takigan

Cy-Fair ISD also admittedly has an extremely bizarre ethos when it comes to band that you wouldn't expect to find in such a large cosmopolitan district that definitely doesn't exist in more successful places. Like despite the fact that they have over 200 private lesson teachers, none of them are allowed to teach lessons on campus during the school day. . Their clinician network is also still very old school (though Austin's used to be too until recently). Region 23/27 (Katy/Cy-Fair) also has less strict All-region band standards than Region 9 (and honestly Austin too, if they haven't lowered the standard since I was there) Also oil money (Houston) and tech money (Austin/DFW) produce very different types of kids.

They're scattered. 12th, 14th, 18th, 19th, 20th, 23rd, 24th, 26th, 27th, 28th, 31st, 32nd, 33rd, & 35th. There's just no one in the finals block. The Woodlands was in finals last cycle and North Shore missed it by one. Edit: Beat me to it, lol. Oh wait, 12 finalists this year....duh (and TWHS jumped to 9th in finals).

Edit: forgot I was in the SA thread and not State.

It's kind of unfair that some of the greatest Texas shows never got to flesh themselves out in a GN appearance (Marcus '07, Marcus '12, CTJ '14, FloMo '16), but considering Flower Mound's state performance was only 3 days before GN Finals and the show likely peaked a little before that, I really feel safe saying FloMo '16 is the best performance given by an American HS band.

45th is a pretty darn good placement at a contest like this. There are plenty of big names placing in the 30s and 40s (PESH, Wylie, Westwood, Weiss, Pflugerville, Keller Central, JET, Friendswood, Klein Oak etc.).

Multicam all the way. I like being able to see their "shining eyes" as Benjamin Zander might say.

There's always a couple people in every prediction which puts their band in every spot which skews their ranking a little in the analysis. I think in Ann Richards' and Tom Glenn's case it's a conspiracy of sorts ("Hey everybody, make an account and go vote so our band rises to the top of the list!"). We might need to look into tweaking the system in the future so you can't do that.

UIL is designed to encompass a large swath of marching band cultures throughout this state. Cultural aspects that most of us aren't aware of. I think many of our forum readers would be shocked to learn that well over a hundred schools in this state march 7th graders at halftime and UIL marching competitions (not that that in itself has anything to do with the scores, it's just an illustration). But in the end there is one predominant marching culture that has been trying to assert itself on the system...The DCI system...it views itself as superior to all the other cultures, and has slowly worked it's way into nearly every circuit. It is an evolving system, which means that any kind of system that prides its culture on tradition, then that crap has to go. As long as this culture continues to exert itself on the UIL judging system there is going to be conflict and confusion of vision and philosophy that skews the scores. UIL cannot be allowed to cater only to the DCI-style purely because DCI views itself to be an evolving system. There's also the whole thing with it bankrupting bands. No, you don't need a new uniform every year in order to provide "unique characterization of each marching member" as a way to give your show a competitive edge. And no you don't need to pay some unemployed hipster $10,000 to design something on an app that really requires no formal training or education to be able to do. You don't need to shell out huge licensing fees to play some turtle-neck's esoteric crap when there's plenty of dead guys who actually knew how to write with free music for the taking. They won't mind if you play it with Sousaphones or an iPad. They're dead. And props? Honestly this is one area where bands go completely nuts with spending that isn't really necessary. Band fees really have gotten completely out of control. Alot of it is spent on instruction and travel; bands are traveling more and bringing in more part-time help than ever before...which is great....but so much of it goes unnecessarily into design.

Lopez HS from Brownsville won 6A Honor Band the previous cycle. Their marching record is less successful but they were at the State Marching Contest last year for 5A and in 2016 for 6A. Brownsville is a border town and Lopez has a 100%+/- Hispanic population with 99% Economically Disadvantaged.

Top 5 spots all Katy ISD schools in prelims, only to be scattered in Finals.

Someone submitted a predictions list this morning. Added. Go vote

Posted! Go vote everyone

If someone wants to put together a Prediction submission for this area, we'll try to get it approved tonight so people can predict tomorrow. The only areas that haven't been submitted yet for 6A are G and H.

Weirdly I was always under the impression the requirements for 1st division changed based on what classification you're in. In reality it doesn't seem that way, it seems the standard really involves some concrete level of performance that all bands must meet rather than a relative one. Solid research dude. Props.

I'm actually curious what the percentage of bands that get a 1 vs don't get 1 is going to be across all regions and if there is any difference based on class (1A/2A etc.) percentage-wise. I feel like judges have been giving out a lot more 1s these days vs five or ten years ago.

Cy-Fair and Langham are very likely in.....beyond that there are a lot of bands who could surprise here. Seven Lakes is having a good season, Bridgeland and Cy Ranch are both having breakout years, Cy Falls had an off-season last year after a staff change but is usually solid and could bounce back. Cy Creek has a new head director and Cy Woods is having a very good year as well minus all the contests they're signed up for getting canceled.

Woods is at BOA Waco this weekend.

This is nothing new. Crazier "meta" stuff like that's been done in the past: Broken Arrow 2008 using the "Joining Us" BOA during their show as a sort of DJ hook. Mansfield Legacy 2008 incorporating of Dan Potter asking Scott McCormick "So Scott McCormick, which is better? UIL or BOA?" and other various subliminal messages into their show (and then TxB users trying to decode it and sharing their findings here on the site--and apparently it was Sanchez who ultimately took the audio from BOA Arlington and flipped it with Audacity or some similar app)

A couple interesting noteworthies. Willis over state-ranked Barbers Hill might be a sign that they're coming into their own. Cy Ranch over Tomball Memorial might make Area-I more interesting for the open spots that aren't claimed by Cy-Fair or Langham.

I have Reagan sweeping everything except Percussion. I gave that one to Georgetown after they won percussion and guard at Vista Ridge on Saturday while still placing 7th in finals, lol.

Be careful with that coffin. Lift with your legs, not with your back. And sometimes it's better to just dump out the dead thread and move on.

Last year's show was NUTS! Hopefully this year's show will also be nuts.

Added to Predictions (sans Klein Forest). EDIT: And somehow Percussion and Guard caps made it into the template. Just pick something (or nothing), it won't be tallied in the ranking.

Nice profile pic

Well, I mean, sure....But Westlake was the premier UIL preview festival in CenTex back in the early 80s while Cap City wasn't set up until '92. Westlake always had much larger attendance with more 5A Area finalists, was held in a fancier venue and had a true finals format with BOA style field exits announcing the band's competition placement history. That's sort of where I'm coming from calling them the "preeminent festival", and it's the fact they're not only smaller than Cap City this year but are so pitifully small that they can't even have a proper finalist winner's circle anymore. That's what's really sad to me.