Dog885

That was an amazing performance

I remember that AMAZING Prairie View A&M band we saw at BOA Austin two years ago. Man, they TORE IT UP! It was awesome.

Full size taxi cabs or we riot.

I just can’t do it. I can’t sit on the visitor side at away games! I may be only one of a few wearing Leander shirts on the home side when we play away games but I figure after raising three girls and turning 55 this year, I can do what I want.

There are some great bands in the first block. 

I thought Alaska was the biggest state.

I've been hyped for this regional for 2 years. After it got cancelled last year it only made me more excited for this year. Plus, Keller is competing this year, too!
 
I think this one is so exciting because it is a late-season regional and gives a good cross section of the DFW and Austin regionals to gauge their comparison. I also like that it seems to have attracted a lot of the regional finalist bubble bands.

Oh darn! I forgot to mention that I like Leander's new uniforms

If you talk to Jarrett, he'll tell you the change to putting the whole show on early is all about endurance. CTJ's shows are uniquely extremely physically challenging, and waiting until October to put on a closer doesn't give your students enough time to be able to pull it off. Performing just 3 minutes for a month, then 6 minutes for a month and finally 9 minutes for the last three weeks, doesn't set that particular program up for success like having the kids push through an 11 minute show for two months straight. Now, it also is a huge reason why CTJ never cleans. As everyone knows, early in the season most of the students are still learning how to learn drill, and the cleanest drill they know is whatever they learned last. So when you learned all your drill two months ago, and learned some bad habits into it, that makes it much harder to clean.

I managed to grab a preliminary schedule:
 
Intermediate Small
11:00 Crockett
11:15 LBJ
11:30 Bastrop
11:45 Akins
12:00 Del Valle
12:15 Wimberly
12:30 Cedar Creek
 
Advanced Small
1:00 Rouse
1:15 Temple
1:30 Stony Point
1:45 Anderson
2:00 Lockhart
2:15 Georgetown
2:30 Taft
 
Exhibition- 4:00 Dripping Springs
 
Advanced Large
4:15 New Braunfels
4:30 O'Connor
4:45 Earl Warren
5:00 Floresville
5:15 Pflugerville
5:30 James Bowie
 
6:00 Brandeis
6:15 MacArthur
6:30 McCallum
6:45 Lake Travis
7:00 Vandegrift
7:15 Vista Ridge
7:30 Cedar Park

Bummer I missed it. I just couldn’t get my tired self off the couch last night to head the two whole miles over there and watch. Also I saw that it was Middle School night so I figured they wouldn’t march their show. That’s what I get!
 
Can’t wait to see it. And my former preschool kiddo who’s now a drum major at Rouse!
 
Shoulda gone. :/

We stop at that Buc-ee's every year on the way home from SA.  A few years back I was chaperoning and as the kids start filing back onto my bus one the boys was carrying a whole watermelon!
 
It was the trumpet bus, naturally.

And they’re both Johnson Jaguars.

I mean, if CTJ's playing Lion King, who's to say Ronald Reagan can't play How To Train Your Dragon?

A band will win this contest. 

Thank you for reading my hard-hitting commentary

So wait, what's snow?

Don't forget the ballad from Vandy '17 

I get my Amazon package and a new Danpod episode a day early? Also, should've had the thanks to the seniors starting a second later.

I need people to go with to DCI in San Antonio

Yeah, just watching how their director addresses his band reflects an extremely high level of maturity for the entire organization. The student’s excitement made it clear that they are extremely motivated and supportive of working hard to attempt to re-capture the feelings of success they had last year. I have an inkling that this will be a VERY strong year for Vista as well as for Texas marching band as a whole. I’m super excited to observe from an outside perspective as this past year was my final marching season. I’ll still be attached to my band but being detached from the competitive aspect will hopefully give me a better viewpoint to appreciate the art on display.

It appears that there are no football conflicts for TWHS in 2019. So Houston, San Antonio, and Indianapolis are clear and good to go for them next year. Not sure yet if I'll be able to attend any contests, but there is still time to figure it out.

Whenever there's a camera in front of me during the show, I wink at it.
Also, during Waco 2 mic stands fell down during the ballad. The second one to fall was falling down directly towards me and my board, so I very nervously stepped back and it fell right in front of my keyboard and didn't hit. Apparently it hit our pit tech's foot which prevented it from hitting me.
The last one I have was from our concert performance for UIL at Hays. I forgot to put on my dress shoes, so the whole time I had my black and grey tennis shoes on at UIL.

Houston is the only BOA shows that consistently has more bands registered than they can accept, since they really don't have any hours in the day to expand it like they have with super regionals. I know it puts BOA staff in a difficult position because using the point system, spots are assigned to those bands that regularly compete in BOA leaving newer bands without a performance slot.
 
I'm hearing this year enrollment in Houston is already the highest it's ever been (and 2017 had nearly 40 bands enrolled before they were able to encourage several to switch to Midland/McAllen). I think the new venue especially is responsible for drawing an increased number of local Houston groups, many of which presently will be pushed out of a performance slot because of all the groups traveling from Austin/San Antonio/DFW that regularly compete in BOA.
  BOA has seen so much growth in Texas which is why they keep adding more and more competitions, but as they continue to add more opportunities, there is growth in both the number of groups competing in BOA events and the number of events each group competes at. Adding Waco was designed to relieve some of the over enrollment in Houston, by giving those Austin/SA/DFW bands another opportunity to compete without traveling to Houston, but it doesn't seem to have worked.
 
If they continue drawing interest from 40+ bands in Houston each year, I wouldn't be shocked to see BOA try to explore new opportunities in the area, whether it's an expanded regional format that adds some Friday night performances, or perhaps two simultaneous prelims sites like WGI does (theoretically could utilize Rhodes Stadium immediately south of this year's site, Legacy Stadium, for two 20- or 25-band prelims, with top 6 or 7 from each advancing to a 12- or 14-band finals). Another option would be turning it into a full-fledged super regional a week or two before San Antonio.

I’m looking forward to hearing all of the #TeamTexas band themes along with the rest of my BOA favorites. And I am looking forward to some from the rest of the country as well. My horizons have definitely widened since my band kiddo graduated in 2017, tho I am particularly excited about Leander this fall.

It sort of did that already last fall with the new format and additional bands allowed in.
 
Here’s the announcement this fall.
 
Dan Potter: welcome to Bands of America’s Super D-DUPER Regional.