itsjaredh97

Not directly related to state, but here are some fun stats from Grand Nats that I found out. Some were already made known about and some I had to do some digging. Since 2019, there has been a new champion every year. (Vandegrift, Broken Arrow, Carmel, Avon) Bentonville became the first band from Arkansas to make finals at Grand Nationals. They also broke 90 for the first time at a BOA competition. Hebron has won the music caption and gotten 3rd place at every Grand Nationals they have attended. (2015, 2019, 2023) They also achieved the highest overall music score in BOA history. (19.8 in finals) Avon won their first Eagle since 2010, despite being on every podium since 2007. They were also the only band to improve their score from semis to finals. This was the first time since 2006 that there was a different winner in prelims, semifinals, and finals competition. (2023: Hebron, Carmel, Avon. 2006: LD Bell, The Woodlands, Broken Arrow) 2023 was just the second time at Grand Nats (2021) and 4th time ever at a BOA event (2017 and 2022 SA SR) that all finalist bands received a score of 90 or higher to qualify for finals. 2023 was also the second year ever (2019) in which the winner of Grand Nats failed to earn a higher score than the winner of the San Antonio Super. (2023: 97.45 to 97.6, 2019: 97.15 to 97.3) All 3 Texas bands who were the first out of finals are from Area D.

Has anyone ever dealt with a a box5 copyright strike before? My entire YouTube channel and box5 account were completely terminated for posting private vids of San Antonio finals performances. I don’t know what to do or if there’s anyway to get my account back so I wanted to reach out to see if anyone has had this happen to them and can help. Thanks

Does this mean they get moved to panel 2?

I think they both had their best runs of the season respectively. Hard to compare the two when their shows and styles are completely different but I’m confident they were both executed well enough to where we’ll see them both in finals.

Westwood needed those couple days of rest and rehearsal so bad. That was definitely their best run of the season.

I’m gonna go live on my YouTube tonight with the finals awards ceremony so people don’t have to watch that atrocious live stream. Same YouTube channel with viral Hebron video. Will also have vods of several bands posted after tonight.

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but are they taking 14 finalists instead of 12? Never would have thought there'd be enough bands at the competition to field 14 but would be pretty sick to let in a couple more of the bubble bands.

you deserve a raise my friend

if i am not mistaken, i believe they came home and just got finished having a rehearsal. gotta get better somehow before grand nats lol

sorry about the delay. heres the links to the finals recordings. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXMqSXnC2TCQrcUtYxiBxORVHRQyTudf_

having issues with storage so might have to wait until later to send it out. sorry about that

i have all the finals recordings uploaded to google drive. dm me for the link

CTJ has entered the chat.

i plan on recording all of the finalists from tonight and will upload them all into a Google drive. i can send that out later

i have the sheets, dm if anyone is interested

this is going to be the most wild grand nats i think we will ever see. there will be potentially 5-10 bands that are going to be left out of finals that likely would've made it in any other year. plus i don't think anyone at this point right now can predict a top 10, everyone is just so close. i could not be more excited to see the developments in the next two weeks and for this competition.

Prelims schedule is out. 12 bands will be taken for finals. https://www.uiltexas.org/files/music/5A_Prelims_:_Finals_Schedule.pdf

Schedule for prelims is up. Here is the order: Stony Point (10:00) Austin (10:15) Madison (10:30) Belton (10:45) Round Rock (11:00) Smithson Valley (11:15) Killeen Ellison (11:30) <BREAK> MacArthur (12:00) Del Valle (12:15) Ronald Reagan (12:30) Bryan (12:45) New Braunfels (1:00) Westwood (1:15) Temple (1:30) <LUNCH BREAK> Claudia Taylor Johnson (2:30) Midway (2:45) Roosevelt (3:00) Hutto (3:15) Copperas Cove (3:30) San Marcos (3:45) Akins (4:00) <BREAK> McNeil (4:30) Harker Heights (4:45) Cedar Ridge (5:00) Winston Churchill (5:15) Jack C. Hays (5:30) Lee (5:45) Drum Major Retreat/Finals Announcement (6:30) First Finalist Band (8:00) Last Finalist Band (10:30) Finals Retreat (11:15)

Schedule for the Region 26 contest on Tuesday at the KRAC: 6A: 5:30 Cedar Ridge 5:45 Hutto 6:00 Stony Point 6:15 McNeil 6:30 Westwood 6:45 Round Rock 7:00 BREAK 5A: 7:30 Elgin 7:45 Pflugerville 8:00 Georgetown 8:15 Manor 8:30 East View 8:45 Hendrickson 9:00 Connally 9:15 Weiss

Another great competition in the books! Here are a few of my takeaways and thoughts after watching finals: 1. Vandy is coming for state. Clean in every aspect. Amazing product and love the ballad. Well deserved win tonight. 2. Reagan surprised me a little bit. Was blown away with their sounds and visual consistency but I wasn't hit with the same effect as I was in 2019. This very well might be because of the high expectations I had for them, as Secret World was on another level of amazing but they still had a very impressive show. Also shoutout to their parents who took over the KRAC during their performance. 3. CTJ was my personal favorite and was a clear crowd favorite; had whole stadium on their feet. Their brass is incredible and they have a incredibly visually challenging show that will only get cleaner. 4. Cedar Park is back. 5. Did someone say size down? I don't think Leander cares. They sounded amazing and were so powerful and balanced even with the smaller numbers. Happy for my friends over there. 6. Hendrickson has my vote for most improved band of this contest. They cleaned up a lot of things musically and it had a big impact on the field. Loved the props and the way they were utilized throughout the show. Excited to see how they do at state after their reclassification. These are just my opinions, I am just a kid who goes and enjoys these competitions like everyone else. Go band!

Figured I should start this topic as we inch closer and closer to this competition on October 30th. In the past, this definitely has been one of the most competitive areas in the whole state, and will likely be even more competitive this year due to the possibility of only 5 bands advancing to state instead of the usual 6. The 6 bands that advanced in 2018 were: Claudia Taylor Johnson Ronald Reagan Cedar Ridge Round Rock James Bowie Hendrickson First 2 out: Hays Westwood With Hendrickson moving down to 5A, this opens the door for someone else to take that spot if they advance 6 bands to state. We all know Westwood has that potential as (we) have improved so much since 2018 and Hays has gotten much better as well. However, if they only advance 5, that means more than likely, one of these extremely talented bands is not going to advance. Buckle up, this is going to be one of the most entertaining finishes at a marching competition this season. Can't wait to compete in this.

Sadly, I feel like a lot of people look over this. I know for me this was the case when we went to VRMF last week. We knew it wasn't going to be nearly as competitive as the other competitions we are attending, but we still had an incredibly enjoyable experience, especially after winning it. For a lot of kids, especially underclassmen, it was their first amazing memory of marching band that they got to enjoy and will look back on, and for me that's super important to me, especially as a senior.

Super excited for this contest. Last time I tried making predictions for a contest, it didn't go so well, so I'm trying something different and instead will try and predict the finals performance order just for fun. Here is my best shot at this based off of prelims performance times and my finalist predictions. Finalist 1 (7:30 PM): John Alexander Finalist 2 (7:45 PM): Hendrickson Finalist 3 (8:00 PM): Weiss Finalist 4 (8:15 PM): Brandeis Finalist 5 (8:30 PM): Hays Finalist 6 (8:45 PM): Bowie Finalist 7 (9:15 PM): Reagan Finalist 8 (9:30 PM): Leander Finalist 9 (9:45 PM): CTJ Finalist 10 (10:00 PM): Cedar Park Finalist 11 (10:15 PM): Rouse Finalist 12 (10:30 PM): Vandegrift Please don't flame me, I just thought this would be a fun and somewhat dumb category to try and predict. See ya'll Saturday.

cedar ridge's hornline sounded amazing in warmup. blew me away with how much sound they were able to produce with that great of a size down. cant wait to see their full show

As someone who is going to be competing in this competition (Go Wood ), I always like making predictions for these events. I don't really want to assume placements this early because a lot could change in the next few weeks, and to be quite honest, I'm more excited about getting to compete again, but my inner band nerd is channeling in. So here are my first wave of predictions based off of what I've heard from videos, friends, and other sources. 1. Claudia Taylor Johnson They are the the only potential medal contender who had a legit competition year last season. With that in mind, I have also heard they have a full show that will be on the field, which I can't wait to see. Combining those two thoughts, I think this is their competition to lose and they won't disappoint. 2. Vandegrift Coming off their grand nats win, I once again think they will be at the top of the pack again this year. From what I've heard, COVID didn't hurt their numbers, which is an advantage for anyone and they will once again come out with a very musically and visually challenging show. 3. Vista Ridge I was lucky enough to see them in person at the Leander game and boy do they have a lot of energy. The show was still relatively dirty visually but knowing Vista, that will be improved. According to a couple friends of mine, they are more ahead then they've ever been, and with the addition of their ballad to the show I think they will come out with a very strong showing and start to the big year they have ahead of them. 4. Round Rock I have heard very very good things coming from them so far. I believe they will come out with a lot of fire now that they have gotten used to staff changes and will set up a big year for them, in this case back into Austin, UIL, SA, and eventually grand nats finals. 5. Bowie I haven't heard much about them yet, but based off their 2019 scores and knowing their history and reputation, I anticipate them to come out with a very strong showing. 6. Cedar Park A historically great group, I think that they will bounce back from a relatively disappointing end to 2019 year in terms of BOA. They already look super strong visually and will only keep on getting better as the show continues to develop farther into the season. 7. Westwood/Leander I don't want to reveal too much about what we're bringing to the table, but we are way ahead of our history making 2019 year and we don't plan on letting off the gas. The show is fun and entertaining and offers new challenges that I look forward to bringing to the field. With Leander, we all know the unfortunate COVID losses that they are dealing with and it's super hard to predict how that will affect them. However, after seeing them in person, I can confidently say that that even though they're smaller, they are still putting lots of good sound on the field and I think that will still carry them into finals. 8. Leander/Westwood 9. Cedar Ridge While they sound amazing, I have also heard that they are dealing with a little bit of a size down from previous years. However, they have a lot of returners and I think that that experience will help push them into finals. Again, super hard to predict but it's hard to imagine them not in finals. 10. Westlake I heard one small recording of them and I'm super pumped to see what they bring to the field. It will be interesting to see how they will stack up with the local competition, especially post COVID shutdown. Finals bubble: Hendrickson/Lake Travis/Rouse/Weiss Anything could happen with these last two spots. I really don't know but I'm excited to see who will pull through. Super excited to perform again! Cheers!