Eco12

Having been to finals and watching all the bands perform, I thought I’d leave my own rankings since they are quite different from the actual ones. I’ll try and explain my reasoning for each. 1:China Spring-Not to much to be said here, I agree with the judge’s assessment, definitely a well deserved win, fantastic all around. 2:Burnet- Visually their show was a bit underwhelming, but musically it was fantastic. I suspect their visuals are the reason for their low placement, but for me they were a solid 2nd 3:Gatesville-Gatesville was very impressive visually and musically, although for them to place higher for me, I’d expect more musically. 4:Alvarado-Same comments as Gatesville, I just felt Gatesville had a small edge over them. 5:Robinson-Really cool show idea, and I loved the music. Definitely looking forward to seeing them at state! 6:Boerne-Their lower placement was the one that really shocked me. Boerne’s sound was fantastic both in prelims and finals. Looking at their rankings it seems they had really inconsistent results.Their visuals held them back the most I’d say. 7th:Castleberry-I absolutely loved their show idea, it was fantastic and executed well. However I felt it lacked the same performance quality as the ones mentioned above. I’m really excited to see their show at state, I think it has the most potential to grow. 8th:Fredericksburg-Fantastic musically, their finals run appeared to struggle timing wise during the start of the show, their finish was really strong however. Can’t really say more because I have friends there, so I feel slightly biased 9th:Springtown-The surprising lower ranking on my list. I think their show was really good, I just think it was a little behind Castleberry and Fredericksburg. I think they suffer musically for me more than visually. 10th:Venus-Venus really surprised me this year. Their show quality was fantastic. Given a few more years I can see them proceeding to state. I think they just need a little more development to reach the next level. 11th:Kennedale-Their show was good, but their execution of the show struggled a little for me. I think they lost one of their head directors this past year, so I can see why they struggled more as opposed to other years 12th:La Grange-Their show was the best I’ve seen them do so far. However they’ll need to step up their design if they want to continue making finals, I’d say that was one of the main reasons I’d have them this low.

Haven’t arrived yet sadly, hopefully I’ll see them for finals!

Exciting to hear, I think they could win this year.

I’m gonna be arriving around when Fredericksburg arrives,anyone stand out so far?

Guess the bands going earlier will have something going for them at least

They’ve definitely been making huge strides in the past couple years, I would not be surprised if they broke into the teens this year, setting up a great vantage point for breaking into finals later on.

I like their brass this year, definitely a finals contender, maybe even state, nothing for sure though.

I’m excited to see how everything thing plays out, I have a feeling Gatesville will be pretty good this season, same with Boerne, their brass is some of the best I’ve heard this season. I do think top 2 is almost definitely a two way battle between Burnet and CS.

(*-indicates state cut off)I’m thinking something along the lines of- 1st:Burnet 2nd:China Spring 3rd:Alvarado 4th:Springtown 5th:Boerne *6th:Gatesville* 7th:Fredericksburg 8th:Robinson 9th:Kennedale 10th:Godley 11th:Castleberry 12th:Jarrell Definitely a lot of movement possible on this list, I could see Taylor or maybe even Venus sneaking into finals.

I’d love to start seeing some finals predictions, I’ll add mine in a bit!

12 finalists and 6 to state!

Also Benbrook

For sure ones I know are Alvarado Ann Richards Bandera Boerne Burnet Castleberry China Spring Fredericksburg Gatesville Godley Hillsboro Jarrell Kennedale Robinson Salado Springtown Wimberly Taylor Venus

I could see Natalia coming back and making a play for finals, especially after making state and placing 14th for the first time in 2021

Prior message was in regard to this^

I think Castlebury has an excellent chance of making area finals this year, especially if 12 bands progress to finals. I remember listening to Castlebury not to long ago, and their brass is excellent, I don’t know if it’s on par with China Spring,Burnet, or Boernes yet however. I think we’ll see them fighting in the 12th-8th range, however I would love to see an upset and have them progress to state!

That’s rough for the bands that proceed to area, contest 3 days later.

Oh that’s really good then, lots of bands that could advance!

Hill country is the last one we’re waiting for right?

We’re you able to see their performance? I’m curious to know how they’re doing since I saw them at their first competition.

Neat! That’s two on the list now.

Typically they’re on the lower end of placements in area D, not quite finalist level, like many others though they have the potential to leap into that bracket.

I think a few more Area D bands perform today, so we should be able to get some more results soon!

Those are some big hitters for Godley to outplace early on in the season! I’m hoping top 12 make finals this year so more schools like Godley can be in that finals bracket.

I think we’ll see some moves by Gatesville this season, more surprisingly though-My wild card prediction this year is Boerne,they made finals last year for the first time in a while, and came out of the gate swinging this season beating Fredericksburg at their first competition.