BandDad11

Participating bands in size order for fun: Pearland - 424 Vandegrift - 360 Permian - 358 Hebron - 350 Ronald Reagan - 350 Bridgeland - 348 Flower Mound - 340 Tomball Memorial - 335 North Shore - 333 Seven Lakes - 315 Pebble Hills - 309 Alexander - 307 Cinco Ranch - 300 Cypress Woods - 298 Dawson - 294 L.D. Bell - 282 Forney - 281 Dickinson - 275 Cy-Fair - 266 Marcus - 265 The Woodlands - 261 Moe & Gene Johnson - 257 Vista Ridge - 255 College Park - 243 Prosper - 240 Rockwall Heath - 240 Klein Oak - 239 Coppell - 237 Timber Creek - 236 Waxahachie - 225 Rockwall - 220 Clear Brook - 218 Keller - 213 Hanna - 212 Claudia Taylor Johnson - 208 Westlake - 201 Lake Travis - 200 Cedar Ridge - 192 Dripping Springs - 181 Edinburg - 181 Clements - 178

Really difficult line up for Rockwall-Heath to follow for their first year at state, it’ll be cool to see how they do.

From 23rd in 2023 too, the momentum and growth Heath’s had is really cool to see.

I’m afraid not but I’m keeping my eye out for it

Here’s the more detailed breakdown of Finals scores:

Let’s go Heath! 🥳 Congrats to Rockwall and North Forney for their high placements as well. NF’s results pleasantly surprised me but they surely deserved it!

I agree with most of this (minus my Heath bias) but imo I don't see Royse City placing above North Forney. I watched RC's show at their game against Heath and they just don't seem quite as clean/impactful as NF is.

I’m pretty sure the Heath band’s booking it back home right after halftime, it should allow them enough sleep. I also heard Rockwall’s stadium rehearsal might be canceled now due to the schedule change, I reckon that would be a disadvantage for them.

Alright calm down guys, let’s just wait for a direct informing or an official statement to be put out, we’ll be okay.

Here’s a recording of Heath’s run from Saturday: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8AWMhrB/ some timing issues but not bad overall.

I wouldn't say rolled necessarily, but I do believe the main battle will be between Rockwall and Heath. With how clean Sachse has gotten, I can more confidently put them in 3rd. I'll admit that I don't know much about how Lake Highlands is doing (apart from what Salty said), but I'm fairly confident RH will place above LH.

My predictions in alphabetical order: Berkner Duncanville Forney Garland Irving JJ Pearce John Horn Lake Highlands MacArthur Mesquite Nimitz North Forney North Garland Richardson Rockwall Rockwall Heath Rowlett Royse City Sachse Skyline Tyler Legacy Waxahachie I'll unscramble later

I agree, I know McKinney isn’t an accurate reference point anymore. I used it more for the fact that it utilized the new area judging system and that it showed what was possible considering Heath had never came that close in any caption before. I’m sure things could and probably will look very different from McKinney at Area.

To add on, the new judging system will help Heath even more. Let’s break down the comparison by caption: Woodwinds - Heath placed higher than Rockwall’s woodwinds both prelims and finals at McKinney. Heath’s added their closer since then which has a technical woodwind feature that may boost their scores even more. I’m fairly confident WWs are a lock for Heath. Brass - Heath is right there with Rockwall’s brass per McKinney results. While referencing that contest may seem outdated, both bands have had a steady improvement rate in tone, clarity, and timing (something Heath has struggled on in the past). Something that I believe Heath has an edge over Rockwall in is power and confidence. Rockwall’s brass lacks that sometimes. I could see brass going either way. Percussion - Rockwall’s percussion tends to execute their music very cleanly. The only issue is that their music is just objectively easier than Heath’s. Heath has more room for growth due to the difficulty of their percussion’s repertoire, which come area, may very well be enough to place higher than Rockwall’s percussion. I’m leaning towards Heath for this caption. Visuals - this is where the real gray area lies. Heath historically scores lower in visuals than their music while Rockwall is usually pretty clean. One judge placed Heath’s visuals higher than Rockwall’s at McKinney while the other somewhat tanked Heath’s visual score. It may be up to what these judges will be looking for. I noticed visual flaws in both bands’ recordings from Region. Heath still has some small drill things to clean up, but it’s considerably better than their Prosper run. Rockwall has also cleaned up a bit, but I noticed that their choreo (specifically new choreo in the closer) is rather dirty. This caption seems much more nuanced and I could see it going either way. If Heath can outperform Rockwall in music, that 60% to 40% music/visuals weighting may give them the edge. Something else to consider - neither band is a finals band. What I mean by this is that historically, when Rockwall or Heath make finals, they usually score/place lower than they did in prelims. Take McKinney or Area finals from last year, both bands placed lower. They may just get overly excited and lose focus. If this effect affects one band more than the other in finals, it may be a determining factor. I’m not confident enough currently to place one band over the other. While I can tell both bands are improving, I can also see that Heath seems to be improving at a faster pace. It all depends on whether Heath can close and pass that gap in time for Area or not. If their band truly wants state, I believe they can get it.

Any new ideas of the top 5 placements based on tonight’s performances?