peshbandkid

Bridgeland confirmed going to 2024 Grand Nationals!

LOL. is this the 2023 BOA GN thread or a dumpster fire??
there was some discussion a couple pages back about how the 8 hr rule handicaps TX bands competitively when they compete against the best at Nats, whiiich it definitely does, assuuuming all that extra time is used productively, which it might not be lol. for example last season for WGI i accessed Avon's calendar out of curiosity and saw that for that particular week their world guard was rehearsing 17 hours.
ofc the question is, do you want to rehearse 17 hours a week? dunno, lol. i think the life/band balance question is legitimate, tho out of staters seem to manage it okay.
actually now that i think about it, i managed it too. during 2 of my 4 marching seasons we had concert band rehearsals in addition to marching rehearsals, to prep for a couple of international band clinics *wink wink*. sooo that was like an extra sectional during the week plus a lengthy Saturday or Sunday full band rehearsal every week. stressful af but i wouldn't have traded it for anything, gave me the opportunity to rehearse w/ ppl like Richard Crain, Matthew McInturf, whose kid played oboe in our band lol, Mr. Eddie Green (shudder, extra Mr. Green days, myyyy favorite), that fun passionate old Armenian guy (Begian, i thiiink was his name?), blah blah blah. also still somehow came out near the top of my class and aced 13 AP exams + the SAT/ACT, and two of those AP tests i self studied for w/o even taking the class. yes im bragging lol.
buuuut it really depends on what the kid wants and what the teachers can tolerate. not everyone's the same.

1. Vandegrift
2. Marcus
3. Hebron
4. The Woodlands
5. Vista Ridge
6. Flower Mound
7. Ronald Reagan
8. Pearland
9. Bridgeland
10. Coppell
 Next 5: L.D Bell, Cy-Fair, Round Rock, Waxahachie, Keller
While I'm at it, here are some caption awards  
 
Favorite Opener: Vista Ridge
Favorite Ballad: Marcus
Favorite Closer: The Woodlands
Favorite Overall: The Woodlands

Now wouldn’t that be something for a “band nerd” to set up… an Ai computer given the data points of the scoring for UIL, and Boa sheets, and then have the computer AI watch videos of all the bands and see where they would score and have them ranked… 
off season project… 
and we would probably still have disagreements about the results.  

year from now predictions
 
1st - Vandegrift (that's only if they go, if they dont, move everyone below up 1 spot)
2nd - Carmel
3rd - Avon
4th - Hebron 
5th - The Woodlands
6th - William Mason
7th - Round Rock
8th - Keller
9th - Marcus
10th - CTJ
11th - Dripping Springs
12th - Bentonville
(in case vandy doesnt go, then 12th would be Fishers)

Wylie is confirmed (based off their calendar)

1. Vandegrift
2. Marcus
3. Hebron
4. The Woodlands
5. Vista Ridge
6. Flower Mound
7. Ronald Reagan
8. Pearland
9. Bridgeland
10. Coppell
 Next 5: L.D Bell, Cy-Fair, Round Rock, Waxahachie, Keller
While I'm at it, here are some caption awards  
 
Favorite Opener: Vista Ridge
Favorite Ballad: Marcus
Favorite Closer: The Woodlands
Favorite Overall: The Woodlands

1000%

At this point "CTJ should've been added" is just cope. Waxahachie performed well, that's why they got ranked at 14th. Even if waxahachie DIDN'T go over we probably wouldn't have seen CTJ in finals as the results show. The time accomodation is such a trivial thing in regards to who should and shouldn't be in finals. 
It's alright to be upset CTJ didn't make finals but this whole "let's add an extra spot and waxahachie should've been reprimanded" is so... unnecessary..
Just to add- the basis of "well they made finals every year since 2010" doesn't really hold weight as we've seen this year. Cedar Ridge was a bronze medalist and couldn't even make it to state. Reputation doesn't mean things are owed. 

I think maybe I'll start referring to this weekends competition as SGN - The Sorta Grand Nats

Well said, both of you.  It might be sacrilege around here, but I don't really care about BOA-GN.
I don't even really consider "Grand Nationals" to be a national competition.  This year there are  28 Ohio programs and 16 Indiana programs.  To me it's the Ohio-Indiana Regional with a smattering of other competitors thrown in. The fact that 8 Texas groups managed to put together the necessary funds is nearly miraculous but I don't expect it to be the norm, it's just not realistic. 
If they want a true National competition, it should rotate sites annually.
Until then, I'll enjoy BOA-SA a lot more than the GN competition in Indianapolis because, quite frankly, the competition is tougher in SA.  The main reason everyone considers THIS year in Indianapolis to be so special, is because of all the Texas bands attending.  Let's switch that and have Avon and Carmel come down to San Antonio, and see how it goes.
2023 BOA-GN Representation:  18 States
KY 12 Bands
WV 1 Band
OH 28 Bands
IL 5 Bands
IN 16 Bands
AR 2 Bands
GA 1 Band
KS 1 Band
MA 1 Band
MI 6 Bands
MO 3 Bands
NC 1 Band
NV 1 Band
PA 1 Band
SC 2 Bands
TX 8 Bands
TN 3 Bands
VA 1 Band

Yet even when LD Bell went 6 years in a row, during an era when they were regularly either the best band in the state or 2nd best to Marcus, they only won Nationals once. It's just really, really hard.

Congrats to Avon! They were great! And congrats to Harloff on a very successful first season as head director!
My rankings after watching finals on high cam were Carmel, The Woodlands, Hebron, then Avon, albeit all of them quite close to each other. Needless to say I was quite surprised by the final gaps!
Carmel was pure elegance, yet again. They produce lush sounds and shape long, beautiful phrases. People underestimate how difficult that is! There's an unmatched attention to detail musically and visually, even if the content doesn't connect with a broader audience and is more cerebral. Their visual performance was quite pristine in finals as well. The guard in particular gave their best performance of the season. I don't think I saw a single drop! The ballad was of course goosebumps central, with that gorgeous, diaphanous blue fabric that was pulled out over the band. The show was a fully formed diamond, just exquisite.
The Woodlands show was absolutely thrilling, musically and visually. The show is a real stunner visually -- crystal clear from both the band and the guard, the staging also developing in clear, logical, and creative ways. The 19.7 they received in semifinals from John Howell for visual effect was the accurate score for them in that caption. Their weakness relative to the top was in musicianship and exploring a fuller range of moods and musical colors. Also, to a degree, in trying something new, given the similarities to the Blue Devils 1994 show.
Hebron was of course dazzling musically. There was no other band in all of finals that could match their virtuosity. The showmanship of it all! As others have pointed out, fantastic music performances often bleed into music effect. I was a bit surprised that didn't happen as much here, but it's hard to know what the judges will react to emotionally and intellectually. Alas, as we all know by now, judges don't care much about general audience reaction. Visually, I thought Hebron's show was the weakest of the four by quite a bit from a perspective of pure cleanliness -- the guard in particular was a bit distracting with their ensemble flag timing throughout -- but their designers also challenge their members with lots of simultaneous responsibilities and difficult drill.
Avon was wearing costumes that looked like track suits for a reason. They just fly around the field. They take off right in the beginning and rarely let up. There's a lot of excitement here, musically and visually. The ending was particularly strong with the recapitulation of the main theme and the picture frames coming together in a jumbled but appealing mess. Purple, of course, works well on the green field, and provides a nice aesthetic pop. The arrangement of Pictures was also refreshing, unlike any we've heard before.  Finals, however, didn't actually seem like Avon's strongest run, with a bit of flagging energy and some noticeable visual dirt, ensemble flag issues, and some exposed drops. But, again, challenges are a bigger part of the visual sheets than they used to be, and that's likely where Avon shined.
An honorable mention to Blue Springs. Like I said earlier, it's extremely rare for me to see a show with a concept that I've never seen before, even if I found the narration a little cheesy and trite. (Platitudes like "in an ocean darkness" and "there will never be anybody quite like you" abounded.) They gave a great performance, albeit not one that warranted a 4th place finish.
Obviously, I disagreed a bit with the finals panel. It wasn't the first time, and it won't be the last. What concerns me more, however, is the reaction I'm seeing to the results from people in Texas. It's not just on these forums, with the (sometimes sort of humorous) accusations of conflicts of interest among BOA's adjudication community; it's also on other chats I'm privy to featuring quite a lot of current educators and some judges. I'm hearing complaints about music being de-valued, about how it's no longer Music for All but Aesthetics for All, which is probably my favorite. 😄
There has even been talk among these educators of Texas bands divesting themselves of BOA -- sort of like how the Midwest Combine broke off prior to the formation of DCI. For me, this is a bit too much like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. If there are issues, directors ought to try working with BOA first to fix them. Meanwhile, the advisory panel needs to take recommendations seriously. A good starting place might be to revise any policies regarding conflicts of interest. I would also recommend the use of double adjuducation panels in major events, like in DCI and WGI, to try to help reduce major shifts between rounds and to get more of an "average judge" perspective, whatever that is. Music already counts for most of the score, but maybe including fine-line performance to a greater degree in the effect captions is in order.
But here's the thing: so much of the reason why Texas bands struggle against the National competition has nothing at all to do with BOA and everything to do with TEA and their regulations. With the limited rehearsal time before August, in addition to the 8 hour rule throughout the season, Texas bands are limited both by How well they perform their shows and What they're able to field and reasonably clean. Do you see what I did there? The rules affect success in both the "What" and the "How" halves of the judging sheets. Those arguing otherwise are disingenuous -- well, either that, or I have a bridge to sell them. ("Not being able to rehearse twice as long as 8 hours a week totally has no effect on how Texas bands do! Derp derp!" 😄) Anyway, the point remains, a lot of this issue is because of Texas itself, not BOA.
But be careful what you wish for, folks! You might miss only having to rehearse 8 hours a week! 😉

Kinda off topic but dripping springs guard was quite fantastic in both of their runs at GN. They might be a bit small but they are really really good. I am looking forward to seeing their winterguard shows this winter season.

Dang, I was hoping they'd keep them, not against the change but I LOVE The look of their current uniforms, though I have no doubt the new ones will look even better! 

So I have been noticing that Dave Campbell's Texas Football updates their weekly rankings for the top 25 football teams in 6A, so I've decided to do one for marching band. I took results from BOA Grand Nationals, BOA San Antonio, and UIL State into consideration when making this. I also have next to each band what their final contest was this season, and I do plan to do this as the season goes on next year. So anyways, here's the final top 25 from this year:
Vandegrift (BOA San Antonio) Marcus (BOA San Antonio) Hebron (BOA Grand Nationals) Vista Ridge (BOA San Antonio) The Woodlands (BOA Grand Nationals) Ronald Reagan (BOA San Antonio) Flower Mound (UIL State) Pearland (BOA Grand Nationals) L.D. Bell (BOA San Antonio) Bridgeland (BOA San Antonio) Coppell (UIL State) Cy-Fair (UIL State) Waxahachie (UIL State) Round Rock (BOA Grand Nationals) Keller (BOA Grand Nationals) James Bowie (BOA Grand Nationals) Prosper (UIL State) Westlake (BOA San Antonio) Cedar Ridge (BOA San Antonio) Claudia Taylor Johnson (BOA Grand Nationals) Dripping Springs (BOA Grand Nationals) Seven Lakes (UIL State) Dickinson (UIL State) North Shore (UIL State) Timber Creek (BOA San Antonio) So there you have it. Congratulations to all of these bands for finishing in the top 25. Hope to see how this list could change in 2024 with a few newbies to 6A!

I don’t turn the comments off for criticizing the rankings. I turn them off when people get nasty towards other programs. It’s fine to disagree with the rankings. It’s absolutely NOT fine to tear down the kids in the programs who ranked higher than someone thought they should. 

Link to a google drive of multicam finals videos for all those who want it.
(DISCLAIMER: These are unedited. They also may still be processing at the time of posting this. However, the full shows are all there, you just might have to skip a few minutes at the beginning.)
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Fuz6K88Dv_270JMBOKbnuZubsDU6Iny5?usp=drive_link

Shoutout to our honorary Texas band Avon! 13 Years of waiting, now come down to San Antonio again.

ugh, the three other tx bands were RIGHT THERE in semis. that's a little frustrating for me as well bc musically there were maaaaybe a couple of bands i was very surprised were in finals after seeing them, or i guess technically after hearing them lol. those bands were so close!!

In my book Penstriped is the GOAT

Welp, the third place curse continues

I am so sorry but TWHS in 5th doesn’t sit right with me

This happened by Ronald Reagan in 2019

Wait so Vandy got the highest score all season?!?!?!?