BandFan59

Took an hour for it to fix itself haha

That was an INCREDIBLE performance from the Woodlands. The level of that color guard is unreal and those soloists are spectacular. Cannot believe the level of bands here tonight.

That was a INCREDIBLE performance from the Woodlands. The level of that color guard is unreal and those soloists are spectacular. Cannot believe the level of bands here tonight.

Blue Springs' show is a lot of fun! Enjoyed the soloists, though wished there was a bit more full ensemble moments as opposed to the soloists and small ensembles on the platform. After Claudia Taylor Johnson you can tell there's a definite step down musically, but the visual side was still excellent. Great performance!

CTJ's ending has to be one of my favorites of the season! Love the vocalist throughout the entire show and the massive hit at the end was spectacular! Love this show and am willing it to break into the top half!!!

Great show from Mason! Lux Aurumque is a fantastic piece and they played it beautifully. Excellent performance from the woodwinds throughout the whole show too! Unfortunately those uniforms really don't work well with the field and hurt the visual design for me.

Excellent performance by Vista Ridge. The brass was absolutely fantastic the entire show and I love the commitment of every member to the show! The guard does need a bit more development but Vista Ridge will be a mainstay in the BOA world for years to come.

The choral moments in Dobyns-Bennett's show were brilliant. Loved the ending with the entire band singing together! Great show!

Reagan had their best run of the season in my opinion, great performance!

Yes!

Sad to see CTJ in the bottom six of finals. I think this is the strongest show they've taken to nationals and was really pulling for them to grab a medal here. It looks like Team Texas may be coming home without a medal this year, but Flower Mound's performance time puts them in a great spot to potentially sneak into the top 3.

Finals Schedule 7:45 p.m. – Class A: Murray H.S., KY 8:00 p.m. – Ronald Reagan H.S., TX 8:15 p.m. – Dobyns-Bennett H.S., TN 8:30 p.m. – Vista Ridge H.S., TX 8:45 p.m. – William Mason H.S., OH 9:00 p.m. – Claudia Taylor Johnson H.S., TX 9:15 p.m. – Blue Springs H.S., MO 9:30 p.m. – The Woodlands H.S., TX 9:45 p.m. – Broken Arrow H.S., OK 10:00 p.m. – Marcus H.S., TX 10:15 p.m. – Avon H.S., IN 10:30 p.m. – Carmel H.S., IN 10:45 p.m. – Flower Mound H.S., TX 11:00 p.m. – Class AA: Norwin H.S., PA Top 6: The Woodlands, Broken Arrow, Marcus, Avon, Carmel, and Flower Mound Bottom 6: Ronald Reagan, Dobyns-Bennett, Vista Ridge, William Mason, Claudia Taylor Johnson, and Blue Springs

Semi-finals Results Class AAAA Outstanding Music Performance - (tie) Avon H.S., IN and Marcus H.S., TX Outstanding Visual Performance - Broken Arrow H.S., OK Outstanding General Effect - Broken Arrow H.S., OK 1st - Broken Arrow H.S., OK 2nd - Carmel H.S., IN 3rd - Avon H.S., IN Class AAA Outstanding Music Performance - Dobyns-Bennett H.S., TN Outstanding Visual Performance - Dobyns-Bennett H.S., TN Outstanding General Effect - Blue Springs H.S., MO 1st - Dobyns-Bennett H.S., TN 2nd - Blue Springs H.S., MO 3rd - Castle H.S., IN Class AA Outstanding Music Performance - Norwin H.S., PA Outstanding Visual Performance - Norwin H.S., PA Outstanding General Effect - Marian Catholic H.S., IL 1st - Norwin H.S., PA 2nd - Marian Catholic H.S., IL 3rd - Jenison H.S., MI Class A Outstanding Music Performance - Murray H.S., KY Outstanding Visual Performance - Archbishop Alter H.S., OH Outstanding General Effect - Murray H.S., KY 1st - Murray H.S., KY 2nd - Archbishop Alter H.S., OH 3rd - Bourbon County H.S., KY Finalist bands (in random order): Ronald Reagan H.S., TX Avon H.S., IN Carmel H.S., IN Claudia Taylor Johnson H.S., TX Broken Arrow H.S., OK The Woodlands H.S., TX Flower Mound H.S., TX Marcus H.S., TX Blue Springs H.S., MO Dobyns-Bennett H.S., TN William Mason H.S., OH Vista Ridge H.S., TX

The finals draw board was posted to the HornRank forums. It looks like Claudia Taylor Johnson will be the last band to perform in finals assuming they are able to get top 6 like many expect them to, which bodes well for their medal chances! Flower Mound will be right before them as well.

None of the full recaps will be released until after finals tomorrow

Flower Mound has the best time slot of the Eagle contenders here. The second block has a lot of the heavy hitters, so the judges will be able to compare a lot of them right next to each other. Will be very fascinating to see semifinals results from these!

Semi-finalist bands (in random order): Claudia Taylor Johnson H.S., TX William Mason H.S., OH Avon H.S., IN Wando H.S., SC Rosemount H.S., MN Mustang H.S., OK The Woodlands H.S., TX Fishers H.S., IN Broken Arrow H.S., OK O'Fallon Township H.S., IL Vista Ridge H.S., TX Carmel H.S., IN Marian Catholic H.S., IL Ronald Reagan H.S., TX Brownsburg H.S., IN Rockford H.S., MI Blue Springs H.S., MO Dobyns-Bennett H.S., TN Flower Mound H.S., TX Castle H.S., IN Bourbon County H.S., KY Homestead H.S., IN Marcus H.S., TX Cleveland H.S, NC Archbishop Alter H.S., OH Round Rock H.S., TX Franklin H.S., TN Morton H.S., IL Signal Mountain H.S., TN Centerville H.S., OH Plymouth-Canton H.S., MI Norwin H.S., PA Jenison H.S., MI Murray H.S., KY

I just can't get into Carmel's show this year. They have all the tools to be the champion here; the music book is brilliant (their woodwinds are excellent), visual design is near flawless like usual, and the color guard is absolutely phenomenal and does things that would never be attempted in a million years by any guard in Texas (except maybe the Woodlands). But it just doesn't grab my attention for some reason.

Marcus is exceptionally clean this year. They really remind me this year of Drinkwater-era Marcus when they and LD Bell were running high school marching band in the state of Texas. That said, I just don't think the design of the show is strong enough to compete with the likes of Flower Mound, Broken Arrow, etc. I except their performance captions to be very high though.

Musically it is without a doubt the best show I have ever seen. The difficulty of the show is so high yet Hebron executed every part so incredibly well. I'll hold off saying it's the best show I've ever seen just cause there have been so many fantastic shows over the past decades but it is definitely up there for me at one of the best Texas shows of all time.

Personally I prefer Avon's show to Carmel's. I feel Avon is peaking at the right moment and could be a big threat to win it all. But then again I'm never a big fan of Carmel shows.

Highland Park in Area B should be interesting. They've had a lot of success in 5A at the state level so I'm curious to see how they'll fare in the top classification.

Team Texas has their work cut out for them to top that, sheesh. Broken Arrow is coming back STRONG this year.

The last event of the season begins in two days! My final predictions: 1. Broken Arrow (M/V) 2. Flower Mound (GE) 3. Avon 4. Claudia Taylor Johnson 5. Carmel 6. The Woodlands 7. Marcus 8. Ronald Reagan 9. William Mason 10. Vista Ridge 11. Blue Springs 12. Dobyns-Bennett Honestly I can see any bands in the top half winning the whole thing. The field this year is so incredibly competitive. What a time Thursday-Saturday will be!

UIL's ordinal judging probably contributes to that. It's not a great system and I really wish they would just switch to raw scores like BOA does, but I don't think it'll happen any time soon.