TrenBS

McKinney also has it at MISD stadium, so Im gonna trust that its there for now, and obviously it will depend on whatever the site says

I mean for an area contest Little Elm isnt exactly the best, its not a crappy stadium at all, but having performed there its not exactly enjoyable to walk around/navigate, and I cant really imagine 20+ bands at the same time being there, along with the area being naturally humid, I would've preferred Mckinney, or honestly Prosper stadium despite the acoustics being a little iffy, mainly on coordination and as a site in general.

Seems kinda off if UIL is trying to get more "equal representation" into state when they will take from 2 of 4 districts at BEST lol, I would need to see a SERIOUS dark horse that can pass the McKinneys, Prosper, and Wylie in a year, which I dont think is realistic all things considered

Its pretty obvious there will be 4 state slots given all of these bands realistically never get even close to a division 2 outside of timing problems, but this is honestly pretty disheartening for any band outside of the standard finalists, McKinney High honestly is a MASSIVE dark horse that I think people should wait and see for their performance, if I were to make a prediction right now with all the information I know, it would look like this (grain of salt, probably incorrect outside of the top like 4): 1. Hebron (Wins WW and Ind.)* 2. Marcus (Wins Brass/Perc.)* 3. Flower Mound (Wins Ens.)* 4. Prosper 5. McKinney Boyd 6. Wylie 7. McKinney High 8. Wylie East 9. Rock Hill 10. Lewisville *(This is assuming the new 5 judge system were in play, if it isnt then switch Marcus and FloMo, along with moving Wylie to 5th and trading the McKinneys, also if you dont agree with the list its ok I kinda threw it together using what Ive seen, could very well be wrong in many ways lol) Looking at this list proposes a very obvious problem of finals (realistically given the past 4 years and whos left in the roster) being comprised of 4 districts alone, but honestly this feels like such a detriment to the bands who honestly down to 9th-10th could perform well at the SMBC, but now have to compete for a single spot due to outside choices, I dont hold this against LISD of course since they simply want to be the best and perform incredibly as a unit, but their stranglehold on this area is honestly very surprising, and as to why they would put them in whats now such a low populated area is beyond me. I dont really get the understanding of why it had to be divided this way outside of distance, in which case moving the Coppell region here along with 3 or 4 wouldve likely been more balanced as 5 slots with Bell and Coppell as the highest leaves room for fighting with Wylie and Prosper (McKinneys will depend on their show writing), as well as making the finalists much more varied district wise, but I dont get to make those kinds of decisions, so what we get is what we get I suppose lol

Yes, once its officially finalized it will not change unless brought to the board for some alternate reason (sudden zone shift/ISD change being an example), so if this ends up being final, it will not change until fall of '26

I was frankly hoping for more regions for marching band, as it stands Area J has FOUR state slots at BEST, with LISD in the area, Im sorry but that is such a stupid move to put them in the brand new area with only 3 regions being comprised of it, so you essentially are forcing the other 18 bands to compete for a SINGLE spot, if its even open with 2+ Dv.2s, while LISD floats to state every year cause the only school that has the potential to compete for top 3 would probably be Prosper given a couple years at best. I hope more changes come, because TMEA/UIL essentially just gave LISD a monopoly and are forcing 5+ state qualifiers that would place comfortably in the top 25 to compete for a single spot, which is not including like 2 dark horses that could really throw a curveball

Welp, TMEA added a 2426 alignment thats visible when googling so I suppose this is fair game to post, and they officially created Area J consisting of 2, 24.. and 25… hopefully some schools get moved around because lets be honest, the only winners are going to be LISD and a toss up between Prosper and Wylie if the current system stays in place, even with McKinney Boyd there was a point gap between them and WEast, and WEast wasnt even top 5 lol, anything else catch anyones eye? Heres the link: https://align.tmea.org/align_2426/index.php

The scores at these regionals are honestly pretty crazy, for Dallas McKinney Boyd, Garland, and Rock Hill are dominating the SA groups so far, Pearland is decimating Houston for now, and Onyx A getting an 80+ this early in IA, granted Im not super knowledgeable on WGI but we got some pretty heavy hitters already, finals tonight (I think) is gonna be pretty crazy!

I absolutely hate to be that guy but… Reagan*

Honestly, yeah, its pretty insane that 5A B is just on a different wavelength than this area for virtually no reason, right now any of the top 5 at B could take first here lol, maybe 6 I am expecting HP to move to C, if we added another 5A powerhouse to B than I cant see the top 5 switching around that much, so it would make sense to throw em here, I dont know a ton about this area so could be wrong

I honestly dont know why a ton of local comps just didnt move their schedule considering BOA and tons of other locals are happening at the same time, so I dont really know what Bedford will look like in all honesty

Just to put some variety into the flooded US bands and BOA front page lol, if you looked at what the spring UIL meeting entails, they may potentially change the 5 judge system to have Woodwind, Brass, Percussion, Vis. Ensemble, and Vis. Individual. How do you guys think this may change the competition in terms of potential finalists, and state qualifiers? I think personally (grain of salt, of course) we will see Marcus take 1st much more often considering their percussion and visuals place higher generally more consistently than Hebron, especially this year, I could see Prosper maybe taking ground from Flower Mound happening sooner unless they beef up next year, and Boyd will likely place consistently higher considering their percussion is one of the strongest programs (and from what Ive seen from their band they are going to be insane this year along with McKinney High), otherwise I cant really say and would like to hear some other peoples opinions, and maybe how it may affect some lower placing groups into maybe going way higher, curious on what other people think about it

This is already nuts, between the McKinneys that took up most of the bubble, Bentonville and Jenks, the previous top 4ish, and the rest being very strong and upwards programs, this is going to be an insanely competitive BOA for sure, probably the toughest overall for regionals, we will have to see who else gets confirmed

Just out of curiosity, how did you get access to that? Cause I dont see it anywhere on either site

LISD Vs. giving 3 state slots to area C lol In all seriousness, locally there really isnt a spoken rivalry between the McKinney schools, they are all just trying to get ahead of each other but their shows are so distinct in style its really hard to compare them to each other, I think North executes the best, while Boyd has the best individual musicianship, and high is well rounded nowadays, next year will likely see them butting heads more

Hebron 15/19/21 BA 2014 Vista Ridge 2018 Coppell 2016

To shed a bit of light of this situation (not Wakeland directly), but some directors want their kids in the proper headspace before a performance and it usually led to militaristic rules (I know pre 2017 the LISD district had a rule, or at least Hebron, where kids couldnt talk on a bus ride to any 1 day competition, pretty brutal) or implemented rules that attempted to stop bad behavior before it starts, which while good on paper just makes the whole fun of band non-existent. The kids will still like the directors, but there are so many rules even for sitting in the stands that it ruins a lot of the extra relaxed fun from football games, post performance, and in general causes persistent stress, it happened with my high school band and its likely a similar conversation with Wakeland

I feel the same way, although I think they wont add a new area until 7A so its not multiple waves of changes

You have any idea on how Area C-B could change? With 6A B losing 2 state slots I severely doubt itll stay the same

1 day where my dream of another 6A area for North Texas gets crushed lol In all seriousness I hope it doesn't stay the same, its gonna be crappy for Area B and C in particular if zero rezoning happens

I dont plan on going to any comps, but its good to see Waco be a big meetup before 5A/6A gladiator arenas lol, Im really hoping to see McKinney Boyd/High go but in all honesty with region most likely on the day Im not holding my breath, if region is moved to another day than Id expect those 2, and North is near guaranteed

Itll be the year my alma mater my school makes state finals, hopefully sooner😢 But I can only see heat being the problem since its such a popular contest, and its a shame that there could honestly be no A groups and maybe 1 or 2 AAs

Im surprised the Austin BOA has such a small limit this year, its such a central location for the South Texas powerhouses so Im shocked they did that considering it will strangle out the 1A-2A representation while making the spots pretty annoying to get

More local to me and on a smaller scale, but McKinney High making area finals after not making since 2016, and even with that successful early season in 2021 with losing a decent bit of their staff and a huge senior class in 2022 and still coming back strong to make area finals this year, they pretty much had everything going against them and they still managed to make it and I respect the heck out of them for it

Sorry to say but that was from '08 lol, most of the graduates this past summer were 4 years old when this thread was active lol, I thought it was recent too because of the mistaken post haha