abtwitch

Weather's looking all clear here! I was excited to come, but I had some last minute stuff come up :/

Richland will be in Indianapolis

I think Brazoswood and College Park are going, but that's I'll I know of

I've had that happen to me a few times today, but I've been lucky enough to not have had it happen in the middle of any of the shows I'm watching

Seven Lakes left me speechless. I was excited for them, but I didn't expect them to be at this level already.

YES! Rouse has been one of my favorites for a few years now. My friend was a senior in 2016 and that's the first time they really stuck out of the competition. I can't wait to see them this year!

That's great to hear! I was just going off stuff I heard about not being able to set drill on the first day because of some issues with the drillbook itself.

Don't sleep on McNeil, I'd say they're a contender for gold

I was at the Westwood game last night (Hendrickson's band wasn't allowed to go, unfortunately. The game was completely dry, too) and gees, do they sound good. From when I last saw them they've improved immensely. I now have no doubt in my mind now that Westwood is gonna be something special this year.

Coppell is supposed to be performing at a similar level as 2014 and Timber Creek is supposed to be continuing their upward trend. Unless Del Rio (a fantastic program, don't get me wrong) pulls out a top-level performance, I don't see them walking away with gold.

I'm still holding onto my bet that Vandy will have a similar season to CTJ 2017. They will effectively go undefeated, except I think they have the ability to pull it off in UIL too. CTJ could peak late season with how difficult their show is, but they'll have a lot of cleaning to do which I think will give them a slow (but still very VERY impressive) start of the season. Leander and Round Rock will have a strong start as always, Bowie will surprise people, and Hendrickson will keep climbing the ranks. I heard Cedar Park had a rough start, but I'm sure they've fully recovered (I'm avoiding pre-season videos) with only minor setbacks. Cedar Ridge will be strong like always and will keep their finals spot easily. Vista Ridge are gonna also be very strong, but I think they'll have a slow start. The 10th spot is a tossup between Westwood and Churchill. Both bands are out for blood this season and will both be fighting their hardest for the last spot. Westwood has been in the bubble for the past few years and I can't tell you how many times it was mentioned by the directors and students when I was working with them, they want this and they want it bad. They also have the show for it and assuming they've kept up the hard work since I had to leave for college, there's no counting them out. Churchill is always very strong however, and they've had seasons where they perform lower than their standards and then come back the next year on fire, so their last season's results should be taken with a grain of salt when making early-season predictions for this year. I'm giving the edge to Westwood admittedly largely out of bias, but at the same time I see them making this their year, as well as their lucky performance time (4th to last). Expect a spectacular performance from both Westwood and Churchill and let it be a testament to the depth of this competition's competitiveness. Any of these 11 bands would be serious contenders, if not locks, for medals at most other non-Texas regionals. All that being said, here are my predictions 1) Vandegrift (Music, Visual) 2) C.T. Johnson (GE) 3) Leander 4) Round Rock 5) James Bowie 6) Hendrickson 7) Cedar Park 8) Cedar Ridge 9) Vista Ridge 10) Westwood ------------------- 11) Churchill Other bands I'm excited to see: New Braunfels Rouse Belton Pflugerville Weiss

No official list but this is what I've seen from calendars: Aledo Allen Berkner Creekview John Horn Keller Lake Ridge Mansfield Prosper R.L. Turner Reedy The Colony Wakeland

Hendrickson is missing from the Austin prediction list

Disclaimer before I go all in, I realize that this would be a complete logistical impossibility and this is mostly just a fun thing to think about. If it actually becomes realistic, I would love to see this happen. Me and a friend from Texarkana sorta realized that Texarkana is one of the best spots for a BOA regional. It has the pull of many regular attendees (Bentonville, Lake Hamilton, DFW, Tulsa, etc.), but also shows potential to grow the organization and bring in smaller east Texas powerhouses (like North Lamar, Argyle, Mineola, Queen City, etc.) If this were to be the 8th Texas regional, they could put it on the 2nd weekend with BOA Austin and then push JSU back to when Atlanta was like they did with Powder Springs because JSU pulls similarly to Atlanta as well. Any other thoughts? Any other ideas of who would show up?

When I saw them live at Area prelims, I had them in my predictions for finals. Definitely a solid up and coming group

Super sad about not being able to make this competition, but there's sacrifices for getting payed to march at football games for college as expected. Bush's tender rolls just adds another reason for me to be sad on the list. Luckily, a Bush's somehow got to Abilene, so I still might be able to watch some of the stream with tender rolls in hand and I'll just pretend like I'm there during my break between rehearsal and the call time for the game.

I probably won't make it to see a game until September 29th, it's Richland at Abilene and I'm super excited to see how both bands are doing at that point.

For me it was BOA Atlanta 2015. We had a terrible prelims run, people were tripping over the hang-glider props left and right and one of them even got ripped. We were so disappointed after that run and most of us thought that was gonna be the last run of our season. Fast-forward to back in the hotel we were staying in, everyone was just recovering and getting ready to accept defeat... when suddenly someone runs out of their room and legitimately screaming "WE MADE FINALS!". Suddenly the mood of the band had 180ed and we got ready for our finals run. That finals run is something I'll never forget. Afterwards, the band directors had to shush us multiple times for being too loud as we were exiting the field. Being there with everyone and celebrating a run that we could all be proud of is by far my favorite memory.

You see the 1st and 3rd movements pretty often, my favorite of the 3rd movement has to be Castle 2017

I honestly have no idea, I just remember finding it at some point and lurking for a few months before really doing anything.

My list based off of me stalking a ton of band calendars: Abilene Aledo Cleburne Abilene Cooper Coppell Duncanville Grapevine Highland Park John Horn Keller Lamar Mansfield Legacy Mansfield Looking pretty stacked, I'd say don't count Abilene out quite yet.

I'm personally confused about why Rouse is on the list, but also on the list for BOA Waco. Does anybody have any insight on this? Are they plan on dropping one or attending both and only going to one of the finals?

I see, I was not aware that the entire staff changed

I'm fairly certain they won't beat Vista Ridge and probably not Westlake either, but the latter is more likely. O'Connor also had a strong season last year so I could see them placing around 6th or 7th.

I honestly don't see Anderson making it this year, so much competition and they just haven't proven their up to the same level that they used to be. I personally see McNeil and New Braunfels, possibly a sneak-in from Belton.