Bandwoww

Yeah it’s so odd. Beats me why they pulled out, maybe back to back BOA was too much??

Marcus isn’t attending

Keller has consistently made SA finals for the past 3 years. The last time another area B band made SA finals was in 2014 with LD Bell. Most of the good area B bands have a much more traditional past. While Keller is the most successful recently, I feel that they are in a transitional phase where they are becoming a top BOA competitor which in the past has had an inverse effect on UIL success. An example would be CTJ winning BOA in 2014 but placing 3rd at UIL state. And The Woodlands placing 2nd at BOA in 2016 and then 7th or 8th at UIL State. Not saying Keller will win BOA or be top 3 or anything like that, but I do see a transition and a change. But who knows, maybe they will still maintain their strong UIL success while also improving at BOA.

I wouldn’t be super surprised to see UIL favor bands like Haltom over Keller this year. However, I think Keller will do extremely well at BOA this year and will definitely set themselves apart there. Keller is the only Area B band to make BOA San Antonio finals in recent years.

Timber Creek will be higher than you think, remember they were 6th in 2016 (runner-up to advance) while Keller Central was 10th and struggled to make finals.

I looked up “Vandegrift band 2018” and the title is “August 31, 2018”

Yeah both the Leander and Coppell videos are from the back that I saw.

Some thoughts : Vandegrift : Very great and challenging show design that will have a huge payoff at the end of the season. Love the music. The drill (from what I can see) looks pretty cool and challenging. The pre-show is cool and the overall show is different from what they’ve done before so I’m excited about that. Leander : obviously can’t tell much but they definitely are out for blood this year. Not a huge fan of their prop design as it can look messy but as far as I can tell they sound really great. The pacing loses me in the solo section a bit but I like what I see so far. Cedar Park: The opening was absolutely fantastic and then it loses me. They usually start off messy and grow tremendously so I’m not worried. What I will say is that performing that well in August in full uniform is no easy feat. Some of the design felt pretty generic idk it will grow on me a lot. I want to hear more exposed playing from different sections, everything they played seemed like full band for the most part. Gorgeous solos. Coppell : Pleasantly surprised. Seems like they’ll achieve success akin to 2016 and they’ll probably be even better. They are really moving. Man that band is huge . All of these bands seem to be very good this year! Can’t wait to see them down the line!

Also videos of Cedar Park and Coppell

Very solid so far! Love that power coming off the front stands! My only complain is that the props kindof convolute some of the drill but they’ll get that cleaned up.

I’m sure all three programs will be pretty phenominal. Haltom seems to really be building off their success from last year. Keller has had some really strong consistent growth over the past few years so I fully expect them to continue in that direction this year. However, they do usually start the season slower (they were 3rd at Birdville in 2016 behind Keller Central but then made 5th in 6A state.) I don’t know if Marcus can keep their momentum from last year but they will probably be very good. Overall should be a great competition. I think that Marcus or Haltom will take this competition but I do predict Keller being on top at the end of the season.

At Birdville Invitational

I tried adding a picture but it wasn’t working. The show is called “From The Ground Up” and the picture featured flowers.

Yeah good point. I feel like Coppell and Duncaville are such wild cards this year because they both had a weaker season last year. The only bands I am really confident on are Keller and Haltom to be honest.

People need to watch out for Timber Creek this year. They are more capable of advancing to state this year than people give them credit for.

REALLY excited for them this year. But also makes me wonder how Hendrickson is dealing with their changes.

They don’t sound poor by any means. But I do agree that they will face struggles making SA finals like the past two years.

What they have now is GREAT for how early this performance is but I just dont think it can hold up all season competitively. The fact that they are performing their entire show at a pretty high level this early says it all. They are capable of a more demanding show and I so desperately want to see that from them.

It’s very impressive that they put what seems like their whole show out there in full uniform as of a whole week ago. But... it feels so similar to what they've’ done the past couple of years which is kindof disappointing to be honest. I really wanted them to try to push themselves and this show seems so safe. I know it’s SUPER early but I don’t see much potential

Haha! That would be some pretty fitting school spirit.

Hmmmm...here’s some speculation that is probably totally incorrect I wouldn’t be surprised if it is Flowermound or even Hebron. Don’t know any info about their shows so it could be totally possible and these two programs are capable of integrating that. Highly doubt it’s Marcus or Keller considering their show themes this year Probably isn’t Haltom cause it doesn’t really fit with the “Carmina Burana” theme Probably not Coppell considering their show theme is very “uil” focused this year I guess I think Duncanville is branching out this year but maybe not enough to have bagpipes haha I know BA is the other band doing it so I’m guessing the DFW band is a big name band but it could totally be a smaller band that isn’t as competitively successful.

Haltom is an exhibition band at the BISD contest.

Keller has been a consistent attendee for a while now. This competition almost fell of the map when only 9 bands attended in 2016. Luckily 2017 had a bigger turn out. I would hope to see more competition at the top but this is always a good competition nonetheless...if it doesn’t get rained out

Flowermound and Marcus have a history of attending this competition but Marcus will be at Waco that day so maybe Flowermound will attend like they did last state year? Also, I hope to see Waxahachie here and I hope they continue to grow.

I think Bowie and Keller will surprise people this year. (In a good way)