull" for the Allen band since 2013, and will be for at least 2 more years.
My wife is the "Uniform Mom", leading the team that fits, assigns, and repairs all of the marching and concert uniforms (dresses and tuxes) for the Allen band. This year, this meant receiving and organizing a brand new set of marching uniforms. -
You guys should go to BOA Grand Nats. It would blow everyone’s mind outside of Texas.
As fun as that might be, the logistics and cost of taking the Escadrille on that kind of trip is very daunting, to say the least. When we did the Rose Parade a few years ago, it was like moving a small city - 2 semi trucks, and we didn't take any props.
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I held off on commenting until things shook out and we knew final resolution. It's very unfortunate that the timing issue occurred, but rules are rules. I was really looking forward to this show making its wide debut at Area contest, as it is absolutely the best show Allen has put on the field since I've been involved with the program. I think it also would have changed a lot of preconceived notions that many people hold about what a band the size of Allen can do. This show was designed to take advantage of the size of the band, and the musical performance was worked to a very high level (a process that started with last year's show). There is no doubt in my mind that Allen would have been a finalist at Area, and had a very good shot at advancing to state.
With two more years to develop under this leadership, they will be a force to contend with in 2020 UIL competition. -
My apologies....I try to be educated about a subject before I speak on it and broke my own rule. Instead, I spoke from a position of emotion rather than education.
I am much more educated on the subject now.
No problem. School finance is an esoteric topic. I think we agree, though, that any school district that extravagantly funds athletics while allowing fine arts to die on the vine are hurting the overall education experience of their students.
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I really wonder what it’s like to sit across from a band that size in a game situation. Wow.
My favorite story about this: in 2014, Allen was playing DeSoto in a playoff game at AT&T stadium. I would estimate that there was somewhere in the neighborhood of 20000 Allen fans at the game. DeSoto had the ball, and their field position put them right in front of the Allen band. DeSoto's coach complained to the ref that the band was too loud and he wanted the noise rule enforced against the band. So, before the next play, the ref announced over the PA to the entire crowd that the Allen band was not allowed to play while DeSoto had the ball on that end of the field. At that point, DeSoto found out that 20000 booing fans make WAY more noise than the band. When their QB went under center for the next play, he looked up to the ref and signaled that he couldn't hear anything. The ref (via hand signs) basically told him, "you got what you asked for".
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As a wise man once said, "I prefer clarity over agreement"....I appreciate the clarification. That being said, a $60 mil stadium is the issue....it's the symbol of the issue. As I stated above, why not build a $50 mil stadium and fund the fine arts (and basically every other school organization) for years with the other $10 mil. The same issue was shown on Sunday Night Football...they had aerial shots of a couple of $50/$60 mil stadiums.
You're exactly right...the issue is priorities. I assume Allen Band has fees...building a stadium like that and then looking at the band and saying "yeah, you guys still need to pay those $$$$ fees to be in band", it gives the message to students and parents that football is more important than the fine arts.
A couple of things:
1) Bond money built the stadium and the fine arts hall. Under Texas school finance law, bond money can't be used for operating expenses. Plus, the tax rate for bond servicing and the tax rate for operations are separate rates. So, there is no legal way to take $10 million from the bond money for the stadium and use it to fund the arts. And there is no legal way to use funds from the tax rate for bond servicing to increase operating budgets. I hear what you are saying, but it's not as simple as you make it.
2) Allen's band fees are for purchasing equipment/clothing/trips, etc. There isn't a blanket "band participation fee", and the district does cover the vast majority of the expenses of running the program. The band boosters do a lot of fund raising for extras, as do athletic boosters. From talking to people from other schools, I know Allen band students/parents pay a lot less that others.
Trust me, with the level of support that fine arts has in Allen, no one thinks that the district feels football is more important to the district. With the number of kids in band at all levels, band parents in the district can make or break a school board election. In fact, the school board currently contains at least three (and maybe more) band parents.
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heh...."#WHATABAND". That's awesome!
Look...if I could find a large sponsor for our band, I would do it in a heartbeat and not apologize for it at all. As a previous poster said, as long as school districts continue to focus on football and under-fund fine arts (even though many bands are more successful than their football teams), bands have to do what they can to pay the bills.
Rather than get upset about other bands having big sponsors, why don't we get upset about districts spending $60-$70 mil on stadiums. Wouldn't a $40 mil stadium work just as well?
How long fine arts in a district be funded with $10 mil??????
Being from one of those districts that spent $60 million on a stadium, I'll comment. Yes, Allen spent a huge amount for the stadium, but, with the same bond package, it first built a $30+ million performing arts center, including a $100K grand piano. $60 million stadiums aren't the problem. Priorities are the problem when districts fund athletics but not the arts. Good districts do the best they can for all students with the resources they have.
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Allen is doing what Allen does - 6-0, gearing up for another state championship run. Our head band director is a big football fan, and previously was a college band director, so he's really good at getting the band involved in the game. Halftime is the band's time to shine, but during the game, the band's job is to support the team.
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Cancelled for tomorrow (10/12). Rescheduled for 11/3.
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It's a pretty cool deal, but not nearly as well publicized as state championships. Because it requires strong performance overall, it does favor the schools with resources to pour into the full range of UIL activities (athletics, arts, and academics). Unfortunately, only marching band represents music in the LSC scoring, and choir and orchestra are completely left out. Concert & Sight Reading doesn't have a state championship ranking process, so there's no way to have that competition generate points. Honor Band/Orchestra/Choir and All-State are run by TMEA, not UIL, so they don't factor in to LSC. I do think they could incorporate State Solo & Ensemble into the scoring by awarding points to schools when they have students earn Outstanding Performer.
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October 13th. First contest in McKinney ISD's new stadium, hosted by all three McKinney schools (McKinney High, Boyd, and North). The participant list appears to largely be made up of Region 25 bands that perform the following week in the same location for UIL Region contest.
Tom Bean 2A
Collinsville 2A
Honey Grove 2A
Pottsboro 3A
Whitesboro 3A
Howe 3A
Bells 3A
Bonham 3A
Leonard 3A
Farmersville 4A
Celina 4A
Anna 4A
Frisco Lone Star 5A
Highland Park 5A
Wylie East 5A
Denison 5A
Lovejoy 5A
Princeton 5A
Sherman 5A
South Grand Prairie 6A
Plano Sr 6A
Plano West 6A
North Mesquite 6A
Rockwall 6A
Allen 6A
Wylie 6A
- inmysights31 and RoyalPride
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6A Performance order. Every one of these bands made 1's at region last year, so I would expect all 27 to qualify this year, with top 5 advancing to state:
Marcus
North Mesquite
Tyler Lee
Rowlett
JJ Pearce
McKinney
Longview
Lake Highlands
Sachse
Richardson
Mesquite
Flower Mound
Berkner
Garland
Guyer
Byron Nelson
Lewisville
Rockwall Heath
North Garland
Allen
Rockwall
Lakeview Centennial
Wylie
McKinney Boyd
Hebron
John Horn
Eaton -
From my own time in HS band, the best memories are all football game war stories. I went to a 4A HS (Crowley) in the 80's, so we never marched on artificial turf except at UIL contest. One time, we were playing in Stephenville, where it had rained for a few days straight. By halftime, the middle part of the field was just a puddle of brown mud. My spot in the Sousaphone section put me largely in the dead center of the field, right in the middle of the mud. At one point, my feet were marking time, but my shoes stayed perfectly still, stuck in the mud.
For my oldest kid, the best memories are him making TMEA All-State three years in a row and making Drum Major his Senior year (yeah, I'm Dad-bragging - shoot me
).For my younger one, it's still on going. So far, it's been watching her bust her butt to advance from being an alternate in the marching show her Freshman year, to having a spot in the show her Sophmore year, to being part of the Student Leadership Team her Junior year.
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It's finally that time of year. Student Leadership (including my daughter) started this morning.
New, growing schools
in General Off-Topic
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Maybe if BOA ever decides to rotate GN around and hold it in AT&T stadium.