utee94

OK so we had our big booster club meeting tonight, and it sounds like BOA centrally controls the booking of hotels for each band, with allowance for stated preferences. I thought @LeanderMomma would be happy to hear that Leander and CP are using the same booking company and will be effectively traveling as one big happy family. We know several families in the Leander band so that should be a lot of fun. Stated hotel preference from our booking agent is the Hyatt Regency, and they want parents to book in the same block as their band so that bit will be taken care of for us, all we have to book are the flights. But one thing that is confusing to me-- according to the itinerary, we're not traveling from Austin to Indianapolis until Thursday 11/14 and wouldn't be available to perform until Friday 11/15. But last year I thought prelims were on Thursday. So I'm not sure how that's supposed to work...

Parking is pretty problematic there, but yeah it would make sense if it were heat-related.

Yes, it's a fair debate. I've been pretty shocked at some of the early call times for travel. But other than asking parents to pay even more than the ~$1,000 per student per year we're already paying (and that's in a NON-grand nationals year), I'm not sure what the solution is. The district isn't going to pony up for the overnight expenditures, so it's either have the crazy call times, or don't go at all.

Leander ISD bands have removed some of the cost of trips to SA by shuttling back and forth every day rather than staying overnight for ANY of it. So have many other Centex bands. Obviously this is only possible due to proximity, and bands coming from further away don't have that luxury.* (I use luxury with an asterisk because it also ends up with some insane morning call times to load the buses and head to SA, this past year CP kids were called to the bandhall for the trip to BOA-SA at something like 3:00 AM on Friday morning I think, because we had one of the earliest AM performance slots). But still, it saved some money...

Ugh, cold in November. Something this Austin born-and-bred boy never really thinks about. Thanks for the reminder...

Hey all, as a band parent n00b making his first ever trip to grand nationals, I was hoping to lean on the collective wisdom of the TXBands crew, to figure out if there are any preferred hotels or a preferred area to stay and make sure we catch everything important? We'll mostly just be doing the contest, probably not a lot of time for sight-seeing, so is it just a matter of being as close as possible to Lucas Oil Stadium? Thanks in advance for any help! (not sure if this is the best forum, mods please feel free to move if this should go somewhere else)

I'm not sure it's any "less intrusive" but I do think people are just gutting it out and pushing through. Right now I'm looking at sending my two kids to Grand Nationals, plus my wife and I do pit-pack and chaperoning duties so the entire family will be going. It'll be something like $6,000 minimum just for my own family, which is pretty daunting. I'd honestly prefer to see the band skip BOA-SA to preserve more resources for the trip to Indianapolis, not just financially but in days the kids are out of school and in days I'm forced to take off from work. It'll be one day for BOA-SA, 2 days for UIL State, and then at least 3 days for Indianapolis including flights/travel. Maybe there's some way to ask for preferential treatment in SA and do prelims on Saturday instead of Friday? But so far, my kids' band always ends up going on Friday.

Yup I'm sure they're just finalizing the details on venue availability. There aren't usually football games on Saturdays but since that stadium hosts home games for several RRISD schools, it occasionally happens and would need to be accounted for.

I'll be there schlepping props and equipment on and off the field. The good news-- no sandbags necessary in indoor stadiums...

And Glenn No idea what Vandy or VR might be planning. Lots of folks who know more than I do say that Vandy's not going. And I don't think Glenn is ready for that kind of reach but I guess ya never know.

Completely agree. I think it's just too much, in too short of a time. From a school perspective, the good news is that, according to the district's preliminary Calendar for 2024/5, the second 6-weeks grading period is ending the week BEFORE 5A UIL State. So they should have most major tests/projects complete. And also, they have Nov 4/5 off from school for Staff Development/Voting. So if you really MUST have a crazy week or two, that's a decent time to do it. But still, it's just so taxing. This year, almost half the band was marching sick at State UIL, with zero time to recover between BOA-SA and State. Many of them (including my daughter) stayed home sick for the remainder of the week after the State Finals on that Tuesday. Throwing a third competition into the mix is almost guaranteed to drive even more challenges for the kids.

Yeah CP ran a video clip during the concert, started off vague, but then cut to the announcement. The kids went crazy, it was so fun to see their excitement. Also sounds like the directors would still really like to do BOA-SA the week before. They're not certain, it would mean a lot of missed school time, but if it happens it would make the schedule: 11/4-11/5 UIL State 11/8-11/9 BOA-SA 11/14-11/16 BOA-GN

Probably also related to the UIL schedule, it falls in between the 1/3/5A week and the 2/4/6A week. 2024 1A/3A/5A Contests: November 4, 5, 6 Session 1: Monday, November 4 : 5A Prelims (morning, afternoon, (evening) Session 2: Tuesday, November 5: 1A Prelims (morning), 5A Finals (afternoon) Session 3: Tuesday, November 5: 1A Finals (evening) Session 4: Wednesday, November 6: 3A Prelims (morning and afternoon) Session 5: Wednesday, November 6: 3A Finals (evening) Performance schedules will be posted by 3:00 PM on Sunday, October 27. 2024 2A/4A/6A Contests: November 11, 12, 13 Session 1: Monday, November 11 : 6A Prelims (morning, afternoon, evening) Session 2: Tuesday, November 12: 2A Prelims (morning), 6A Finals (afternoon) Session 3: Tuesday, November 12: 2A Finals (evening) Session 4: Wednesday, November 13: 4A Prelims (morning and afternoon) Session 5: Wednesday, November 13: 4A Finals (evening)

Cedar Park confirmed to 2024 Grand Nationals. Just announced by head band director Christopher Yee during CP’s winter concert.

I laughed because I was posting the same thing as you, at the same time. My dog went crazy barking at something outside the front door and I didn't hit "enter" until a couple minutes after you, and that's when I saw your post. I thought it was funny. It's not some nefarious plot, I promise you.

Cedar Park has been a couple of times. Went in 2010 and got 10th place in Finals. And in 2016 took 5th in Finals.

Yes a new high school would likely knock CP back to 5A after it's built. If you look at a "reasonable" radius for CP attendance, then the school is basically land-locked. There is not much buildable space remaining within that footprint. ONLY something like redistricting shifts, due to populations changes outside of CP's normal footprint, would cause any dramatic increases. Which is what we're staring down for the next few years.

Yup. The rumors are that another middle school will shift and start feeding CP, so ALL incoming incremental students will be freshmen when it happens. We're talking almost double the number of freshmen currently entering CP in any given year.

Last night, Cedar Park had its Gold Medal Ceremony for the UIL State Championship. It's possible I heard rumors about... grand nationals. Though, seems more like a 2025 thing than a 2024 thing (especially considering the boosters haven't even discussed anything for 2024, and we're already within the planning window for 2024 for things like logistics and fundraising). I'll pass along anything else I hear, it seems y'all really eat up these rumors/announcements.

And just FYI, there appear to be two parallel threads on this topic, in different forums. The one linked below is older, started a while back.

Just FYI, there's another thread here. Rumor the cutoff is around 2285.

Cedar Park is 1,966 for now, so no move up to 6A this round.

I believe the CP QB is an underclassman and still has a couple years to grow and improve. And I reckon the CP marching band should be considered among the state finalist contenders as well. So, maybe 2024.

And I'm partial to Cedar Park coming back, after an entire marching season of finishing behind Rouse, and beating them at State for the Gold. 🤩

Dunno. A few of us stated an opinion in support of the 8-hour rule, and outlined our reasoning why. It seems like others may disagree with supporting that rule, but nobody's stated anything specific about how or why, so I'm completely lost as to what the dissenting opinion might be.