Jeffrey L. Gorman

I am sorry that a High School Band Marching Contest could bring on such frustration. I do not know why Round Rock had one judge not care for their Marching(Judges 4 & 5 Did Marching and Maneuvering) in 6A. I am sorry that you feel that someone else,s child will be punished because of what one judge thought of their Band. Every judge at the event has taken a Band to the SMC. They all have had to deal with situations like yours, because Judges are humans also. To be honest Round Rock was between Vista Ridge and Flower Mound. They were not in the same class as either of those two Bands. I am sorry but that happens, if they had been between two Bands of lesser quallity, they very well might have had higher Ordinals. I have one other comment and you probably will not like this. I would like to tell you a story of a Judge who took a way a Placling for the Band I was assistant director for and what the rest of the story was. In Nov 1973, I was he Assistant Band Director at a major High School in Southern CA which had an outstanding Marching Band. In CA at that time the All Western Band Review was the unofficial State Championship matching the top 72,yes I said 72 High School Bands in Street Marching competition. The Bands were divided into 6 Classes of 12 Bands Each by School enrollment. Besides the Sweepstakes and Music Awards the Top 5 Bands in each class were recognized with place trophies. We had done such a great performance on the Street to Barnum and Baileys Favorite March, we were very sure we would finish with the 2nd Place Trophy in Class The awards ceremony was held in the Long Beach Arena before 12,000 screaming Band members and Parents and Fans. It was also held with TV cameras and all sorts of dignitaries. When the awards were given in our class we got a 4th Place trophy instead of the 2nd place we thought we had one. In fact the Band that got the 2nd Place Award had played the Same March and we were convinced we had beaten this school. Our Head Director, Ross Davis, one of the most decorated Judges in the SCSBOA went to pick up our score sheets as I took the Band back to the buses. We were not happy campers. Ross met me at the Buses and said there had been a major problem in the music scoring. In CA you have to provide copies of the music score to the music judges. It seems that one of the 3 music judges had wrongly placed our Score of the March in another schools packet and sent it to the judges for tabulation. We received the other schools score for the music instead. They also played Barnum and Baileys Favorite. Let this be clear to our Band and 12,000 people we were 4th Place not the 2nd place we should have been. How did this happen. A week before the All Western one of the music judges contacted SCSBOA and informed the chief judge that he had been given a diagnosis of an inoperable Brain Tumor which would take his life in 6 months. The judge had been given medicine to handle the blackouts and headaches that were causing him a great deal of pain. . The Honor of judging at All Western in CA was a High Honor for those selected for this event. The Chief Judge was asked to allow the Judge in Question to serve as one of the Music Judges. The Medical Dr. serving as the Judges Physician felt that there would be no problems him judging. That day when we marched past the Judges we received the 3rd Highest music score of 72 Bands, however when the tabulators got the scores, in our packet were the results of another Band who did not score anywhere near us. The Judge in question had a blackout after the other Band went through and when he came out of the blackout he changed the score sheets for two schools. The Judge was contacted by both Schools and the SCSBOA. He admitted that this error had been his and he blamed the blackout for the mistake. The directors of both schools and the SCSBOA agreed that no good could come of announcing that a Judge with a Terminal Illness had made a mistake. As Ross reminded me. THIS IS HIGH SCHOOL BAND, A persons life and career mean more to us than a Trophy. When we got back to the Bus, we told the Band this. "You Did an Outstanding Job. We feel that you should have finished higher. It did not happen today. However we are proud of each and every one of you" Some day you will understand things we cannot tell you" In 1985 at the Band Alumni dinner for the Band of 73 and 74, shortly before Ross Davis passing, he told the Band what happened. To a person they agreed that the trophy was not worth ruining the legacy of a judge This is how you should look at this event.

A thought about Round Rocks situation. In the Prelims they were placed near the end between VISTA RIDGE in front of them and FLOWER MOUND in back of them. This position is very difficult to handle for any Band. Directors will tell you that you prefer to be in back of a Band that is not as good as you are. The Band in back can be as good as you are, however not a World Beater. The Judges had already looked at 38 Bands and then you Get Vista Ridge(Outstanding performance), then Comes Round Rock(even if the performance was worthy of a 10th place and finals position, being human they are not as good as Vista Ridge. Following them is Flower Mound who has just dominated BOA on Saturday. I know from experience myself while in marching Contests in HS we were always well aware of who was in front of us and who was behind us. When we knew we were better than the Band in front of us, we had a very strong KILLER Instinct. If the Band in Back of us Was Arcadia(the CA answer to LD Bell, Marcus, Ronald Reagan Cedar Park, Duncanville, you get the idea) we knew they would beat us no matter what we did. While Judges are supposed to be totally impartial, I know of no place or circuit that does not have situations where a Power Band will make it more difficult for the Band in front of them because of their dominating performance. THE DRAW WAS BAD FOR ROUND ROCK THIS TIME.

It was told to me that when you have a large number of Bands such as we had today, the chance for this happening is great. CTJ got a 24th position a couple of years ago. The source said something like this is not as prevelent in Class A-AAAA due to the smaller number of Bands. Class AA will only have 17 Bands to compete and only 7 will advance tomorrow. The problem with throwing a High Score and a low score out is that if you add two more judges do you then go to 4 Music and 3 M&M. What if the High and Low rating judges are in the same discipline, IE Music, or M &M. I know that each of the Judges for today and tomorrow have taken their Bands to SMC before. Most have judged BOA and DCI events along with other circuits Most are directors of University Bands. It is not any easy solution. If Round Rock had not gotten the 34th place position from one Judge, another Band would have been knocked out. Usually if you look at the Ordinals, the top 3 Bands are pretty consistently rated the same by all the Judges. UIL looks at this every two years.

Duncanville was an example of a Band that devoted a great deal of time to their musical performance. I saw their last SMC Championshp performance in 2002 when they beat a great LD Bell Band in the Rain, snow and sleet at Baylor University. Thank these folks for insuring that after 2002 the UIL never required Bands to compete in that type of weather for the State Title. After 2002 they were very competitive, however the amount of money other districts had made it difficult. Before every says this is false, did you notice that not one Band from the RGV made the finals, nor did anyone from El Paso. I think the best Bands made it to the finals, If waxahachie had been at BOA, they very probably would have been in the finals on Saturday. With only one difference, the top 12 Bands at UIL match the Bands at BOA. While most of the contributors rate judging by BOA to be better, I noticed many complaints after the results on Saturday. Folks Judging is still an art and as long as people do it, we will have differences. One question to those who are critical of the judges, did you look up the credentials of the Judges who are doing the UIL Championships. These are outstanding individuals, who have not only done UIL but done BOA and other Circuits.

Ayala certainly deserves its victories in the Contests both in Utah and Southern CA. CA Bands in my opinion are behind the power curve compared to most Bands we see in the Midwest and TX. The main problem is that CA Circuits, along with NV, AZ, OR and Washington determine classes by Band Size. They tend to have a lot of Class A Bands (under 60 members). but not 6A Bands(158 members and above). Ayala to their credit first came to SA in 2006. They have competed in every one of the CA BOA Contests since they have started. Congratulations to Mark Stone and his Band.

They have to beat Ayala directed by Mark stone. They have already won the contest in Utah and this Band has gone to Grand Nationals twice. I rate them the best Band there today.

Actually I do not dislike BOA. I have supported Texas Bands in this contest even when sometmes we have one hand tied behind our Back(IE the 8 Hour Rule) (Schools like Plymouth Canton that are basically 4 schools on one campus) and several other situations that are not favorable to our Bands. My problem is that disagreements come along every other year when UIL 6A Marching Contest is within days of BOA Grand Nationals. This places Texas Bands at a disadvantage having to do shows with two different length of shows and different show values. We are also at a disadvantage in that we have to travel longer. How many folks realized that Broken Arrow hosted and won the OBA 6A Marching Contest on the 20th and then drove to St. Louis and competed in BOA. Winning both events. That is not possible for most of us. I really think that we do outstanding music in the circumstances we are in. My complaint is that I have watched what happened in Oklahoma when the OBA talked the OSSAA into making BOA scoring the standard in marching contests at the State level. In OK at the time this was adapted they had 17 Class 6A High School, of which only Broken Arrow, Owasso and Union were in the caliber of Texas Bands. Since that time the enrollments have changed so that there are now 32 6A schools and most of us have heard of Jenks, Mustang, Bixby and Edmond. They got better. 6A enrollment is 1,270 and above. Broken Arrow has 4,200 students. However while class 5A stayed the same, the number of Bands in Class A-AAAA entering the State Marching contest has dropped greatly. Most of these schools approximately 300 of them have enrollments less than 300 students and most of them have opted to do the OSSAA Region Marching Contest (same as our regionals) Attendance at the OBA A-AAAA Marching Championships has fallen due to the Bands inability to change over from Regional Contest with a Ratings system to a State Contest with a Ranking system. I think it is great that we have Bands going to Grand Nationals, however on the years when 6A Marching Contest is held(funny the 5A Folks are a lot less hyper about the differences than 6A Bands are), maybe we can agree to disagree I would like to see folks from the small schools see the difference between Reagan and CTJ. I also would love to see the members of our Big School Bands spend some time watching what our small schools do with far less assets and resources. They also are a lot less Hyper at SMC than the bigger folks(I think that come from being in more rural areas)

You are right the numbers do not lie. However the numbers tell a different story about the Judging than most of the comments made by people who prefer the BOA type of scoring. I looked at the results of the Contests at MIdland, McAllen, Austin, and Bedford to determine how many Bands from the smaller classes of UIL actually attend BOA events. Note: BOA Class A is 601 students and below. BOA Class AA is 601-1250 Students. BOA Class AAA is 1250 students to 1750 students. Class AAAA is 1750 students and above. UIL is Divided into Class A 0-99 Students Class AA 100 to 199 students Class AAA 199 to 450 Students Class AAAA 450 to 1050 students. Note the number of Bands in Each BOA contest using BOA Numbers Midland Class A 2Bands Class AA 2Bands Class AAA 7Bands Class AAAA 9 Bands Only 4 of 20 Bands were in what the UIL would consider smaller schools McAllen Class A 0 Bands Class AA 4 Bands Class AAA 13 Bands Class AAAA 11 Bands Only 4 of 30 Bands were in what the UIL would consider smaller schools Austin Class A 2 Bands Class AA 3 Bands Class AAA 6 Bands Class AAAA 12 Bands Only 5 of 23 Bands were in what the UIL would consider smaller schools Houston Class A 0 Bands Class AA 3 Bands Class AAA 5 Bands Class AAAA 22 Bands Only 3 of 30 Bands were in what the UIL would consider smaller schools Bedford Class A 1 Band Class AA 3 Bands Class AAA 9 Bands Class AAAA 18 Bands Only 4 of the 31 Bands were in what the UIL would consider smaller schools Based on these results it is clear that out of the almost 800 High Schools in UIL Class A through AAAA only 20 High School Bands in the entire State entered BOA Contests. This is less than 5% of High School Bands in TX in these size schools. What should this be telling BOA 1. Your contests are geared to Big Schools with large staffs. Your scoring is geared to heavy use of visual emphasis. You have no room for any type of military marching Bands to score well on your judging sheets. 2. Contrary to what is being posted here, the majority of Texas High School Bands would still prefer the UIL style to that of BOA or US BANDS 3. Based on the numbers, not even 50% of the Class 6A Bands in Texas compete in BOA. Why is this, most of these schools do not have the money to compete in the BOA Circuit, and if you think this is not a circuit, look at how many Bands do more than one BOA contest. 4. I live in Region 8 of the UIL. We are a Region of 66 High Schools, 40 of which are Class A, AA & AAA Bands. We have 26 Class AAAA, AAAAA and AAAAAA Bands. This year only one of the 66 Schools entered a BOA contest which was rained out. They will try again on Friday afternoon. 8 of our Bands are military style bands. They would stand no chance at a BOA event. Fortunately China Spring advanced to SMC from our Region while performing an outstanding precision drill. When was the last time anyone has seen a precision drill Band make the finals of any BOA Contest, let alone something like Grand National. I have often asked our Directors in the Class A through AAA Bands why the do not want to go to BOA and they said, " WE HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON WITH THE BANDS IN BOA. Since only 20 schools entered 5 of the contests this year, it would seem that many other directors throughout the state feel the same way. 5. I am aware that there have been ongoing attempts to change the scoring system taking away the M & M and adding visual captions instead. Please understand that while this was not acted on this fall, it will come up again. I think that with the great variance in our Bands in our State, we may stay with Ordinals and 60% Music and 40% M &M for a few more years.

I think this was an outstanding performance. I read a couple of negative comments from some people who did not like the Patriotic emphasis of the program. Balderdash. They did an outstanding job. The music was inspiring and well presented. Wish we had more performances that had the effect Broken Arrow did on the audience.

I think one of the major problems here is that most Band Fans in TX do not really know much at all about judging. Using BOA and WGI as examples of good judging is not quite correct. Both of these organizations have had problems with judging which is far worse than the situation with UIL. A few thoughts to consider: UIL has 3 different championships each year. This year not only do we have the 6A Bands from large schools, we have 2A Bands from schools with enrollment from 198 to 450 students. The differences are startling. The 6A Bands have in most case multiple staffs, paid show writers a nd Bands in which most of the members are involved in only the marching band. In the 2A schools, many of the Bands will march military style, they will have small Color Guards(if they have them at all) and their instrumentation will be much less balanced than in the big schools. This causes problems in musical balance due to constraints that the big schools do not have. UIL has to take these differences in to consideration. Another consideration is that UIL gives 60% of its score to Music and only 40% to Marching and Manuvering. I challenge anyone to show ma a Judges Association that places as high a value on music as we do. After all this is BAND. I have taken the judging criteria of other states and thought you might find the differences interesting SCSBOA (Southern CA School Band and Orchestra Association (Field Judging criteria) Music Performance 20% of Score Music Effect 20% of Score Visual Effect 20% of Score Visual Performance 20% of Score 2Judges for Each Caption Auxilary 10% of Score Percussion 10% of Score 1 Judge each for Percussion and Aux Total Music Values 40% Western Band Association (Contests in CA, AZ, OR, & NV Music Effect 15% Visual Effect 15% Ensemble Music Perf 15% Individual Music Perf 15% Percussion 10% Ensemble Visual 10% Individual Visual 10% Auxilary 10% One Judge for Each Caption total Music Captions 45% Pennsylvania Cavalcade of Bands Field Visual 20% Ensemble Visual 20% Field Music 20% Ensemble Music 20% Overall Effect Visual 10% Overall Effect Music 10% One Judge for Each Caption total music captions 50% Georgia Music Educators Association Music Performance 20% Music Effect 10% Visual Performance 20% Visual Effect 10% Field Conductor (DM) 20% Percussion 20% Guard 10% One Judge for Each Caption total music captions 30% Northern CA Band Association Field Judging Music Score 35% Field Visual 25% General Effect 20% Aux 10% Percussion 10% Two Judges for Each Caption Total Music Captions 35% Looking at this judging association you will find that any Band that Marched Military Style, Show Style, Big Ten Style would be hurt by the heavy emphasis on Visual Effect. In most cases the Visual content was given a Higher importance than Music. When I read this Site on years when Class 6A Bands are judged, the majority of persons tend to think that BOA style of judging is superior. However when you read the comments from Class 2A & 4A Bands, they prefer the UIL Scoring. The reason is simple, the smaller schools do not have the assets to put on the field a Band with costumes and large props. Because of this very few class 2A or 4A Bands enter BOA Contests. They cannot compete with the large schools in money and personnel. I totally agree with UIL using a 60% music and 40% Marching and Manuvering for their judging. As for qualifications of judges, the Judge of Music a couple of years ago at the 6A contest who rated CTJ 24th in the Prelims was the Marching Band Director AT Auburn University and he stood by his rating. As one who is not wowed by CTJ I thought his score was right. The fact is that UIL has to support all the schools in TX and that is for the smaller schools as well as the Giants in class 6A. Next year the Class 1A schools will compete. These are schools with less than 100 students in the school. No, they will not have the high cost productions of Class 6A, yes, they will march 7th and 8th Grade Students as part of the Band. UIL has the responsibility of making their contest every bit as good as the 5A will be next year. It comes only once every two years for the Class 6A Bands. They can spend their money on Grand Nationals and other events.

I am not surprised CTJ had one judge rate them 6th in Music. They are an acquired taste in music, and my views of them have tended to feel that their music was not their strongest point. They will score much higher at BOA. To many other strong musical groups for them to win it all in UIL 6A

Go to UIL Forms .com and look for the Area Results which will probably be posted on Sunday morning.

Actually Ordinals work pretty well. It is different from the scores, but it gives you a pretty clear idea how each judge feels an individual band has performed.

This is not surprising. While we have the same standards for 1st Division Ratings, etc, it should be noticed that the number of 1st Divisions Ratings award drop down quite a bit from 6A to 1A. Obiviously 6A schools have many more assets than lets say 2A or 3A schools. Not only that but they have more students to work with and more staff to work with the Band preparation. It would be interestng to see how many 3A schools have private lessons for their students and how many of their students are involved in other activities in school which preclude the students spending as much time with Band practices compared to students in a class 6A Band. The numbers are very clear. This is why there is not agreement about Band Contests judging, and Visual vs M & M judging. Almost none of the 1A schools have a guard unit. Very few in the 2A schools have guard units. The number of 3A schools having competitive guard unit that compete after Marching season is over is much smaller percentage wise than 5A & 6A Bands. The numbers say much about why we see things differently in our Band performances.

In Region 31, there was only one AAAA In Region 31 there was only one AAAA Band competing for Area Riverview , Irving 1 Rating band

Region 31 has listed all Bands with the exception Coppell in Class 6A Carroll 1* Haltom 1* L D Bell 1* 59th Consecutive 1st Division Rating Richland 1* Trinity 1*

Results of Region 6 AA East Zone Marching Contest, 22 Oct 2018 Albany 3 Hawley 1 Albany would advance to Area as the 2nd Band only if there were no AA Bands in Region 6 West Zone and South Zones that did not receive either 1st Division or 2nd Division Ratings

Results of Region 6 East Zone Marching Contest, 22 Oct 2018. Class AAAA Bands * Advance to Area Fort Stockton 1* Big Spring 1* Sweetwater 2 Snyder 1*

Region 6 East Zone Marching Contest was this afternoon at Abilene. The Abilene HS Band was the only class 6A Band and received a 1st Division Rating advancing them to the area contest.

Region 6 has not posted the results for the Eastern Zone Marching Contest at Abilene on the 20th. Abilene was the only 6A Band in that event. It should be posted later today (Monday)

Most of us know that this Saturday in Oct is crowded with UIL Region Contests. This Saturday 717 High School Bands in TX took part in UIL Region Marching Contests. The Regions varied in size from 14 Bands in Region 30 to 53 Bands in 4 different locations in Region 14. Large Single Regions were Region 16 with 43 Bands competing, Region 21 with 42 Bands competing and Region 1 with 38 Bands competing. While people have their own feelings about the Region Marching Contests, Consider this. There is no state that can come anywhere near the number of Bands we have performing this Saturday. CA with all its High Schools does not come close with their largest number of Bands competing on one day at about 400 in many smaller events around the state. If we take an average of 100 students per Band for those who competed today, and remember many Bands did not compete today, but have gone before today or will be performing this next week, almost 71,000 students will be marching in performance. This is truly a great state with great Bands and we should be proud we are part of the great Bands that represent us.

At todays UIL Region Marching Contest, the following Bands continued their streak of receiving 1st Division Ratings. Plainview in Class AAAAA Region 16 Odessa in Class AAAAAA Region 6 Longview in Class AAAAAA Region 21

Region 27 Marching Contest Results Class 6A Bands, Cypress, TX 20 Oct 2018 * Advance to Area Class AAAAAA Bridgeland 1* Cy Fair 1* Cy Creek 1* Cy Falls 1* Cy Lake 1* Cy Park 2 Cy Ranch 1* Cy Ridge 1* Cy Springs 1* Cy Woods 1* Langham Creek 1* Memorial 1* Jersey Village 1* Northbrook 2 Spring Wood 1* Stratford 1* UIL Region 33 Marching Contest, Galena Park, TX 20 Oct 2018 Advance to Area * Class AAAAA Crosby 1 Galena Park 1 Kingwood Park 1 NewCaney 2 Porter 1 Class AAAAAA Aldine 1* Atascocita 1* C E King 1* Davis 1* DeKanney 1* Eisenhower 1* Humble 1* Kingwood 1* MacArthur 1* Nimitz 2 North Shore 1* Spring 1* Summer Creek 1* Westfield 1*

The Cavalcade of Bands in the Mid Atlantic States and the New York Field Band Conference used to use this format. The problem was that many Band Directors observed that if you tried something new or challenging your were punished for things that were not IN VOGUE DURING THAT PERIOD. The fact is that judging is a difficult thing. Across the country there are different style of judging. In Ca BOA is not as well thought off as here, and that is because they have the SCSBOA, NCBA, MBOS, WBA, and several other circuits that each have their own judging standards and judges. Out there it is like a smorgasboard and often Bands that win in one circuit are judged lower in another. we can complain all we want but each human has different likes and dislikes.

They can reschedule the Region contests up to the next weekend. They then can move the Area contest back another week if necessary. Yes I know it would conflict with BOA but with the 2A and 4A schools having very few going to BOA they could do area at that time if necessary. I think this is a ABSOLUTELY WORST CASE SCENARIO and I believe that if the Rain is not heavy the shows will go on. One of the big problems is that most of the Bands have Props and costumes that will not do well in the rain.