TWHSParent

They jumped about 8.5 points (huge props to them). If they do that again they could win. Although I think it is a little easier going from 77.55 to 86 than it is 86 to 94.5, but it can be done...

I don't know the reason, and while I heard a rumor I don't want to put that out there as the reason. All I know is that they had a very challenging season and several things went wrong for them unfortunately.

I don't know. Watch what happens with Klein Forest as they were unable to attend UIL Region this past season.

Congratulations to The Woodlands for being awarded their second Sudler Shield. Also congratulations to my Wife's high school Adair County KY for being awarded their first in the small school division.

Our region has been on a Tuesday normally. Maybe they could try to lure some of our bands to Waco next year?

Hmm, didn't appear to be that way with our Area, and not at State for 6A this past year. Everything I heard was straight up random draw. Frankly not a big deal, just that your comment was the first I have ever heard about slotting. Thanks!

Slotted at area and state? When did that happen? Or perhaps I should first ask what you mean by slotted?

I think for 2019 they've already confirmed Indy for Nov 14-16.

It is interesting the relative lack of high quality videos this year from San Antonio (BOA and/or UIL - and by this I mean by professional/high level amateur video/audio from above the press box, so no slight meant to Doge from San Antonio's videos or others that I've seen). I have one for us which the band boosters sent out, and there is one for Reagan, Hebron, and Vista Ridge. I assume others are floating around but maybe aren't public or I just plain missed.

Yeah, you pretty much miss 3/4 of the visual aspects by sitting low. But you do get musical impact (sometimes too much, so you lose some of the details). I always try to sit high up if I can to try to balance the visual with the musical.

I was on hand for the highest scoring BOA show ever (at the time of this posting) - Hebron 2015 at GN Semi-finals, so I guess from that aspect that is the best ever? Some others I've seen first hand (limited viewing of just the last few years, not going to count Youtube since you can't really get the full effect - and this is ex-Texas): Small bands - probably my fave is Adair County 2017, Ex Machina Medium size - I enjoyed Marian Catholic's 2015 show String Theory Large size - While I didn't think I would, I ended up really liking Broken Arrow's 2017 show Age of Discovery: Return to Xeno in person. While I appreciate Carmel's show from 2017 (Serenity), it wasn't my cup of tea.

In 2018? Oak Ridge. My opinion based upon my purely subjective reading of UIL and BOA results plus what I saw in person: 1. The Woodlands 2. Oak Ridge 3. Seven Lakes 4. Cy-Fair 5. North Shore 6. College Park 7. Pearland 8. Dawson 9. Brazoswood 10. Stephen F Austin

They kept their full complement of Jr's and Sr's this year, and it really showed (great season!). They won't have as many coming up obviously. I hope they are able to keep this level (and get even better) going forward!

My worry is that with the loss of some FR/SO talent that Oak Ridge will swoon a little.

Good. Next year is setting up to be exceedingly challenging just to make finals.

Same here - not sure how many won't make the trip due to All-Region auditions. I won't be there either - my wife and I have a prior commitment Saturday evening that we RSVP'd before knowing anything about the game.

TWHS squeaked by Cedar Ridge (54 yard FG as time expired). On to playing Allen in Waco on Saturday. We are the last team to beat them in 2016, but I don't think our team this year is as good as that team was.

Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill.....

TWHS won their first round game, so they play Cedar Ridge on Friday.

Vandegrift competed against and finished ahead of Avon in San Antonio in 2017, even with their relative lack of color guard. In fact, their VGE score was higher than Avon's in both prelims and finals. VPE was higher in prelims, but fell behind in finals. So maybe not as big an issue as feared?

Just thinking out loud, as I truly have no idea. Would a venue like the NRG Stadium with the NRG Arena and NRG Center be able to host a massive band contest? Are the acoustics in NRG as bad as AT&T?

We were around 320 this year, although I think that includes guard (40ish guard members) and props. CP I think was around 300, but that is a bigger guess on my part.

Yes, TWCA is The Woodlands Christian Academy. Conroe ISD has 6 main high schools: Conroe, The Woodlands, College Park, Oak Ridge, Caney Creek, and Grand Oaks. TWHS, as was mentioned, is quite large and designed for the numbers it currently accommodates (grades 10-12 only). Much of it is 3 floors. There is a video on youtube showing the school: As an area, The Woodlands is very nearly built out (pop is pushing 120,000), so most of the growth is happening in other areas of the district (hence Grand Oaks). TWHS will probably not increase enrollment too much over the next few years, unless they change the boundaries to relieve TWCP or Oak Ridge again (these 3 are very close together - maybe 3 miles from TWHS to Oak Ridge, and TWCP is very roughly midway between). The Woodlands is a little weird, as it isn't incorporated so there is no city council or anything like that. It is a township, with plans to incorporate in the future. Political wrangling was necessary to keep it from being annexed by Houston.

It is a big red no-drive zone during morning rush too. Avoid at almost all costs! My office is about 2 miles from the school, with the school between the office and home. Fortunately there are ways that thread between TWHS and TWCP, although I do have to go by TWCA. That is a much smaller school with much less traffic impact. TWHS is one of the 10 largest enrollments in Texas. Allen is over 6000 and is the largest. There are a few over 5000 like the 3 Plano schools (at least by UIL numbers, but as stated there is a Jr/Sr High split physically in PISD).

This will make some interesting data. We also have to bear in mind a some other things as part of the analysis: when you have 300+ people spread all over the field, the visual judges are likely looking at different elements at the same time, so one judge may see something that the other doesn't. And this unusual separation of visual judges in UIL will give a very different perspective on the program. Visually, these 2 items can cause completely understandable and I would even say potentially reasonable variation. For music, I believe these judges are clustered around the 50, and should be hearing essentially the same thing. It is possible that the judge is evaluating different performance aspects at different times (e.g. one judge is listening to brass, while one is listening to woodwinds, while one is listening to percussion), and can therefore get a different take on the overall performance. So how and when a judge samples will add variability in the evaluation both musically and visually. The question is how much, and how to build a statistical model that allows for that, understanding that all performing groups have strengths and weaknesses? How much variation makes sense? In my view the BOA model is really good here, as there are only 2 redundant judges (MGE). That system neatly sidesteps this entire issue (mostly). Unfortunately UIL has this problem in spades. So reading through what I just wrote, the conclusion that I would logically take means that I like the suggestion that was made somewhere in this thread that the UIL judges are more focused within captions so there is little overlap between them. That simplifies what they are looking at during the show. I would also put the visual judges near the 50 yard line (45's maybe?). My opinion is that a head-on view is more appropriate for visuals, although maybe a case can be made for the angled view (would love to hear that case). Maybe musically you have a brass judge, a woodwinds judge, and a percussion judge (with some special considerations for vocalists or the occasional string or electronic wind instrument factored in, and all could/should have opinions of the full ensemble sound too). Visuals could be split by guard/dance team/etc, and musical ensemble. I dunno, just a first pass set of thoughts. Ok, so I rambled too long with several interruptions on my side. I'll post it anyway, and hope it is at least mostly coherent.