RattlerDad

Dripping Springs, FloMo, Marcus, The Woodlands, and Reagan all shared this schedule this year...and, my Reagan kiddo is pretty sick right now. It definitely takes a toll.

This year, we are all-in at about $5,587 for our Senior - just band (we have a separate tab for just band-related expenses for the child). The big chunks are below, and like I said, we are finishing on a high note! Band Fee, Meals, - $1,000 / $100 = $1,100 Grand Nats = $1,150 Midwest Clinic = $1,800 This does not include event tickets (didn't realize Grand Nats was 4 ticketed events in 1 - hello), lodging, airfare, t-shirts and patches for the child, and nachos. Way toooo many stadium nachos. No worries at all. I had replied to a deleted comment.

It looks like my comments were part of the cleanup, so I am going to re-add them here. I think a huge disadvantage for Texas bands is the logistical piece. For reference, this was my first Grand Nationals (I did not attend as a freshman parent in 2012, as we did not have the funds at the time), so we went not knowing what to expect. The travel was going to be brutal if everything went well, and it most certainly did not for a portion of our band. Our airport call time was 3:30 am, but due to the FAA mess, our team's flight #2 (137 kids) on Southwest was cancelled. Those kids had to meet at the school for a 1:30 am bus trip (2 hours) to Austin for their 500/555/610 am flights. Our band's flights were planned to go from SAT to Orlando, Denver, and Chicago to Indianapolis to begin with. My son's legs were SAT-MCO-IND-PHX-SA (the see America route). Redirected Flight #2 ended up being split into ATX-Chicago, Baltimore, and Phoenix-Indianapolis. Our rooms were not ready upon check-in, so they camped out in one of the convention rooms (unable to comfortably rest). Our first rehearsal ran from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm, which was brutal given that many of our kids had been up all night. My wife and I were there after practice, and many kids were on the verge of tears, understandably gassed. By the time they packed up and got back to the rooms, it was close to midnight. A short night followed by breakfast at 6am for a 6:30am call time. Prelims performance at 11:00 and as you can imagine it wasn't our best version of ourselves. We got so much better as the sleep improved. Now, I don't know what I don't know musically, but if that was the norm for any traveling band, it is a lot to ask when you have to go up against other kids who bussed over that morning and had slept reasonably the two nights prior. If you think I was proud before all of this, you can only imagine how proud I am now!!!! These kids performed on fumes, while many were not feeling great, downright sick, and on a dust (coconut husk/cork) cloud for a field. My son said several kids seemed bothered by it. Props to every student who performed (and chaperones and Directors!) but double props to the kids who traveled. I am in awe of their determination to push through. Our football team lost its playoff game, so the last time my son suited up in his marching uni was their 6th-place Finals run in Lucas Oil Stadium. It was a fairy-tale ending for this family. Best finish for Reagan since 2005. Could not be prouder!

This competition is so freaking hard. Our final high schooler is a Reagan Senior mello, and we landed in our annual 7th spot. Super humbled to have made it to state finals again, albeit for the final time. Our program has never finished higher than 5th, and we thought we had a shot this year. However, when you look, feel, and hear these other bands, they are worthy of their accolades. So. Very. Impressive. What's wild is when you stop and think about it, it sometimes feels like we are David to Goliath (FloMo, Hebron, Marcus, Vandy, TWHS, VR). You can start to feel kind of bad about it, but then you realize, and appreciate, that you are the Goliath to other David's. We have a great program. You all have great programs. I am non-musical so I don't know my Euphonium from a hole in the ground, and could never comment about who deserves what. Our bands are amazing. These kids are amazing (tired, full of takis and hot fries, and somewhat smelly), but they give it all, and that is easy to get behind and support. Go Band. Two more contests in the hopper before we hang up our show shirts after 8 marvelous years (2013-2016, 2023-2026)!

This is factual, at least for Reagan (NEISD). We are going to Indy next year (2025) - Senior Year for the last of our three ninos.

Watching all of these Senior parents is killing me. Tears galore everywhere you look. I’ve been here once before in 2016, but our baby is a junior and next year is going to be roooooouugh 😭. Great season, Reagan Band 💚🖤💚!

Anybody know if this is being streamed outside of the NSFW (sarcasm) prelim stream? We are at home and I can’t find anything.

Something to note - one of field judges iPad was inoperable for Keller (swapped out for a different one only to fail ) and Reagan. Switched to voice memo for both. Bad timing for tech to not work 😕

Thank God.

Still a consultant for Reagan. Doing his own thing and consulting for SCV.

They have company in the .1 camp now 😂.

Are students allowed to wear a go pro for their finals performance? Haven’t seen this before (outside of encores).

I’ve been a RRHS band dad for 2012-2016 & 2022-2026 seasons and never knew this!

Whew! That is all I can say.

Clearly I am not capable of doing advanced mathematics past midnight. Sorry about that!! 😂