J-Mike16

I love this breakdown, but just one thing... Boerne is in 5A now so that automatically opens up 1 spot.

After this year's results, I think—and this is said every year by everyone—this year is going to be the biggest and most interesting year for Area D.
One thing to note is that 2023 was definitely the biggest year for Area D thus far. It was the second time in the UIL Marching Band's 46 year history that Area D sent 6 bands to State and the most bands attended the contest (this year, 32 bands advanced and attended the Area Level, 2021 had 31 bands advance but only 30 attended). It also saw La Grange and Venus High Schools' first time advancing to Finals and their best seasons yet (12th and 9th respectively.), Robinson Advanced to State for the first time in 9 years, Castleberry Advanced for the first time in 5 years, Springtown did not Advance for the first time in 13 years, China Spring and Alvarado saw their best finishes yet (1st and 2nd), and so many more accomplishments were made outside of the Finalists.
I know it's big, bold, and kind of high compared to this year's numbers, but I'm confident in saying that I think 36 Bands will Advance to Area this year. Area E, which has 1 less band than Area D (42 compared to 43) had 36 bands at Area, so it is likely. The reason I think this is because there were bands with their first Area appearance in years, showing us and themselves their ability, and even some bands not advance that almost always have. This would allow 12 bands to advance to Finals again, and 7 to advance to State. If this doesn't happen though, it would be a big surprise to me to see less than 6 bands advance to State again.
Now, for my 'insight.' This is for State Qualifiers and Area Finalists:
 
State:
Of course, China Spring will be a lock, but that and maybe Burnet are the only for sure schools. They've both made State 6 and 5 consecutive times respectively, and this is likely to be a continued trend. China Spring has a high likelihood of even being a State medalist next year with how well they've done in years past.
Alvarado and Gatesville are highly likely contenders as well. Once again, Alvarado saw their best finish, and Gatesville saw their third best finish, and even went on to end their season better than ever before. These two schools (one even being a Division 2) getting 2nd and 3rd at Area is just one way to show that Area D is changing, and I think these two will be spearheading this new era of bands. They're not locks like the last two, yet, but I'm sure they will be very soon.
Castleberry and Robinson are curious cases. Robinson has been an Area Finalist very consistently and close to making State every year, so they're likely to make it next year, but they may also falter and fall back to just a Finalist. Castleberry, on the other hand, is not as stable. This may have been their first time in five years advancing, but it was also their second time ever advancing (Robinson, for comparison, has been the State Champion 5 times, and have attend plenty more times than that). They did not attend the 2020 Area Season, got 9th in the 2021 Season, and 15th in the 2022 Season. It may have been an extended hiccup, but only time will tell.
Fredericksburg has got to come back with a vengeance, I'm banking on it. 5th in Prelims in 2022, dropped to 8th in Finals, and from 8th to 7th (State Alternate) this year, those incoming Seniors are the only ones left who remember advancing to State. Especially if we see 7 State Qualifiers, Fredericksburg can know that they have a high possibility of advancing, if they put in the work of course; nothing is guaranteed.
Springtown, woof. The audible gasps from both sides of the stands, kids and adults alike, when 8th place was announced has got to have hurt the '21 and '22 Area D Champs. I mean, they went from 9th at State in '21 to 15th in '22, but dropping from 1st to 8th in Area has got to bite. These guys are coming into the 2024 Season with maximum effort and will walk into that stadium on November 2nd showing those judges why they belong—or so we're lead to believe. Will this be just a fluke? A one-time mistake that will never happen again? Or, is this only the beginning? Has the King been overthrown for good? We'll see what the answers are in a few months.
Last little note is on the other four. Venus and La Grange might surprise given what I said earlier, but I'm not too sure this Season will be their time; I think they need another year or two to establish their dominance. I think it's going to be awhile before we see Kennedale back in the game, if ever. From what I saw of their new Head Director, she seems entirely able to take them to State, but the last two years have not been kind to Kennedale. Skipping the 2021 Season definitely hurt them and may have caused a comeback to be extremely difficult, maybe even impossible. Finally, Boerne: I think they're Area Finalists, but not State Qualifiers. Going into Area this year, I saw and heard so much praise for them, but 9th in Prelims and 11th in Finals kind of told me that maybe the show was a fan favorite, not necessarily a Judge favorite. However, making Area Finals twice may be the confidence boost they need to soar to higher levels. If one thing's for sure, nothing is consistent in Marching Band.
These are the only bands I think have a true chance of making it. Maybe Taylor will have a comeback after 3 years, and I think Jarrell got cocky and complacent and will do better next year, but I'm not betting on either.
 
Area Finals:
All 12 of the bands previously mentioned are, obviously, very likely to make Finals, but there are other players in the game.
Namely, Taylor, Jarrell, and Godley. All three of them were finalists in 2021, got 14th, 9th, and 11th in 2022 (only one made Finals), respectively, and none of them made Finals this year. Next year is what decides for the future for each: are they Area Finalists, or Area Qualifiers? I think, Qualifiers (maybe one will be a Finalist), and I'll explain why in a bit.
My wild card, hot take, whatever you want to call it, though, is Benbrook. In 2021, they got 30th Place (out of 30); in 2022, they didn't even Advance to Area; in 2023, they got 16th, beating 15 other bands. As I've said numerous times already, this might be a one-time deal, but I'm not so sure. Look at La Grange, who went from 16th to 12th. If they can do it, so can Benbrook.
Other than this, maybe Lake Worth, Bandera, or even Madisonville could shoot up there, but all three of them have been consistently in the teens for years. Wimberley surprised me with 21st, but they also got 21st in 2021, so maybe not too surprising. Manor New Tech might come back and have a possibility of snagging a spot after not making Area this year.
 
Now, I talked a lot about the 'New Era,' and how I think this year will play out given this. What I mean is the changing in bands. Now that the UIL SMBC is every year instead of every other year, and since Lake Belton left Area D back in '21, I think a gap has opened; bands have to work their hardest every single year instead of how it was for 3 decades with every even year (for the case with 4A). I think this was visible in 2022, but definitely evident in 2023. I think bands like Alvarado, Gatesville, Robinson, Venus, La Grange, Boerne, and even Benbrook are proof that the power of the bands is shifting. Another way to look at this is the powerful bands that are losing their power: Burnet, Fredericksburg, Springtown, Taylor, and even Godley and Jarrell.
2024 establishes the fourth year of every year State for 4A, and in my opinion first year of its normalcy, and and I think it will get the ball rolling for the next few years and how they will play out. I really do think 2024 has a lot in store for Area D, and I'm super excited to see where it goes.

Same thing with Carmel. I think they could make a big push into Semi-Finals!!!

I was very impressed with Arcadia last year. I am very curious about them this year.

I definitely suggested it to the mods. I think @Clarinot is working on it. 🤗

I would love to see a separate place for UIL discussion as there are so many threads already. Add all the US Bands comps in along with BOA and it gets difficult to wade through at times. It’s overwhelming!

I had a similar thought when I heard the news. But thinking about it some more, I'm glad we are going. It's not like the grand nationals are something you have to qualify for, or even be good to attend. You just sign up. Lots of bands that are good, but not great, attend every year. The only question is whether the program/boosters are willing to fund the trip for what might be an underwhelming outcome. And that's up to the individual program, if they want to take that kind of calculated risk. In Bridgeland's case, the performance the past couple of years has been solid. In my view, if you can make the finals at BOASA, you have a good shot of making them at GN.

Avon’s show is très magnifique. 😘  Just wow.  Their performance level already is insane and they definitely deserved that score they were awarded yesterday.  I declare Victory in Dayton for Voilà!  
I am in love!!!  😍😍 

Here are some scores from the TCGC competition at Pieper HS today. 

Scholastic National A:

Georgetown HS Varsity 67.690 (1)
Lockhart HS 67.350 (2)
Pieper High School - Purple 66.520 (3)
Lake Belton HS 65.990 (4)
Louis D. Brandeis HS 65.550 (5)
New Braunfels HS 65.340 (6)
McNeil HS 64.390 (7)
Round Rock HS Varsity 63.640 (8)
Canyon HS Varsity 60.890 (9)

Independent A:

Origins A 70.900 (1)
Ether Independent 48.430 (2)

Scholastic Open:
Ronald Reagan HS 64.500 (1)
Lake Travis HS 56.100 (2)
Claudia Taylor Johnson HS 52.100 (3)
 

And here are some of today’s contest results from Morton HS:

Scholastic A:
Cypress Woods HS 70.570 (1)
Seven Lakes HS - Varsity 66.330 (2)
James E. Taylor HS 65.790 (3)
George Ranch Varsity 65.660 (4)
Barbers Hill HS 63.320 (5)
Cypress Falls Varsity 62.350 (6)
Klein Collins HS 60.990 (7)
Terry HS 59.860 (8)
Cypress Ranch HS 57.480 (9)
Andy Dekaney HS 56.580 (10)
Magnolia HS 53.490 (11)
James Earl Rudder High School 53.360 (12)

Scholastic National A:
Grand Oaks HS Varsity 73.240 (1)
Katy High School Varsity 69.580 (2)
Oak Ridge HS 68.280 (3)
Cypress Creek HS 55.590 (4)

Scholastic Open:
Jordan High School Varsity 67.800 (1)
Bridgeland HS 67.000 (2)
Clear Brook HS 66.300 (3)
Cy-Fair HS 64.000 (4)
 

Klein Oak's show is lovely! It's called Fool For You. The song is Pink by LEON. It's hard to make out the overall design of the floor from this angle, but I love the contrast between that red block in the front and the wispy gray and blue line, which curves sinuously, like smoke. (Appropriately the song opens "smoking blues/sipping red/and I picture us inside my head.") The girls start out in two separate pods diagonally across the stage, and slowly trickle out along the smoky line via a series of chaines turns and calypsos. I feel like the tenderness of the music and soft quality of the singer's voice is well matched by these sabre phrases -- light, airy, expressive. The back of the stage is a really deep gray, maybe black, so when those red flags pop out they really pop. (Of course, these might not be the final silks, but the color works well.) Amazing job on the sabre catches while on your knees! Wow! The performance gets a little dicier when the rifles come out, but that girl up front nails that one handed catch on the rifle 5. Alas, the other rifles seemed to go up at various heights, with the assorted partial catches and drops that come with under- and over-rotations. As is typical with this class, I think there's ample room to connect the phrases with more movement, or at least something that looks more purposeful. But it's early, and I'm really liking what they have so far. It's around a 63 for me, very solid for a January performance. Okay, let's see what they actually got... Just around a 61, pulled down a little by one of the effect judges, too many drops for him maybe. But the scores look mostly accurate to me.

I immediately recognize Talking Heads singer David Byrne's voice in this Woodlands A song, but I'm not familiar with the song itself. It's called Glass, Concrete & Stone. I'm not going to pretend to know what the theme of the song is, but it seems breezily, quirkily existential in parts. "Skin, that covers me from head to toe/Except a couple tiny holes and openings/Where the city's blowin in and out/This is what it's all about, delightfully." The floor is pretty austere, simply a black rectangle with a light bluish gray perimeter. This might be a JV floor masquerading in a class filled with varsity floors. 😅 But the girls definitely don't perform like your typical JV guard. They all start out sitting on a tiered stack of (concrete?) blocks in the top right corner, all of their bodies slumped over. The cool cat percussion creeps in, and the girls rise alertly at the first bongo hit. I love it! The first girl steps out from the blocks and demonstrates near perfect technique on the opening rifle toss caught at flat. Another steps out for a clean traveling toss duet, then a third for a trio of one-handed catches. It builds into moments of just amazing multiples on flag, rifle, and sabre, all already quite clean, although there are some lapses, obviously. The guard is big and is wonderfully talented top to bottom. Everywhere I look, the technical foundation is evident. They end their show midway through with a really well done group rifle catch at port, which is something a guard in this class has no business doing as well as they do, but there it is. Very cool, different kind of show overall. I'm going to give it a... 67.5. It's not done, there's room for growth. And let's see what they actually got. A 66. Close enough.

Speaking of David Byrne, fun fact, he produced a color guard performance film back in 2016 called Contemporary Color. It's worth a watch. Apparently Byrne stumbled on guard and was fascinated by it, so he decided to have high school performers perform to live pop music.

Pearland is making extra good use of their moon set pieces from their marching show. How cute is this! The show is called Blue Moon. As mentioned by others, the moons are still black and yellow. I don't believe Pearland has a floor yet either -- it's totally black. But the staging and choreography appear to be mostly done. The song is the crooner classic, Blue Moon. "Once upon a time/before I took up smiling/I hated the moonlight." It all has a very luxurious and dreamy quality. It's the kind of song you'd hear in a classy restaurant or lounge -- or maybe just an Olive Garden, I don't know. 😅 The performers begin their show resting in the curve of one of the crescent moons right in the middle of the floor. As the classy piano music commences, the moon slowly rocks back and forth with the performers on it, with a couple of soloists pulsing off. You have to love how they use these moons for clever staging effects -- also for fun trick tosses while on the moons, while hopping off of them, so on and so forth. Again, the technique here is very clear, even if not everything is a perfect catch. How cool is that when they line up the moons diagonally in the center and have them rock back and forth in a ripple? I can't wait to see this with the complete aesthetic of the floor and costumes and flags. I love the cute vignette at the end of the two girls who are sleeping but are pushed together by the tipping of the moon. It's a clutch character moment. Really, the entire show is like a nice, warm hug before you go to bed. As for my personal scores, it's close, but I like the staging and movement (and just general completeness) of Pearland's show a little bit more than TWHS, so I'll say a 68. (No sabres in Pearland's show, which is interesting. Not a requirement, but it could enrich the vocab.) And let's look at the actual score. They got a 66.6, a little bit low, but not too far off.

The Woodlands World is already giving me goosebumps. Their show is called The Light You Cannot See. Perhaps it's about being in the throes of depression and not seeing the hope that's there, or perhaps it's about something more spiritual, like God. As of right now, it's open to interpretation, which I like. Pairs of cylinders are set upright across the floor, which itself reminds me of space, with little white dots for stars and the lambent glow of some invisible light(s) creating golden brown patches on the floor. The girls begin in a pod in the lower left corner, with a few others posed farther away atop the cylinders. A female narrator simply says, "Look," and the one girl just outside of the pod charges up and over the other girls, flinging herself stomach first, before returning to her feet on the other side and catching a rifle that is flung over the pod. Wow! What an opening! The haunting long tones commence and we get that classic Woodlands slow processional jazz walk. The pod lifts up a girl as it travels, and the outer members rotate about her quickly, looking up at her questioningly as they move across the floor. A few duets of performers break off as the pod moves, accompanied by some slightly spacey, irritated synthesizer bleeps. The pod converges around a girl on top of one of the cylinders in the center of the floor, her body pulls upward with tension, then there's the release (maybe a good moment for a solo toss catch), and the pod swirls quickly outward and apart, very cosmic-like, with a nearly full ensemble rifle ripple around perimeter of the floor as they push outward. It's like 20 rifles. Stunning! Suddenly we have a clearer, faster tempo in the music, with a relentless up and down organ/synthesizer figure. Achingly beautiful long tones in the strings creep in and crescendo over time. I do think there are parts in the middle of this opening that could use more movement, more appealing and musical staging. It's oddly still and contrary to the music during some of the rifle partnering moments. (I also don't think it helped that they had a missing rifle partner right in the middle of the floor. It seemed empty and a little unbalanced.) But then right after we get that magnificent sequence with the tutti flags and ensemble rifle 6s, followed by all those dense, fast, winding follow-the-leader phrases in both rifles and flags. These girls are just running and spinning and tossing -- at one point even passing the rifles from one hand to the other under their legs as they leap, immediately connecting it into other skills. It's so challenging and exhausting, but they're killing it. Again, everywhere you look you see quality. Overall, I don't think they're quite as far along this year performance- or uniformity-wise as they were last year at this contest, but the vocabulary in this show is much richer. I cannot wait to see this on Flo at Austin when it's done and the full aesthetic is there. I think it'll be quite affecting, but with a serious intellectual quality that prevents it from being maudlin.

Score? I'll say a 73. The staging during the middle section of the opener could be more compelling. Also, they had a few exposed drops and uniformity issues. And they got... a 72.4. Close! Their equipment score should probably be higher.

Still need to watch the others!

You can definitely tell I copied and pasted that block of text by the weird formatting shift. Sorry! 😅

This event has been confirmed to be on October 19th!! This is the weekend before area starts up, so it’s looking we will have both 5A and 6A programs much like 2019! I’m super excited for this event (no particular reason 😂) and can’t wait to see a ton of amazing programs! 
 
 
also, Baylors football schedule couldn’t have been more perfect for me in terms of games on days with comps, so here’s what my tentative schedule is for next season: 
Boa dfw: in person, all day 
Boa prosper: in person, all day 
Boa waco: in person, first half of prelims and finals 
Boa San Antonio: in person, both days, all day 
Boa Grand Nationals(Box5) 
If I end up going to SA, it will be my first time at this event and 2nd time in the dome, so knowing’s it even a possibility makes me so happy. Can’t wait for the fall of 2024!!!
 
 
 

For me, it was Marcus High School's 2021 State UIL Finals entitled The Missing Piece. I was lucky enough to be working that day shooting close video. I knew they were 8th after preliminaries and did not expect much. Since I was doing close video, I was able to see their faces pretty well, and you could tell they had just decided to go all in that evening. It was going to be a train wreck or something special, and they delivered. The faces of those 2 Mellophone soloists at the end have always stuck in my mind of what all band members at every school at every level put into the programs every year. The best Bronze Medal performance I have ever witnessed.
Fixed the Link
2021 Marcus Band UIL Finals Performance

This is going to be more personal but when Lumberton made 5A State back in 2017 was a huge comeback. Last time Lumberton advanced was all the way back in 1980 where they placed 7th/25 at 4A State (Top 5 Advanced to Finals). Between 1980 and 2017, Lumberton was very consistent at region but always failed to advance from Area to State, though placed State Alternate or the next spot out quite a bit. It really wasn't until the horrible tragedy of 2016 & 2017 that occurred, when Lumberton started getting that traction to advance. In 2016, we had a band parent steal and use over $70,000 from us. It was a complete slap to our face however being the Mighty Raider Band from Lumberton, we did not stop. We used that setback to fuel us for the remainder of the year plus the years to come. We all know what happened in August of 2017, Hurricane Harvey. Like many cities and towns in SETX, over half of the town lost everything (I believe at least 1/4th, maybe even 1/2 of the band had lost everything) however that again, did not stop us. We continued all season long til Area where we placed 3rd/38 in Prelims, then 5th/10 in Finals, (Top 7 went to State that year in Area E). I cannot tell yall how ecstatic we were on our advancement to State. Even though we would eventually place 30th/35, it was still an incredible achievement to have finally been a state ranked band. Fast forward 7 years, and Lumberton has advanced to State every eligible year yet. I will forever always remember those moments in the program that truly made us the Mighty Raider Band from tiny SETX Town, Lumberton. 

I'm going through some of the recaps from around the country.
What's up with all the penalties at TCGC Turner? 20(!) guards got penalties, some of them costing a guard first place. That seems unusually high to me, at least looking at Dripping Springs (only 4 penalties) and last year's results. Just something that caught my eye, especially moving into regional A and beyond.
Probably the most interesting direct comparison with a mostly WGI panel from this weekend: West Broward edges out Stoneman Douglas, who edges out Flanagan. All within a point of each other, centered around a 68. Very strong scores. I'm especially happy to see Flanagan so close to the others after not doing so great post-pandemic. Meanwhile, last year's Open class champion (and 2022's A class champion), Somerset Academy, was in 4th, 3 points back with a 64.4. That's a very respectable score for a first outing in world class.
Tarpon "in the lead" with a 73.5 at FFCC with a 100% WGI panel. TWHS behind them with a 72.4. (Both of these are pre-penalty scores, by the way. 😅) Surprised to see TWHS doing slightly worse than they did last year, but obviously it's hard to compare with different panels. The one WGI judge did give them a 76 in movement, which is a giant number. Really, we won't know anything until WGI starts up. Looking forward to finally seeing both of these guards.
MEPA had an interesting SW result, with Miamisburg at a 66.6 and Bellbrook right behind them with a 65.8. They're strong scores, but it does seem a little lower than usual for Miamisburg, who got 6th last year at Worlds and 4th the year before. Again, it's hard to know, especially at this very early stage with incomplete shows.
Also at MEPA, Franklin gets a 73 in A class. Giant number. Loved their show last year, so this is exciting!

I think it's absolutely stunning! Probably will be my favorite show from them yet. I can't believe how advanced they are! It would make me feel so very insecure if I were teaching a high school guard. 🤯

There is a video online of Palm Desert Charter MS. After watching it a couple times, I can say they are still proving why they are in Open Class. Smaller group this year but I think that's better to then feature more moments. One member has several feature moments, but my favorite is when he does a toss and then a double spin around, very impressive. The flag work at the end is messy but still captivating. I noticed a lot more one-handed catches and the tosses themselves are higher up in the air than usual. (I don't know proper colorguard words lol). I can't wait to see the product fully complete and clean and with the addition of costumes. I believe they will do great this year!

There is a video online of Palm Desert Charter MS. After watching it a couple times, I can say they are still proving why they are in Open Class. Smaller group this year but I think that's better to then feature more moments. One member has several feature moments, but my favorite is when he does a toss and then a double spin around, very impressive. The flag work at the end is messy but still captivating. I noticed a lot more one-handed catches and the tosses themselves are higher up in the air than usual. (I don't know proper colorguard words lol). I can't wait to see the product fully complete and clean and with the addition of costumes. I believe they will do great this year!

There is a video online of Palm Desert Charter MS. After watching it a couple times, I can say they are still proving why they are in Open Class. Smaller group this year but I think that's better to then feature more moments. One member has several feature moments, but my favorite is when he does a toss and then a double spin around, very impressive. The flag work at the end is messy but still captivating. I noticed a lot more one-handed catches and the tosses themselves are higher up in the air than usual. (I don't know proper colorguard words lol). I can't wait to see the product fully complete and clean and with the addition of costumes. I believe they will do great this year!

Brilliant analysis as always @Rubisco  Thank you for that!   I’m also anxious to see how Clearbrook does again this year after taking second place in Scholastic A at Dayton last year.  (Speaking of which, I watched and featured on my Instagram yesterday the show from last year’s Scholastic A winners, Dobyns-Bennett HS, and I was blown away all over again by it!  The design and execution of “The Bride” was absolutely off the charts!).  
I’m ready for another amazing season!  I just can’t overstate enough though how disappointing it is that TCGC isn’t streamed live. Surely Flo and TCGC could work together on this!  But I digress…

Still haven't really seen much! I was searching for some performances from the Flower Mound/Mirage showcase last weekend. There's Red Oak and a couple others on YouTube. No Flower Mound or Mirage, though!
WGI has posted drafts of schedules for the first regionals.
https://wgi.org/color-guard/cg-calendar/
My Texas Scholastic A "must-watch" lists, or maybe just "probably-should-watch" lists, for those with limited time. 😂 Note that it's simply guards that placed near the top in a round of competition in Texas last year. Nothing more. No guarantees for this season. The rounds listed here are from the current season's preliminary schedules.
Dallas
Round One: Keller Central and Aledo
Round Two: Rock Hill
Round Three: Hebron and Emerson
Round Four: Burleson Centennial, Mount Pleasant, Wylie, and Cedar Park.
Houston
Round One: Katy
Round Two: Pearland and Grand Oaks
Round Three: The Woodlands JV
Round Four: Rouse, Cypress Woods, Louis D. Brandeis, and William B. Travis.
It looks like Cypress Woods may have dropped down to the regular A class in TCGC (from National A). They got 2nd at TCGC State in National A last year, but I think they may have a new director this season. It'll be interesting to see how they're handling the change. I recall they seemed to be pretty solid on the marching field this year. Not always a reliable indicator, though.
I was going to make lists for Open and World, but it dawned on me that I was adding most of the Open guards to my list, so there wasn't really any point. I will, however, single out a few.
Friendswood has been super solid the last two years. Last year, they started out their season with lots of mistakes -- they were very wobbly performance-wise. But the (difficult) choreo and overall design were really top notch. They got clean and peaked at the very end of their season, were promoted at the last minute to Open class, and made Open class finals at Worlds over a lot of guards that had spent their entire seasons in the Open class. Impressive after a slow start! I suspect they'll continue to climb the ranks under Stephanie Chavez's care. I may be wrong, but I think the design team still includes that duo of Jack Pursifull and Chad Berkstresser, who designed/taught gold medal Open class shows for Spring in 2014 and The Woodlands in 2004. Maybe for Oak Ridge in 2011 as well, I'm not sure who was on that team. Regardless, this group knows what it takes.
I think Marcus' guard looked absolutely fabulous on the marching field this past year, really top-notch. They had success in WGI last year; it wouldn't surprise me if they have even more this year. This is a guard that was World class pre-pandemic. I could easily see them returning there. The graphic for their show announcement, Aeroplane, looks really classy. Will the show match?
Coppell still has everyone's hearts, I think. But they need a clearer, more consistently compelling upstairs picture to match the energy of the performers downstairs, something a little more formed, less helter skelter. Hopefully they have that this year and don't flatline. An Insta clip of their show this season (called In Fantasia) looked really good.
Bridgeland's guard made a huge, positive impact on their marching band's visual program last year. I see this guard as a significant threat in the Open class. Yes, the flagline was large and clean, and that was a big part of the overall effect, but the weapons were killing it, too. It makes me think that their varsity guard could make a splash this season.
Both Flower Mound and TWHS will likely slay in the World class. Flower Mound looked outstanding on the marching field. And their new-ish staff last season demonstrated that they can design an elegant indoor product. As the guard's skills continue to improve, I see finals at Worlds as a strong possibility for them. Meanwhile, TWHS will be in medal contention again. The depth of talent is unreal. I noticed on TCGC that they've started a 3rd guard in regional A. I'm curious if that means their other guards will be smaller and focused on top performers, sort of like Avon these days. 🙃 😂 (Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Avon is amazing.) It also wouldn't surprise me at all if TWHS' A guard wins Houston and gets promoted to Open by the end of the season, depending on how much effort went into the design of the show. Now that we have middle schools like Palm Desert Charter MS straight up making Open class finals, there may be pressure on some of these world class guards, especially if Palm Desert High School ever figures out how to design a world class finals show. Maybe this year!

Prelims is on Thursday and Friday with Semi's starting at like 6 or 7am on Saturday with Finals that night.

Thanks!!

Association of Texas Small School Bands