utee94

Plus so many of the good San Antonio bands. I'll be really sad if Austin is gone. I'd expect most of the major Austin area bands to pick it up in San Marcos if it's a week later, on that 9/26 date. But if it's 2 weeks later or more, then it's possible some of them would just bail out and wait until TMC. I know a lot of people don't like that early 9/19ish kind of date, but I actually do. I like to get the early guage on each band's progress and see how things are shaping up.

I don't know for sure, but last season with the sequence of UIL State and then BOA-SA and then Grand Nats, it was pretty exhausting, and it was incredibly expensive. I think maybe the directors were just taking a bit of a break after expending so many resources-- physical, psychological, and financial-- the prior year. All I do is schlep props and pay for my kids, but I can tell you I was completely worn out, and welcomed the break from so many competitions this season.

Feels really good to hear someone say that. This was my oldest's first year at CPHS, and I absolutely fell in love with that show. The ballad was killer, but that's been true of every CP ballad I can remember.

2025 5A Area at Judson was significantly rain delayed, but not rained out, thank goodness.

I go to San Antonio a couple of times per year for reasons unrelated to marching band, and I've been for BOA-SA and UIL State 7 times over the past 4 years. I understand that you have had experiences. Those are not my experiences. I've never been approached by a homeless person on the River Walk or anywhere else in San Antonio. Contrast that with downtown Austin where that's a daily occurrence. I've also never been approached by aggressive ticket sellers for various attractions, anywhere on the River Walk or elsewhere in San Antonio. It definitely smells like folks are smoking pot all over the place, that's for sure. Not as bad as New Orleans but strong. I don't really care what people do to their bodies as long as they're responsible about it with respect to not driving under the influence, but that stuff absolutely stinks, no doubt about it.

For what it's worth, walking from River Walk/downtown to the Alamodome isn't that bad. It's slightly less than a mile from the nearest hotels and nearest part of the River Walk, which is about the same distance that the big cluster of hotels in Indianapolis is, from Lucas Oil Stadium. And under 2 miles from the furthest bits. Plus the River Walk and downtown area of San Antonio, is way WAY more interesting than the area of Indianapolis around Lucas Oil Stadium. But it's also a super-cheap Uber, last week the max we spent going from the River Walk to the Alamodome or vice versa, was $7 for 2 of us. Whether or not you want to pay the prices to stay downtown is another question, of course. There's always cheaper options the further you get away from the city center, same as Indianapolis or any other major city. As for the guy above who appears to hate San Antonio, I disagree pretty much 100% and have never experienced any intrusion of homeless or feeling of danger there. Of course, I'm from Austin, so maybe I'm just immune to homeless harassment...

I agree that's a common protest to the proposal. But that's not happening right now, anyway. Currently only 5-7 bands from Texas participate in the Indianapolis contest each year. And far fewer than that, from most other states that are even further away.

Yeah I'm not surprised, and I hope your young marcher recovers quickly. The band creeping crud in the first two weeks of November is no joke. The kids are so exhausted, and spend so much time in close proximity on buses and crowded rehearsal halls and whatnot, that it's pretty much inevitable.

Was just thinking about this contest, and wondered what had ever happened to it. It appears that this particular year of the contest-- the 2021 version-- was the last one ever. https://www.westlakeband.org/marching-festival In my high school marching days in the 80s, this was the preeminent contest in the Austin/CenTex area. From Day 1 of summer band, through all of those grueling hours in the Texas August heat, we'd exclaim "Win Westlake!" That was our driving desire, the force that pushed us to endure the heat and pain of a long band season. At that time our Austin-area band did Westlake, and UIL, and that was about it. I'd never even heard of BOA until the 2010s when some of my friends' kids were old enough to be in marching band and I started reengaging with the activity. Anyway, not sure if anyone ever even reads these archived topics in the "Past Contests" forum, but this contest is certainly nostalgic for me.

It's a good question. I'd imagine they were really, really tired. My kids were completely exhausted for their Grand Nats trip last year, and they were 5A. So they did UIL State 5A Mon/Tue, BOA San Antonio Fri/Sat, which means getting home around 2-3 AM Sunday morning. Then they had to cram for 3 days of missed school from the previous week, knowing they'd be missing another 2 days of school that next week. They had a 3 AM call time Thursday morning in order to travel to Indianapolis all day Thursday, for a 5AM call time on Friday morning for their prelim performance at Grand Nationals. It was a beating and although they appreciated the experience for the most part, they both expressed they didn't feel the need to ever go to Grand Nationals again.

And beyond all that that, UIL 6A State is late next year and 5A is early. That means 6A Finals are on Tuesday and Grand Nats starts on Thursday. None of the top 6A bands will be going.

Yeah I get what you're saying. Given the move to 6A in UIL, they should wait a bit, digest that change in UIL, before making a run at Grand Nationals-- regardless of what their BOA classification might be. Makes sense to me. ETA-- and from what you said on the UIL 6A 2026 thread, it sounds like you have info that this is exactly what they're gonna do.

Well, we were lucky enough to see all of that already in San Antonio, and it was fantastic! Sure would be fun to see Avon, Carmel, BA, and TS come on down every once in a while.

For sure. And further, I don't think it's safe to assume that recent BOA placement patterns will hold at UIL 6A contests. Cedar Park is one example of a band that customarily tailors the show toward UIL scoring. I don't think CP is going to storm the 6A Finals ranks for a medal in year 1 (although they certainly could), but I also won't be surprised if they slot in higher in the UIL 6A rankings than they do in BOA-San Antonio finals. That's just one example that I'm very familiar with, there could be others of course.

So now we can once again talk about what a crock it was in Indianapolis... ...that we didn't get 16 bands into Finals???

You continue to act in the way you're accusing others of doing. It's not working out for you.

ANYWAY Looking forward to a killer Finals and a bittersweet ending to marching band season. Hoping for a Texas gold but there are so many great bands, just gonna have to watch and see!

You're giving some good advice. You should have followed it. You're not occupying any moral high ground here.

Early in the morning after a long day of travel, is pretty grueling. I know, we did it last year. They'll have an extra gear tomorrow.

We were hanging out next to the Leander band pit pack at UIL Area and they were trying to tune in the Saturday college football games on a TV in the back of one of their trailers. I thought about asking why they weren't putting it on the giant video screens but I wasn't sure how well that would go over... 😛

Make it "Locomotive's Embrace" and it sounds like a Wes Cartwright show title!

Ha! I'm not gonna lie, we've already made some jokes that their entire show should be train-based. "Crazy Train" would make a great opener, maybe mix in some of Johnny Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues" in part 2. Heck, "Wabash Cannonball" is a song about a train and is already a common marching band theme. And Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans" might make a good marching band ballad.

Saw this picture on social media a couple of days ago accompanied by a post of gratitude from Vandegrift's official band page, and thought it would be a good way to put a bow on this year's 6A UIL competition. It was not only inspiring how beautifully the band community came together to support Vandy, but it was also incredible how well they performed in the face of hardship. Their show was beautiful and compelling and I liked it from the moment I saw just the first couple of parts during the Cedar Park - Vandegrift football game. It only grew from there. They performed the heck out of it at State and at BOA, and I am glad I got to see it one more time in SA last weekend.

My senior daughter who was a freshman in 2022 just ran in from the other room and said, "That's our opener!!!" ETA: Hondo sounded great. I'm now rooting for them to make Finals!

My way-too-early predictions for 6A State Championships next year: 🥇Cedar Park 🥈Rouse 🥉Vandegrift 😄