TexasStrangers

As for me, I typically find myself at a competition every weekend and go to several district/area competitions as well. When you live in East Texas like I do you pretty much know quite a bit about many of the 3A/4A bands because this area is where a good majority of the state level schools come from. I'm not really a big fan of going to BOA contests because it's just a different kind of animal.

Think I might go check this out.

Saw Farmersville/North Lamar/Van Alstyne/Community at Celina. I also seen all the shows except Paris/Lumberton Van Alstyne was top percussion in Prelims overall and #3rd going into Finals. North Lamar and Mineola (3A) jumped them in Finals. I would say the Farmersville show is very clean and sharp I could see them Top 3. North Lamar is very good as well. I don't really see a lot from Community there is such a far gap between probably the top 6. I could see Celina getting knocked from the top spot as Sulphur Springs is very good this year as well.

Saw the Farmersville show last night in Celina. Very clean and crisp I could see State Finals and maybe a Top 5 Finish.

I would lean towards Mineola as well. Yes, Mineola and Redwater went face to face at Pleasant Grove and ended up in a 3-way tie for 1st but Redwater was given the Championship for 2 of the judges had them ahead of Mineola. However, there was over a minute of the show that Mineola didn't do and not to mention it wasn't clean due to the complexity of the music/marching. Redwater did have a clean show but it was not near as complexed as Mineola's was. Mineola just went to Princeton/Celina the past two weeks and swept all the 3A awards including soundly defeating the 3A Champs last year (Whitesboro) at Princeton and almost won Celina last night. I finally saw their show and good lord the last 90 seconds is insane. (most of which they didn't do at Pleasant Grove) I think it will be close though Mineola and Redwater are always right there at the end.

Results 1A Percussion/Marching/Music = Bishop Lynch 1A Champ = Bishop Lynch 2A Guard/Music = Whitewright 2A Percussion/Marching = Collinsville 2A Champ = Collinsville 3A Guard/Percussion/Marching/Music = Mineola 3A Champ = Mineola 4A Percussion = Van Alsytne 4A Guard/Marching/Music = Farmersville 4A Champ Farmersville 5A Guard/Percussion/Marching/Music = Red Oak 5A Champs = Red Oak 6A Guard/Percussion/Marching/Music = Sam Houston 6A Champ = Sam Houston Finals 12th Place South Garland (5A) 11th Place Queen City (3A) 10th Place Denison (5A) 9th Place Wills Point (4A) 8th Place Howe (3A) 7th Place Community (4A) 6th Place Terrell (5A) 5th Place Van Alstyne (4A) 4th Place North Lamar (4A) 3rd Place Mineola (3A) 2nd Place Farmersville (4A) 1st Place Red Oak (5A)

I got a feeling this one is all over the place. There are I think 5-6 that could win and several that are far far away. I am not expert and sometimes one judge can sway things one way or the other. However, I think the Top 5 will be in no order South Garland, Farmersville, North Lamar, Mineola, Red Oak. Mineola and North Lamar both went to state last year. Mineola got runner up in Class 3A and last weekend defeated the reigning 3A Champs at Princeton pretty soundly from what a parent of Mineola told me. North Lamar finished 9th in state last year in 4A. Farmersville has had two competitions this year and I believe won the overall at Whitesboro 2 weeks ago. Red Oak I think just had a very impressive 2nd place finish as well. Terrell could sneak in as their guard is always good in competition. Sam Houston might get a nod, I don't know much about their program but if they are 6A and any good it's going to be hard for any 2A/3A (except Mineola) and most 4A's to compete on a size/sound issue.

Results Prelims Class 2A 1st Place Whitewright (Music/Visual/Auxiliary/Percussion) 2nd Place Alba-Golden 3rd Place Como Pickton Class 3A 1st Place Mineola (Music/Visual/Auxiliary/Percussion) 2nd Place Whitesboro 3rd Place Grand Saline Class 4A 1st Celina (Visual/Percussion 2nd Sulphur Springs (Music/Auxiliary) 3rd Place Canton Class 5A 1st Liberty (Music/Visual/Percussion) 2nd Sherman (Auxiliary) Class 6A 1st Prosper (Music/Visual/Auxiliary) 2nd Royse City (Percussion) FINALS 12th Pine Tree (4A) 11th Whitesboro (3A) 10th Community (4A) 9th Van Alstyne (4A) 8th Mineola (3A) 7th Sherman (5A) 6th Celina (4A) 5th Canton (4A) 4th Sulphur Springs (4A) 3rd Royse City (6A) 2nd Liberty (5A) 1st Prosper (6A) (They won 3/4 final captions just can't remember which ones)

I got a feeling this is going to be a great show even before Mineola getting added today. Can we edit our picks with the addition of Mineola? If I remember, I may be wrong but Mineola (3A) made it to Finals last year in Melissa and also was ahead of Celina last year at prelims in Royse City but eventually took 2nd at state behind Whitesboro.

Hahaha, yup the amount of people that would just simply walk across the street to Buccees was insane not to mention the amount of money some of those band students dropped in that place.

I think the last two years they did small school (2A/3A/4A) finals and a 5A/6A finals which I think the last award was given out near midnight. However, I'm hearing several schools decided not to go to Royse City this year because of other shows and also having to compete earlier this year in district/area.

Here is the schedule I found. Bishop Lynch (2A) 8:15 Farmersville (4A) 8:30 Tom Bean (2A) 8:45 Collinsville (2A) 9:00 Whitewright (2A) 9:15 Honey Grove (2A) 9:30 BREAK S&S (3A) 10:00 Callisburg (3A) 10:15 Leonard (3A) 10:30 Gunter (3A) 10:45 Blue Ridge (3A) 11:00 Bells (3A) 11:15 Pilot Point (3A) 11:30 Howe (3A) 11:45 LUNCH Breckenridge (3A) 1:00 Queen City (3A) 1:15 Mineola (3A) 1:30 Community (4A) 1:45 Bonham (4A) 2:00 Van Alstyne (4A) 2:15 Wills Point (4A) 2:30 Pleasant Grove (4A) 2:45 Lorena (4A) 3:00 BREAK Denison (5A) 3:30 Terrell (5A) 3:45 South Garland (5A) 4:00 Red Oak (5A) 4:15 Sam Houston (6A) 4:30 James Martin (6A) 4:45 North Lamar (4A) 5:00 Tyler Junior College Exhibition 5:15 Drum Retreat 5:30 DINNER BREAK Celina Exhibition 7:00 Class 1A/2A Champion 7:15 Finals 1 7:30 Finals 2 7:45 Finals 3 8:00 Finals 4 8:15 Finals 5 8:30 Finals 6 8:45 BREAK Finals 7 9:15 Finals 8 9:30 Finals 9 9:45 Finals 10 10:00 Finals 11 10:15 Finals 12 10:30 FINALS RETREAT 10:45

Yeah, I was at this show last year and it was hot hot hot hot. Not to mention it was the first show of the year and several schools didn't have all their props and perform the entire show. I would have loved to seen 3A Mineola at this show. I think they finished 12th in Finals and I know they beat Celina in Prelims at Royse City last year.

When will this contest be up in Predictions??

If I remember this correctly, isn't this contest one where the bands go and get a rating and that is it? I known in the past several bands would go perform at this then go to another contest later that afternoon and perform.

October 5th has several competitions going on around the DFW area and I think also with State now being every year it's causing some schools to cut back on the number of contests they go to because they don't have the budget.

What about small bands? If you could go see some small bands who would you want to go see? I don't think small bands get a lot of love on here.

I hope Area B does well but other then Whitesboro, Holliday and Howe, historically there isn't much competition there. The big battle for 3A usually goes on out East. I hope I am wrong because I wish more bands could go to state and experience the excitement.

well that's probably because those programs overall have numerous more students and parents that talk about it. Several of your small schools run anywhere from 40-100 kids compared to a 4A who might 200 kids.

I'm not shocked, they pretty much come in with a mission every year. I am looking forward to seeing what they do.

If it is like last year then if a small school doesn't make the finals then they will probably have an exhibition. However, if I remember Mineola (3A) made it to the finals and they did not have an exhibition. With the amount of talent that was there last year and again this year, it's a huge measuring stick for a program and will be very difficult for a small school to make it to the finals.

I guess there must be other competitions going on in the DFW area that weekend (Princeton, Mesquite). Usually the Sunnyvale competition has around 15-16 bands.

Looks like a few Class 3A State Finalists get to take their first step to see how they compare against each other in this one.

I believe signups are open until Sept 30th. I would expect a schedule to probably come out first week of October.

I expect within the next week or two you will see a schedule come out. So far, I have been noticing that some of the competitions are not filling up like before which might be a result of State Competition every year and schools needing the funding for that. This might be the reason why some of the schools that went last year will not be there this year.