AvonDad

Indiana high school athletics use Lucas Oil Thanksgiving weekend to finish out the football season with tournaments. They have different classes by school size so there are a few high school games then.

Thanks, that helps a bit. I've been following the Tx bands for a few years and hadn't heard of them. Makes sense with a somewhat director change and having a break out year. Up here, Brownsburg did this about 3 years ago with a new director and ended up in state finals and BOA regionals. Talking with their parents, the kids were excited at the new direction and wanted to be the best and it showed. Sounds like John Horn could be doing the same thing and hopefully adds to your great competitions down there.

Catching up on my reading and someone is going to have to fill me in on John Horn. My first thought was how Homestead, IN had been out of BOA for about 20yrs and decided to get back in and made finals, because I got to see it happen. I haven't heard of John Horn, but just watch a video of their 2018 state finals and am impressed. Definitely not a "Park and Play" band and you could sense the excitement and energy from the field from the video. Clean sound and I saw rifles. It think I saw they were 6a so they could go play a little being this is an odd year? Could they be a sleeper for BOA contests this year? Now I'm curious.

Does your 8 hour rule still apply with winter guard?

From what I know, Avon does have a dance team as they perform during football games in the fall. I couldn't tell you anything about their competition schedule as they are separate from the band world. They have pulled a few kids from the dance team for the indoor winds program a couple of years ago to add to that show, but they are in their own world apart from the band. I am hearing that there is a dance class during the school day that maybe separate from the dance team that guard members take. I have heard of instructors coming in to assist in dance technique, body and moves for the indoor shows and they do have a lot of former students and DCI kids come and assist. Avon has 3 winter guards in competition.... Cadets, SA and SW and I think Carmel has the same. Avon is also running a SA drum line, SW drum line and SW Winds program and Carmel does not have any of these, but both Carmel and Avon have great orchestra programs as well. The guards our usually close in scores to each other which make for interesting competitions and then add Center Grove to the local mix. I'm curious how Trumbull ranks up this year being they were 2nd in SW last year. Last years Forgotten Circus is one of my favorite guard shows which I thought would be tough to beat as a show design, but this years story telling show ranks up there IMHO. A completely different show from last year. I'm always amazed at what those kids can do with those rifles and sabres.

Indy prelims.... Avon 83.70. Carmel 80.40

Well, Stryke Percussion hauled an entire airplane down the ramp at Dayton last year....

They haven't hit the WGI circuit yet but another IHSCGA contest in the books. SW - Avon 80.00, Carmel 77.00 after last weeks contest with Avon 76.60 Carmel 75.20.

Real good start here...and I even watched the coffee being made. Would love to have a word or two of commentary at the end of what stood out the most for you, but liked what I saw. I did see some interesting things that stood out to me and my midwest experiences. First, very limited on floor props in general. Nothing bad with that as I don't care for hauling so many props that its a rush just to get set up for them to perform,. I think it was Westlake (LA) with the fence that started to look like what I'm familiar with seeing on the floor, followed a little with Cedar Ridge. What's with Leander's mat? Looks like an interesting concept. Second, are there many equipment exchanges in the shows, or am I spoiled ..... and third, more of curiosity, what kind of show music is popular? Classical, Rock, Country, speech..... Found it cool to see Invictus at the end as one of their leaders graduated a couple years ahead of me from the same small town school. I say keep it up if you can find time as I know its hard work to put stuff like this together. I give it two thumbs up!

Here is a link for an Indiana High School Color Guard Association (IHSCGA) event from today. Not exactly sure how IHSCGA compares with WGI scorewise, thought they were similar, but might add some perspective from further east. https://www.ihscga.org/admin/event_images/big_photo/132_~Westfield%20Tabulation%202019.pdf I'm looking forward to seeing how Leander does up a class this year.

As parents who weren't chaperoning, we were warmly welcomed everywhere we went. Our kids felt the same way as they made many new friends there, as did we. We had such a blast that I've already scheduled vacation time and planning on a trip back to SA this year just to watch and enjoy. Now, "Y'all", I expect a contest where no one really knows who will make finals and no one even has a clue who will actually win the thing. IMHO, SA 2017 was better live than GN 2017 live, and I was at both. So get to it!

Yes. Yes I can.

Glad I just had dinner after reading these last few comments.....topic question though.... Did Leander get bumped up to Open class this year after winning A?

Just had to do it...... Avon had Kashmir in their 2010 show intermixed with Beethoven's Fifth. We had recently moved into Avon and could hear it from a couple of miles away during practice. Loved that show.

Was watching for Keller and missed them. Maybe something will show up on that video page soon and can see them there. Love Rutter's Gloria and was looking forward to it.

Insane competition - agree. Escalators - used them to get to the 600 level for semis. AGREE!

It makes a good question and food for thought. I saw Texas bands uploading videos of their openers while we were still running rudiments and only hearing rumours about our show. I believe the bands down south begin working on their shows a lot earlier in the season due to your 8 hrs and Aug 1 rules. This year was unusual as we had almost 6 mins on the field for our first competition compared to only 4 at the same time last year. It comes down to managing quantity vs quality IMHO. With 100 freshmen this year, they had a huge learning curve with expectations about what they should be doing, plus how this whole marching band thing really works behind the scenes. I don't think we have full band at anytime during the school day, just sectional classes, so the after school time is when it comes together. Even then its basically Tues and Thurs with the full ensemble and that may be 5-6 hrs during the week, not counting Sat. Ok, sectionals happen the rest of the time, so the hours are up there. I've seen discussions on here about bands considering skipping UIL for a season and going all out, maybe it was CTJ as a rumour? That's kind of what Avon and Carmel did for 2017 when they both skipped ISSMA. I would love to see someone give it a try down there and just see if it really makes that much of a difference. I think Texas does extremely well with their restrictions and probably have a lot better rehearsal times and more getting accomplished because there isn't any alternative for them. They play the cards dealt to them in the best way they know how..... and it shows.

I would say the average week is between 9-11 hrs after school during the week, plus class time during the day and who knows on Saturday. They usually start around 9am on competition days with lunch breaks, before getting ready to load the bus and compete, and get back home around 11pm. During the 2 week fall break they got Sun-Wed off with 9-9 practice on Thur and most of the day on Fri and all day on Sat with competition that evening. So..nope, no 8 hour rule limit in Indiana.

This has been a very interesting read. I can't think of any band in our area that has a JV marching band. There have been a couple kids who may sit out, depending on the night, sickness fillers, show design, whatever....but in the fall everyone is all in together. This year about 1/3 of our band was freshman. Their season starts with the shell shock "What have I gotten myself into?" to "I'm out, done, leaving..." to "I can do this" to "can't wait until next year". Each kid is expected to perform up to standards, and the freshman have to pick up quick and learn what's expected of them. They are a part of the band just like the seniors. I think it may have taken a bit longer to clean this year with all the newbies, but they stepped up in the end and did it, learning some great life lessons in the process. They are no longer the same kids that stepped onto a practice field in July. Now AFTER marching band, they do split up into different groups. We have 2 drum lines, 3 winter guards, 1 indoor winds and who knows what all else. The upper classmen normally make up the world class groups with the lower ones filling in the class A groups. However, each kid auditions and competes to get into the top groups.

We might just have to make a trade

Had to laugh. We have shirts that say "Play on, March on, Rock on, Avon"

Talking about travel last year, I'm not sure if that really effected our kids that much. They had been in TX for a couple of days in the heat to get somewhat use to it, but were lucky to get 4th due to the extreme competition that was there. A little over a point between 2 and 6 is tight and can go anywhere. This past Saturday our kids were on the field practicing at 7.30am in 19 degree temps and windchill in single digits before going to semi-finals. Back to practice after that performance before leaving for finals. That's been their norm on weekends. I know, we don't have the 8 hour rule and didn't get to bed until 3am Sunday, but they are young and can handle it....us old folks not so much.

Texas needs to be themselves when the go to GN with no apologies. Lucas Oil needs some excitement and part the audience's hair with that pure sound. Prosper was making itself known to the couple of guys in front of me last night who couldn't believe what they were hearing. They were all smiles and wows during that performance. Our local comps were somewhat tame this year as it seems that's what getting the numbers.

We ran into a lady from Marion Catholic at a local Cracker Barrel this morning. She told us they were still working on new drill the day before and things were running behind. She told us they had all purchased their finals tickets months ago and a lot of them ended up selling and leaving. She stayed, wearing her MC gear and was proud to say she was with Marion Catholic and wanted to watch some good bands. That's admirable IMHO. MC has used our facilities at the high school for years and its always interesting to pull up and see Avon practicing on one field and MC on the other side. It brings it closer into focus on how so many bands feel at SA each year.