ClutchATX

The band directors at CP really know what the judges are looking for and every program is tailored for what they are competing for that year. Last year when they were going to BOA Nationals, their program was drastically different than this year's program.

Exactly. Two years ago Rouse pretty much beat CP in every competition including the preliminaries. CP won it in the finals with an epic run. None of the scores leading to this point, makes any difference other than confidence. Tonight will be about how well the kids lock in and have the best run of the season.

I want to give a shout out to all the parents that volunteer tons of hours to allow the kids to have this experience. None of the bands in the finals would be there if it weren't for the support of volunteers. Someone has to raise the money, someone has to load the trucks, someone has to drive the kids to school and practice, someone has to keep the kids fed during the long 16 hour days between competitions, football games and school, and someone has to keep them safe.

As a parent in LeanderISD, I can say that the band directors never focus on winning, but only on working hard and having every performance be better than the last performance. I expect all the Leander ISD bands to have the best performance of the year tonight. All the kids in the finals have worked amazingly hard all year to get to this point and all deserve a standing ovation.

Exactly. Cedar Park obviously gears their performance towards UIL scoring. Rouse has consistently beaten CPHS regular over the last two seasons in BOA competitions but CPHS has won the UIL competitions. The Indiana bands are top notch and they know how they are going to be judged. It's as simple as that.

Spoke to a couple of kids from CP, and even though they felt good about their performance yesterday, they felt that there were lots of room for improvement. I guess that's what makes them CP. I guess we should expect a better performance from them today.

Frisco and Leander have very similar demographics. Tech heavy upper middle class. In other words, lots of "nerds" that played in band when they were in school that have money, time and resources to help and support. Lots of stay at home or work from home parents. The interesting about CP is that won a few state championships in football and other sports also, but somehow band is still what the cool kids do. Choosing between football/sports or band is a real dilemma for incoming freshman.

I was told by a few people that one of the Percussion judges is notoriously inconsistent with other judges which is why the Percussion scores so much different from the ones in preliminaries. My son who is a freshman told me there were lots of tears last night from the seniors and all the underclassman that will miss them. He got a couple notes from the seniors that made him tear up. I don't know if this normal, but it's probably one of the things that I really appreciate about our experience with the LISD band program. I know the term servant leader is overused these days but I think it's definitely the best description of the upperclassmen I've interacted with.

So weird since it's been the exact opposite in every other competition including the preliminaries. I think overall got it correct but the individual scores seem off from what I've seen.

Rouse, Leander and Cedar Park pretty much should be one star since they are about 7 miles from each other. Add Vandegrift and Vista Ridge to that one star.

No marching in middle school but some of the section directors teach middle and highschool so they have the kids for 7 years. Vandegrift specifically is in a fairly wealthy area of Austin so most of their color gaurd/dance team has been doing it since they were 2 years old. The rest of the district, the color guard start in the summer before freshman year. The biggest thing is that the older kids are encouraged to really take the younger kids under their wing so the kids want to join. Lots of leadership within the band.

I'm a parent of a freshman in the district. The culture is pretty amazing from the band directors to the students to the parent booster organization. Lots of organization and fundraising. It takes a village.

I'm very new to this but I've noticed the scoring is different for UIL than BOA, and the big advantage that Rouse has in Visual and Design didn't have as much weight as in BOA competition. I also didn't realize how seriously the Leander ISD schools took marching band with all 5 schools being among the top bands in the state. It's amazing how well all the bands played. The amount of work, teamwork and commitment will carry over to their adult life.