CTJBandPops
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Posts posted by CTJBandPops
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4 minutes ago, LeanderMomma said:Hebron has won. Somehow I’m not surprised at all! What a year it’s been for them.
Flowermound - silver
CTJ - Bronze
- Tubalord11, LeanderMomma and Asaiah
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49 minutes ago, aaron067 said:
I'm not sure what CTJ and Vista Ridge are bringing to the table, but Hebron's recording was absolutely spectacular. There were many moments that left me with the sense that I was listening to a professional recording. Flower Mound was also incredible. It all depends on the judging panel for State, of course, so I wouldn't be surprised to see either performing at TMEA next February.
CTJ 11112 - but you are right - it will come down to the judges
Vista Ridge
Lake Travis
WestLake
MacArthur
Reagan
Churchill
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CTJ does not usually do a trailer - but here is one for 2022
- AvonDad, LeanderMomma, gregorydf01 and 3 others
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sounds like alot of directors from the "known" programs are moving on.. Texas Bands may look alot different this fall
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so tonight was my last band banquet as a parent. it is a bittersweet moment for my wife and I. we have been involved in our program for the past 11 years. my son decided to graduate a year early so he stole our last year. I am so grateful for what the program has done for my kids, so many life lessons that they learned and how it made them better human beings. My wife and I where given a the classic uniform in a shadow box and a shako with the plume tonight ( I have a bit of a CTJ museum in my study) it will complete my collection of drum heads, photos and medals. We will still be involved in growing our foundation to support the CTJ cluster going forward, and we will still volunteer our time to support the program and travel to follow the band. just not the same without a kid in the program. I am grateful for all the great friends and amazing parents, directors and students we have worked with this past decade.
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so - to shout out to MadisonBandMan - yes the city sees a HUGE influx of of visitors for Fiesta - but we don't know what this year will look like as it has been shut down for the past 2 years. this event happens at the "rock pile" that is Alamo Stadium down by St Mary's university. there are more than 30 bands that will march "in review" - they march to the front of the home stands on the track - stop and play a fun tune that has them all dancing and having a load of fun - after the first group of parade bands, - there is a feature band that will perform their 2021 field show, then another group of 10 parade bands - and another feature band - the next group and ends with the last feature band that will be CTJ performing their 2021 field show of "opposites attract". once they clear the field, ALL of the bands will return to the field for a mass band performance. this year the Mass band will be Directed by Dr. Cliff Crooms - Director of the Longhorn Band. - I attached a few pics. both of my kids have marched the parade and been in the feature band spot - gotta love fiesta - you can also catch bands at the Battle of Flowers parade in San Antonio on Friday - a tradition since 1891 and one of the oldest running parades in the country. or the Fiesta Flambeau that CTJ will also march on Saturday - a night parade that has all the kids lit up with lights. - VIVA FIESTA!! Lets go Claudia!!! - FYI - these pics where from tonight practice
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54 minutes ago, vistaridgefan42069 said:
avon has medaled for many straight years at gns - they came to sa in 2017 and got 4th (well within said streak). not entirely unfair to assume that broken arrow could see a similar outcome if they came to sa on the wrong year.
I totally agree - they would certainly be in the hunt on ANY year that they would come to San Antonio. but are they going to travel further (550 miles VS 400 Miles) to give up the SR Gold medal that they have collected for the past 15 years for a SR in San Antonio that would be a much bigger challenge.
Don't get me wrong - I would love to see Broken Arrow, Tarpon, Avon, Carmel and so many others make the trip to the Alamodome to play with ALL the Texas bands. not just the ones that can afford to make their "every few years" trip to Indy. I still think that BA would have won San Antonio this year if they attended, but I think it would have been great to see them in the dome going against Hebron and Vandy.
if you had the top 6 non-Texas bands from G Nats in San Antonio - would all 6 make finals - I think not. Vistas Ridge placed 12th in both - but you would need to account for Hebron, Vandy, Cedar Ridge, Coppell, Leander, Kellar, and Cedar Park in that mix. It would be a heck of a ride.
Grand Nats is what it is based on the title attached - move it to Texas with the same title and the participation would be off the charts.
It will not happen due to the "deal" that MFA/BOA has with the city of Indy, not just on the stadium, but on their offices - etc. - the alamodome may not be as nice as LOS - but the competition remains top notch.
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3 hours ago, Time Warp said:
If Broken Arrow came to SA this year they would have been able to beat everyone barring Vandegrift and Hebron. Let’s loose this texan ego a little bit.
it is not a Texan ego - though I have plenty of that for other topics - if you go back 20 years, the San Antonio Super Regional has had 5 out of state bands make finals with Carmel edging Bell by .25 on 2002. but since then, we had Owasso place 3rd in 2004, Blue Springs placed 6th in 2013, Owasso in 2015 placed 8th, and Avon placed 4th in 2017.
But the San Antonio Super is not what it was 20 years ago. Look at the finalist that really did not exist as a major program when Carmel was here. SA finalist schools that opened in that 20+ year span.
1998 Cedar Park Opened
1999 Flower Mound and Reagan Opened
2003 Vista Ridge Opened
2008 CTJ and Rouse Opened
2009 Vandegrift Opened
2010 Cedar Ridge Opened
that group has more than a dozen Gnats finals appearances as well as Vandegrift's Championship in 2019
as stated by slow brass - Broken Arrow has won the St Louis Super for the past 15 years - if it isn't broke - don't fix it.
BA could very well have won San Antonio this year with that amazing show. but just as our Texas bands make plans to go to Indy a year in advance and hope that they have a show that is well received by the judges. I would assume many of the programs that we would love to see in San Antonio (Tarpon, BA, etc.) would have to give up a trip to Indy that year because of the cost to do both trips as well as time out of school.
I do not think it is Texas Ego to say that most years, San Antonio is more competitive than Grand Nats.
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1 hour ago, BandFan59 said:
Don't think it will happen any time soon but I would love to see Broken Arrow finally make the trip to San Antonio.
too big of a risk - come to SA and get beat hurts their standings for GN - they go to St Louis for a reason - it is a guaranteed medal with no risk
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1 hour ago, LeanderMomma said:
Southlake Carroll is the only one I know of for sure going. Pearland is also a strong possibility. Coppell definitely needs to go! Who else is rumored or confirmed to be attending?
this sounds like the same conversations from a year ago - we had a great deal of - "confirmed" as attending - at one point I had 15 "confirmed" bands and we had 7 that attended - love to hear the projected attendees, but I will wait till June before we start printing shirts 🤪
- FEDude and LeanderMomma
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3 hours ago, BandDad4 said:Props, music, pagentry, show, writers ... It all costs big money and only those with the ability spend it will be able to compete at the highest level.
Props are not required and how much did the props that Broken Arrow have add to their show? was that a deciding factor? they sure looked expensive to build and even more to haul from OK.
there is much to be said about what a program spends on drill designers and other expense, so what do you propose to make this fair for everyone. do we limit the amount that a program can spend? do we ban props? do we require that every program write their own drill and arrange their own music? do we restrict the private lessons of their students? do we limit who they can bring in to consult?
Avon and Carmel spend next to nothing to go to Grand Nats and get to go every year. they sleep in their own beds every night for their super regional and grand nats. They do not have to deal with a 8 hour rule as it appears to be unique to Texas. That is my bigger concern.
Every program has the ability to fundraise to support their programs. I am not talking about just selling coupon books and/or mulch.
I have been doing fundraising outside of the student families for a number of years. the programs that claim that they struggle actually have the advantage as they can quickly qualify for grants. the schools that are in affluent areas do not, as every school and district is rated in a system that grant supporters want to see.
Your program may a high income demographic and fail to qualify for support, but have a huge transient population in the means of apartments/rentals that need support - especially if you are in an area that supports a military base - moving every 3 years.
Our program is considered by far too many to be an affluent program - but our cluster foundation provided more than $50K in support this season for marching scholarships for Grand Nats, for one of our middle schools to do Midwest clinic, for instruments at other schools. This funding was to support kids that would not otherwise be able to participate based on their financial situation.
If you think that the "affluent" schools do not have a free lunch program - you are mistaken.
I would welcome and be more interested in any thoughts on how we can ensure that every kid has the ability to perform in the marching arts - and I would support anything that is reasonable, but let's not assume that the only means it to provide for some is to take away from others.
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8 hours ago, Mash said:
How does the Rose Bowl Invitation work? exciting for Vista for sure.
my understanding of the process, is that programs are asked if they would accept the invitation if it was offered because it is an expensive trip. the highest ranking program in finals that said that they would accept receives the invite.
the other option is to submit a packet to attend the TOR parade. that process is very extensive and is in short a book to justify why your program should get an invite.
it is an amazing trip for the kids. in addition to the parade, there is a bandfest field show event at Pasadena City Collège. kids really enjoy the trip and miss no school. Congrats to Vista Ridge and we will all be cheering on our Texas Bands in Jan 2022 - Hebron and Vista Ridge in 2023
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13 minutes ago, dylan123 said:Did anyone get to see the Woodlands??
stellar - that guard is flat out on fire and the show is a blast to watch
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1 hour ago, BandDad4 said:oh for the love of God no .. BOA is the absolute worst. Please do not tarnish UIL with BOA
Every program has the ability to opt out of BOA - with UIL, not so much.
the UIL scoring process is a known antiquated hot mess. this year was going to be different with a 7 judge panel that would reward both guard and percussion. it was trialed in 5A State in 2019 with shadow judges to see how it went and was not done in 2020 due to the pandemic. It was again a hot mess that had no consistency with very wide swings from prelims and finals and no understanding to how the judging was done.
BOA is far from perfect, but you know what to expect.
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6 minutes ago, vistaridgefan42069 said:the curse of the best texas band not going to nats continues…
can we end this conversation already - this is a yearly thing. unless someone has $500K in their pocket that wants to ensure that the "Best in Texas" goes to G Nats let's just let it go.
In 2019 we heard... but if Reagan went... but they didn't - and Vandy brought home the Eagle. how do you think the Vandy program felt to heard - but if Reagan went...
Hebron had a phenomenal show and they took gold in BOA-SA and State - their season is over and they will now prepare for their trip to Pasadena and the Tournament of Roses parade in January. I know they will have a great time. but let's start supporting the 7 programs that ARE going to Indy and move on.
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6 minutes ago, Samuel Culper said:
I'd love a DM with the recaps, if anyone has.
all things in time
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Just now, SanAntonio_Jo said:
Are finals random? Or top 6 / bottom 6 like boa sa?
random draw
- SanAntonio_Jo and CelesteKara
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1 hour ago, BandFan59 said:
Respectfully, I disagree. Of the finalists here all of them had significant portions of their show where they marched with fairly difficult drill and certainly a difficult music book. More than a minute to be sure. I do understand where you’re coming from with the idea that BOA shows are seemingly more about the theatrics than the fundamentals of marching, but I think the beauty of it is that bands are free to create their own productions based on their own visions. Hebron had one of the more traditional shows in the state yet they just gave one of the best performances we’ve seen in some time. Vandegrift is right up there with them in that sense.
I agree with you. we have watched every year as many Texas programs plan for a BOA show VS a UIL Show. we continue to see and hear that UIL is changing their rubrics to be more like BOA.
There are basically 3 types of marching bands in Texas. they are
- Military - think East Texas bands and they now have their own UIL class to compete in
- Traditional Style - Think those schools that will not move fast on the field and use a lot of leg and body movement while standing in place and playing. they play while moving but the movement is stationary and includes upper and lower body movements. then then "march" to their next position
- Corps Style - This style has is a fast moving pace, moving quickly and having multiple speeds across the field at the same time by different groups
BOA and UIL generally includes both Traditional and Corps Style programs. it is seen as traditional style does better with UIL and Corps style does better with BOA. but there are many programs that I would consider traditional programs do well in both BOA-SA as they use a cross-pollination of the 2 styles.
in my opinion - this weekend we saw -
Hebron is a more traditional style - they are a concert band on the filed that plays amazing music,
Vandy is a mix but still leaning towards a traditional style, they play music extremely well and are just as diligent on their marching process but not at a corps speed or design
CTJ is a mix who clearly leans to a corps style program. at the end of the day, they engross an extremely difficult drill that has won their fair share of music captions in the process as they play well and move at a very high speed.
I will leave it to each of you to decide where every band falls in that spectrum of Traditional VS Corps.
it comes down to what the judges want to see, and those judges change for every event.
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Gang
for many of you that where in Indy in 2019 with the Texas 6 pack recall, we had a gathering on Friday night to get together to watch the Flo-Marching steam of the Prelims announcements and hear that all 6 Texas Bands had advanced to Semi-Finals. We had some great alumni parents from a lot of Texas Programs and even our honorary Avon Texas band. We had the TxBands folks, Horn rank, some of the MFA/BOA staff, some band directors and even Eric Martin, then CEO of MFA/BOA came to speak with us prior to heading back to participate in the announcements.
At that time the Westin had vacated a Shula's steak house and we were able to get a meeting room in that space and food/drinks at a reasonable cost, I have spoken to all of the Marriott hotels in Downtown and the cost of a room and the A/V connections have a cost requirement of more than $100 per head. so I had been working on some other options.
As you know, Eric Martin stepped down last year as CEO of MFA/BOA during Covid. My wife and I have been invited to his retirement party at Lucas Oil on Friday night prior to the announcements for semi-finals. I have met Eric a few times during his trips to San Antonio and am grateful for his time to speak to our group at grand nats and feel the need to attend this event.
sadly, we will not be having a Friday night event at Indy this year. I apologize as I truly enjoyed getting to meet the people behind the TXBands screen names and share our passion for marching band even after our kids are no longer in the programs.
If you are in the stadium - look for our Texas Flag (5' X 8') that will hang from the suite every time a Texas band enters the field for finals - and don't forget to sing "deep in the heart of Texas" with us as they enter the field in Finals.
Safe Travels to all
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WOW – what an amazing couple of days at the dome.
Congrats to Hebron on their sweep of captions and first place finish. Their show was amazing and it was well deserved. I do not envy the task of the judging panels for this event and I know that it is said every year, but this year was by far the most talented pool of programs I have ever seen in one place. – I only wish that Flower Mound was there as well. Loved seeing our CTJ program back in the medals in San Antonio.
It would appear that the Texas programs are back stronger than ever, and has put Covid behind them (can we bring back the full retreats now?)
It is still a bit of a strange year with UIL State for all classes, but even that shows the strength of the Texas program to overcome and surge back.
Now we turn our focus to UIL state particularly for 6A. It will be interesting to see how placements play out on Tuesday and if there big the variation from the BOA placings. Of the top 5 in the dome, we will lose TWHS this week, but will gain Flower Mound. We won’t have to wait long to find out.
As for Grand Nats – I think that our #teamtexas participants will again have a strong presence at Lucas Oil Stadium. In 2019 we sent 3 bands from the top 5 and a total of 6 from the top 12 in San Antonio to Indy. This year we will again send 3 from the top 5 and 5 from the top 12 (would have been 6 if Flower Mound was in San Antonio.
I think that we have an amazing team of 6A programs heading to Indy this next week and I wish them all luck.
- AlphaOmega, Parkwoodmom, Visitor2020 and 1 other
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5 minutes ago, ThomasV. said:hypothetically, what if a band was unable to arrive to their performance time due to transportation issues? this is all hypothetical of course
happens all the time - Last night Coppell was to perform at 8:45 PM - they had a truck issue and will perform at 9:45 this morning. BOA tries, when they can to accommodate - if this was the normal Super Regional that may not have been as easy to do with 84 bands performing. due to the smaller size of the SR this year they had a number of TBD slots built in
- ThomasV., InIt4Fun and Visitor2020
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District Covid Mandate dead and gone - time to get ready for the next couple of days in the Alamo Dome - safe travels for all coming into town - let's do this
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3 hours ago, lost said:
I don’t really see the point of this comment. Sure a lot of groups that could make finals every year don’t. Not really a reason to go out of your way to call one specific group out.
I definitely don’t think it’s a reach that Prosper could make finals, their show is very friendly to the BOA sheets as we’ve seen in St.Louis. With some cleaning from the feedback at both area and St Louis they genuinely have a strong opportunity to clean into finals this year. If they were at SA would this be enough? Who knows. It would all be up to their prelims performance. I do think they’d genuinely have a chance similar to Bowie or Kellers to get into finals though.
the point of the comment is that people post based on what they have seen - we cannot see every band and all we can see is that Prosper finished 3rd at HEB - relax - it is apparent that you are fond of this program - it was not intended to be a knock on the program - but BOA San Antonio is one of the most competitive shows in the country. and rivals Grand Nats - so just relax and scroll on. something I had to learn myself - it gets easier with time
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8 minutes ago, lost said:
I wish Prosper was going to this contest, I could genuinely see them in finals. A lot like L.D. Bell 2018 that missed state but made it into SA finals.
no disrespect - but I think that is a reach - there are so many programs this year (and every year) that should make finals that will not make it - just too many talented programs and not enough spots for everyone
Saturday in the Alamodome
in Past Contests, Events, and Festivals Archive
Posted
so the season begins - today is the kickoff for San Antonio HS football - Pigskin Classic IN THE ALAMODOME
Reagan game just kicked off against SV - CTJ game at 3:30 against Judson, 7:30 is Steele VS Brennen
darn, I love living in Texas