LostChoirGuy

I would count Aledo and would definitely include it in the list!

Highland Park Poteet Centennial (You can interpret that as Frisco or Burleson. Both are good!)

I got to hear John Rutter's Gloria by TWO great bands this year! Great job Keller!

Tuning is always terrible in cold weather. These poor kids must be freezing!

I'm so excited for Keller to go! Some of the other notable groups performing today are Park Vista from Florida, Lafayette from Louisiana, and The Ohio State University.

Those three seem the most likely to me as well. I just dont see Tom Glenn passing up so many of the other established 5A powers to give a leander ISD sweep. Dont forget that 7/10 finalists in 5A in 2017 came from north texas. Many of those bands are not going to be around in 2019 because they moved up to 6A, but it still shows that there is a lot of established strength up there.

I disagree that Dripping Springs is the only one that can compete against LISD south. Frisco ISD will be competitive, especially Wakeland. Weiss will also be up there. Highland Park, Poteet, and Roma are all returning groups that you should look out for. Edit- I know this isn't the state thread, but I just wanted to respond to the above comment.

Keller went to three overtimes with Lewisville but then lost. Good luck to all of the teams left!

I do agree it will be more noticeable in Indy, but my comment about blowing people away was referring to Vandy's sound. No one produces a sound like them!

If San Antonio hosted Grand Nats, I think the best way of keeping it a national competition instead of texas 2.0 is for there to be a requirement in order to be allowed to compete. Or maybe like priority registration. Like there are different regions and the highest placing bands the previous year can sign up for GNats from that region and if some bands decide they don't want to go it moves down the line until they fill a specific number of spots. It could also include class champions from those regions.

I regret making comments that furthered this discussion. I see now that it hasn't been a productive one and I'm not sure what if anything is hoping to be accomplished.

Yeah, the schools were designed to be that big. And CISD has opened several new schools. They just opened Grand Oaks to split from Oak Ridge. Then TWCP and Conroe are both large schools, themselves too.

I think you could say VR was "lost" even with the show choice they ended up with this year. But that's ok- they still "found" their way to the top of the podium.

I think that both are doing a fair job of pushing things forward. Vista Ridge's show wasn't exactly your standard run-of the-mill boring show, was it? Hebron may have pushed things forward with their show this year but I think Vista Ridge was also a part of that movement. I appreciate that BOA rewards for difficulty, but to suggest that Hebron is more deserving of a state title because they could have done as well at VR's show completely takes out a huge factor of UIL that I think is what makes it great. I will do my best to explain it but it may not come out well: When a show reaches near perfection, there are elements that lock together and mold in to one another in such perfect harmony that true art is created. This is what happened over the San Antonio weekend for Vista Ridge. You could see with each performance that their execution of elements along with their overall performance became so great that it drew the audience in and they were able to generate huge impact. Each performance was better than the previous. Hebron's show was so intensely difficult that it blew your mind and certainly was worthy of huge music scores, but didnt have those impacts because the music that was performed wasnt quite at the right level of perfection for things to lock in to that extra special place. Vista Ridge was rewarded for finding a show that perfectly matched the ability of their band to find that sweet spot and to connect with the audience. I like UIL because it rewards bands that through amazing direction are able to take their bands to the edge of their abilities without going too far and losing the pristine cleanliness of music and visual.

I'm glad you like it! It took me quite a while to make it last year, but I love doing this sort of thing.

I updated the map again with information for this year. Notable changes: 1) Blue Springs has joined the small elite group of yellow dots! 2) In Texas, Timber Creek, Wylie East, Prosper, John B Alexander, Seven Lakes, Weiss, and Vista Ridge either joined the map for the first time or moved up to a new level. 3) I combined Lincoln-Way into a single group to account for the schools combining into a single band.

I will update this post with the information as I get it. 1. Rouse Weiss Bridgeland Grand Oaks Lebanon Trail Tom Glenn Frisco Memorial 2. New Prosper High School 3. 2 New Round Rock ISD schools 2 New Frisco ISD schools

There seems to be a pretty clear trend that most of the new upcoming bands in Texas are schools that split off of already good programs in growing areas. Examples include Vandegrift, CTJ, Timber Creek, and Hendrickson. Over the last couple of years we have had schools like Rouse and Weiss open that look like they will soon be competitive. I would like to compile a list of 1) The new schools that have already been built that are going to become 5A or 6A once they have all grades. 2) Areas where new high schools have been announced in the near future that may be of interest for the future of marching band. 3) Places that are growing quickly enough that a new school may be coming in the near future based on growth projections.

I would love to see Timber Creek make the trip! And Vandegrift would do amazing if they went. They would figuratively AND literally blow everyone away!

The music ordinals should not be considered when doing an analysis of the marching judge outlier. They were judging completely different things. Only the 14 should be considered. And with only 2 judges, either one could have been the outlier. My point about the uniform not necessarily keeping them out of finals is that RR was something like 11 out of making it. We have no way of knowing that the judge placed them 11 spots lower because of the uniforms. Im sure if the judge was chosen for a state level contest, they have enough experience to notice other things as well as uniform to rank bands by, even if that is all that you heard.

I think saying that this kept Round Rock out of finals is certainly taking things far. You have no idea how much of the score was influenced by the uniforms and how much simply was a lack of execution. With only two judges for marching, it is also possible that the other judge could have been an outlier. I do not believe RR would have deserved a 35th place result in marching, but a mid 20s average from the two judges does not seem that out of place given the immensely competitive nature of the competition. Add their music scores and they definitely were a top 15 band, but I dont think they were more deserving than any of the ones that were in finals. I think we should move a bit past the complaints of this specific situation and instead seek to find solutions that can make more effective adjudication in the future.

I'm not familiar with the band but I know the school. It is in Fort Worth. Back in the old classifications it was a 4A school, and there is a chance that it might have remained 4A when the classifications moved up. That or it is now a 5A school. Unfortunately the fort worth schools don't have great funding for their arts programs (they use magnet schools like Dallas if I'm not mistaken) so there isn't a huge history of marching success from them.

One of the complaints has been that other venues can't hold a competition of the size of grand nats. Well, San Antonio SR this year was almost as big, and I think it was pretty successful. Also, I would almost suggest that grand nats doesnt need to be as big as it is and shouldnt have as many lower caliber participants. Thats what regionals and super regionals are for. Call me an elitist, but I think GNats should have some sort of requirement (like a top-third finish at a super regional in the past 3 years) or something. That way it does actually feel like a national championship and not just a glorified Indy regional.

The difference is that Hebron DIDNT play VR'S show and they didnt do theirs as well as VR. We can talk all day about who /could/ have executed better, but I think it is wrong to make assumptions. We can only go off of the performances that they gave.

I can see that with Carmel and Avon, but honestly my complaint with most Midwest bands is the opposite. They over-design their shows but then don't get anywhere deep enough with them to approach what I feel is the sophistry of the marching arts. Perhaps it is a difference in tastes, but I think of the Midwest shows like a big cake with tons of colorful fondant, while Texas shows are more like grandmas delicious moist cake recipe with buttercream frosting. Carmel and Avon are more ornate designs so they could be more like generic wedding cakes. Beautiful, and fairly tasty, but nobody really wants to slice into it and eat it because it looks too nice and lacks the feeling of the home baked cake.