Samuel Culper

I bring this up because the new 13-6A starts play this week and it is loaded. We get to see great bands every week. Cedar Ridge Hendrickson Leander McNeil Round Rock Stony Point Vandegrift Vista Ridge Westwood Any other really good districts out there for great halftimes?

If you think about the geography of the country in terms of where the most, best marching bands are located, instead of overall population or state lines, then SA makes at least as much sense as a "central" location as Indianapolis. More ideal would probably be DFW or St. Louis. But there are other concerns, such as a facility capable of handling the larger number of bands. But, the fact is that nothing is going to change. GNats will stay where it is, bands geographically close to Indy will continue to benefit, and the argument over this topic will go on. The fact is that the competition at SA is much deeper. That is testament to the great number of really high quality bands in Texas and something we Texans can take pride in (as we are want to do in any competitive arena). We will continue to enjoy referring to SA as the OTHER Grand Nationals and take out small pleasure at how it annoys others in Ohio, Indiana, etc. And hopefully next year we will send a big contingent of Texas bands to Indy to make some really big noise!

CP vs CR is rescheduled to be played at Burnet tonight. But the weather doesn't look much more promising than last night.

The video of the competitive show was taken down at the directors' request. And I think people are going to see something really different from Vista this year.

I know of another band very nearby of which the same can be said. I think some people are going to be surprised. :-)

The correct answer SHOULD be the Highland Park Scots. :-)

Leander is 99 years older than Cedar Park, which is the 2nd oldest school in LISD. Crazy, huh?

Based on the list now, Reagan wins it in a runaway. Rouse, Georgetown and McCallum in the Top 5. Not sure about the 5th spot.

They've set their show 63 years in advance?

From what I can tell, Area H was unaffected by realignment, still Regions 11, 29 and 32. But it looks like it dropped from 24 6A schools to 22, with Wagner and Southwest dropping to 5A. This means if more than 2 bands miss getting a 1, there will only be 3 slots for State! Region 11: Clemens, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, East Central, Judson, South San Antonio, Steele Region 29: Brandeis, Brennan, Clark, Holmes, Jay, Marshall, O'Connor, Stevens, Taft, Warren Region 32: Lake Travis, Leander, Vandegrift, Vista Ridge, Westlake

Something I just completely stumbled across... Dripping Springs 2014: Logan County (Kentucky) 2017:

I know The Woodlands flew last year and Leander and CP flew this year.

Keep in mind that 3 of the 5 judges had Vista ahead of Westlake in both prelims and finals. One judge HEAVILY discounted Vista in both rounds, and that is why they were 4th instead of 3rd. It looks to me like his scores in Finals were heavily influenced by performance order.

Yeah, Vista and Del Rio both get hosed here. I understand the random draw and that they slot Regions into the blocks ahead of time. But if they backed things up to start Finals at 7pm, that would be like a normal contest and would help the two bands facing long drives for the early slots (almost 2 hrs for Vista and 2 1/2 hours for Del Rio). Just dumb. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Where did you get this?

There are really only two ways around the issue that you are describing. Either you have to "seed" a tournament, like the NCAA basketball tournament or you have every band in the state at a single competition. Neither is practical. With all its imperfections, a geographic progression like we currently have is the best option.

$5, I believe, is standard for Region and Area.

Thanks!

Lake Travis is not in Area D.

I don't have much to add except that I have seen Leander now and that is a show that is built for GNs. They will go far.

Finals Results: http://www.vrhsband.org/marchingfestival/2016-finals-results/

But they have been dominating in UIL competition as well. Leander ISD swept the top 4 spots last year and the top 3 two years before that. Combine the competitiveness at BOA and domination at UIL, and I don't see any reason to expect them not to be right there in the mix in Finals at the 6A contest this year.

11:15 Glenn (4A) 11:30 Harker Heights (6A) 11:45 Brady (3A) 12:00 Victoria West (5A) 12:15 William Travis (5A) 12:30 Copperas Cove (6A) 12:45 Lampasas (4A) 1:00 McCollum (5A) BREAK 1:30 Brennan (6A) 1:45 Brandeis (6A) 2:00 Connally (5A) 2:15 Mason (2A) 2:30 Hutto (5A) 2:45 Crocket (5A) 3:00 Liberty Hill (4A) 3:15 Bryan (5A) BREAK 3:45 Floresville (5A) 4:00 Florence (3A) 4:15 Lago Vista (3A) 4:30 Jack C Hays (6A) 4:45 Taft (6A) 5:00 Georgetown (5A) 5:15 Lehman (6A) 5:30 Westlake (6A)

Vista Ridge from Friday night:

Thunder in the Hills tomorrow! 11:00 Stephen F. Austin 11:15 Cedar Creek 11:30 Hutto 12:00 Temple 12:15 East View 12:30 Georgetown 12:45 Floresville 1:00 Seguin 1:15 McCallum 1:30 Dripping Springs (Exhibition) 2:45 Leander 3:00 MacArthur 3:15 Anderson 3:30 Belton 3:45 Del Valle 4:00 Winston Churchill 4:15 Cedar Park 4:30 Pflugerville 4:45 Brandeis 5:00 Vandegrift 5:15 Earl Warren 5:30 Vista Ridge 5:45 Cy Fair 6:00 Cedar Ridge 6:25 Awards Everything before the DS exhibition is 5A. After are all 6A.