BandFan59

Oh man, a three way tie for the final state qualifying spot. That is a heartbreaker for Dawson and Dickinson.

Wow, no Prosper! Thought they were almost a certainty given their strong performance at St. Louis, but congratulations to Sachse and Wylie!

Now that a lot of areas are wrapping up, I figure we can bump this post up and start discussion for the state contest.

So glad Timber Creek finally snapped their state alternates streak! On the other hand, LD Bell has now failed to qualify for state in 2021, 2018, and 2014. Devastating to see a program with that much pedigree and history not being able to qualify for state again.

Wow, congratulations to Bridgeland! Beating the two favorites in Cypress Woods and Seven Lakes is extremely impressive!

Full results, anyone?

Vista Ridge made a statement today. BOA San Antonio will be crucial to seeing how things play out at Grand Nationals for them. A top half finish is definitely in the picture for them.

Marching shows nowadays are nearly all longer than 8 minutes. UIL really needs to either increase the time limit to something like 10 minutes or just get rid of it altogether and give bands 15 minutes to get on, perform, and get off like BOA does.

Haven't been able to see Hebron's new closer or any performances from them since BOA Dallas really but I really do think they're the favorite to win UIL State next to Vandegrift. Their technical ability is astounding and I think they're the best music performing band in the country.

Wow, CTJ was first by a fair margin. Very impressive given how difficult and demanding their show is! Opposites Attract is probably my favorite production of any band this season so I'm really hoping for it to score well for the rest of the season.

Generally yes, but you can also judge where certain bands are in the rankings based off the prelim awards. For example, since Hendrickson is in the second half of finals, we know that they are in the top 6. But because they did not place top 3 in class AAA, we know they did not place top 3 in prelims, so they could be 4-6. You can do this with other bands and get a pretty good idea of where everyone placed in prelims. Most people just stick with the bottom half top half split though since ranks tend to change a lot in those halves but rarely does a band move up to the top half or down to the bottom half.

Now that's a hot take if I've ever seen one

Vista Ridge showing why they won state in 2018! Huge for them to beat Vandegrift, will be interesting to see if they can do it again in finals though with how close they are.

Slightly unfortunate draw for Rouse, being the first band of the top half to perform. I'm sure they're going to do fantastic though.

Prelims at UIL are always a mess, but I think judges are usually more focused on getting the right bands into finals than the actual rankings of the bands. Hopefully the judges will come to more of a consensus in finals.

Interesting. I really enjoyed the closer at BOA Austin, so I'm curious to see how different everything has changed since then

Since CTJ's show is longer than the UIL time limits, I'm guessing what they performed at Region (from the first opening hit to halfway through the closer-ish if I'm correct) is what they're going to be performing for the entirety of the UIL process?

Probably not but there is the live blog

A few days out, here's what I'm thinking for this extremely competitive area: Keller and Coppell are my locks to advance. Both are clearly the favorites and I can see either one winning the area. Keller's clearly bounced back from the initial results at HEB to their normal form, and Coppell's having a breakout year under Shuttlesworth with excellent BOA results at Dallas and St. Louis. I'll give the edge to Keller here given they've won the area in 2018 and 2016, but I won't be surprised to see Coppell on top. LD Bell and Waxahachie are my next two choices to advance in the 3rd and 4th spots. I'm glad to see Waxahachie has rebounded from missing BOA Dallas finals with the strong showing at Duncanville, and the more UIL-oriented judging there is a good sign for them here to advance. LD Bell's in the middle of a director transition, but I think they're still too strong to miss out on state. I'm avoiding calling them locks though, given their spotty history recently in qualifying for state. Fairly confident on these two, but I won't say they're locks. That leaves one spot left to qualify for state (if only one more band had gotten a 1🥴). For me this comes down to Timber Creek and Southlake Carroll. Timber Creek has had such bad luck with state with their constant alternate placings that I feel like they're bound to qualify eventually. They have another strong show this year and good placings at Dallas and Duncanville back that up. Southlake Carroll's been having somewhat of a breakout year though, with really good results at HEB, Dallas, and St. Louis. I know area is still using the traditional UIL rubrics, but I really like their show and think it could still do well here. At the moment I'm going with Timber Creek to advance since I really want them to break their alternate streak, but Southlake Carroll has a genuine shot at state. That leaves bands like Duncanville, Haltom, Keller Central, James Martin, Berkner, and Mansfield on the outside looking in. All bands that could easily qualify for state if they were in another less competitive area. Such is the nature of marching band in Texas.

Nope, they are only doing area prelims.

That's great for them, I did feel the show ended a bit abruptly at Dallas. I have them as the favorites for the music caption here, but I don't know if the show is strong enough visually to contend for the gold here. UIL State however is a different story.

Roma's a great band, I'm glad they joined this contest. Definitely have good chances for finals and shaking things up.

Did they add more music/drill to it? They had what looked like the entire show on the field at BOA Dallas, although just from judging the length at the time they still had room to add as much as even another minute to their show.

I just want to add that props are not the end all be all for marching band shows. Lots of schools like to have them because it just fits the style of their productions, and CTJ is one of those schools. But look at Ronald Reagan. They've been one of I would argue the top 5 bands in the COUNTRY the past several years, yet in their shows aside from some panels at the front they have zero props. Judges are not so easily swayed that some props will elevate a show's score or ranking just for existing. I know it can be discouraging to see some of them and think how can we compete with bands like that, but I promise you that hard work and dedication is all that's needed to make a show and its performers shine.

Just watched William Mason's show for the first time and I liked it. I don't love it, but I think they do a good job with the Top Gun theme of the show. The show does lose me a little towards the middle of the show in the ballad, and I wish there were more full ensemble moments especially with the brass as it seems the show is overly reliant on woodwinds and soloists at certain points. A little bit of visual dirt throughout, but nothing that can't be cleaned up before Grand Nationals. I see this pretty solidly in the bottom half of finals, maybe towards the bottom given the extremely high level of competition this year. I wonder what LD Bell would've looked like if they had done this show instead of giving it away.