GreedyGreen

I think marching band in competition has to have both the emotional aspect and the performance aspect. From what I've seen of these groups, Weiss has the cleanest marching and most outstanding playing of any group in attendance. GE has much more to it than emotional impact, and I would have to say that if you were backfield then I agree that you wouldn't get much out of watching a band their size. However I'm not at all surprised that they won by such a huge margin with how cleanly they march and how good they sound the entire show. Few stick-outs and a great band sound.

I just have to tell my self that the judges are there to do the same thing; rank the bands on how each of them feel they should be placed in their respective captions. When i read the rulebook, it was made clear that points were not to be subtracted for mistakes, rather added for things done well. If the music ensemble judge had places that didn't line up with the other captions it could very well mean that most groups music ensemble was not in line with the band as a whole. Or that the judge was looking for something different. Or that the judge was completely bias and only thinks about politics. The point is that we don't know and its not our job as spectators to know. We need to be there to support the kids and to enjoy the performances and let the judges do the thing they are paid to do. And if you think about it, a faulty judge (hard to even say that though) affects EVERYONE competing under that judge. Unless they have a specific band they want to stomp on, everyone gets wonky judging, thereby making it fair in the end. I like to think that the judges have the kids and the programs best interests at heart when judging and when we, who look at a performance from the stands with some implicit bias and little experience compared to the judge call out the judge on faulty scoring, we are not thinking about the big picture. When I saw that at BOA Austin prelims, Pflugerville who made 11th had actually gotten 3rd overall in individual visual i was perplexed. But thats exactly the job of the judges; to give credit where credit is due.

I think there is a chance dripping springs could medal, but historically in BOA events, dripping springs falls short of the typical S.A. finalists. They did beat cedar park at UIL prelims last year, however they didnt in finals, and they didnt attend BOA SA. At both McAllen last year and Captiol City this year where dripping won by a margin, there also happened to be no SA finalists there. I think its pretty hard to predict how they will do against the other potential medalists here at waco, as they are more BOA "regulars" if I may say that.

I can see that it would be sad if someone was emotionally attached to a particular competition, but you have to realize that every 4 year (kind of) the program of any given school is basically reset and emotional attachments from personal experiences dont really live well though multiple graduation classes. Also I wouldnt really call the outstanding growth of BOA "sad" because its bringing more and more bands into a modern reality of the marching arts. Not saying Westlake is outdated in any way, but the transition from local competitions to more large-scale regionals and super regionals is kind of like the industrial revolution for marching arts.

I'm going to be there along with other Hendrickson alumni.

I'm absolutely coming back home this weekend to watch. My friends and I are carpooling up from UT and the only thing getting me through these first tests is the thought of seeing how awesome finals is gonna be.

My early prediction for finals: 1: CTJ 2: Cedar Park 3: Vandegrift 4: Leander 5: Round Rock 6: Bowie 7: Hendrickson 8: Cedar Ridge 9: Vista Ridge 10: Churchill I feel more sure about top 5 than bottom 5, however I really have no clue because if i base my prediction off SA 2017, many things change.

I feel like Henny has a chance to medal here. Not sure what to expect from RR or Bowie though