silentwatch

OH....memories!!! I lived in Bulverde, TX (near SA) my middle school and high school years and I remember marching in the Strawberry Festival parade. Everything strawberry, you could find there! It was heavenly!!! http://www.strawberryfestival.com/ It is a lot of fun. I haven't been there in more than 20 years (showing my age now!), but oh, the memories!!!

Ahhhh! So the State Champ band is NOT the strawberry festival band?? I never knew...LOL. That clears up a LOT for me now. LOL

What were Poteet parents doing in Waco? I thought Poteet was south of SA??

Why are you apologizing??? Did you actually have control over the weather?? LOL

His posts are making me cringe, actually. Please don't judge the wonderful band by him...I would say 90% of the band shows MUCH more tact and class than that!! Or I wouldn't have been attending their events with them and surrounding myself with them. Those are some of the most wonderful, well-behaved kids. Of course, we always have to have a few rotten apples in the bunch, I guess. Now, Mr. Flute...please do your band directors proud and be nice. Honest or not, if something's not nice, it doesn't need to be shared.

But you didn't SEE Connally in finals. I've seen numerous posts agreeing that they were on fire at finals in comparison to prelims and there are at least 8 bands in finals that did worse in finals than in prelims.

Connally may have seemed to have an easier show, but it comes down to who executes the best in the end, not who has the most difficulty. I liked DS show the best, not because I'm biased either, but I don't think DS executed the best performance in finals. Let's show some class and congratulate Connally for a job well done. They represented Area D awesomely and I'm proud of them. No need to knock them. The judges liked them and thought they did well. The rest of us can just be proud we placed where we did because we started out as one of 230 bands and ended up in top 24. Let's all congratulate each other, not beat each other up. And yeah, DS finals performance WAS tired. That's what happens when half the band decides it'd be more fun to run around screaming than sit and rest up for finals.

I like the idea of throwing off 1-2 scores. I think, like in figure skating (which I mentioned before), it would be a more accurate evaluation of any band. However, to throw off one score out of 7 judges would create possible multiple ties. I'm assuming you're saying you throw out the score most off in each Music and Marching (thus ending up with 5 rankings counted out of 7). So, supposing someone got 5, 5, 4, 6 in Music and 5, 4, 6 in marching...how would you "throw off" a score from that?

Was the cat running across the field during DS performance? I didn't realize that. I heard that there was a cat during one of the performances, but didn't know during who's performance. If it was during DS, how fitting! LOL I mean there WERE cats along the river during Huck Finn's time. LOL I honestly don't think the cat threw off the performance...it was something much, much different, IMO.

For the T-shirts, patches, etc, it is: www.music-ts.com And for the DVD's, it is www.mrvideoonline.com/uil.htm I've been told by Music-T's themselves that the "Finalist" patches and that kind of stuff had to be returned to the company immediately after the event, so if anyone's looking for patches, the company is Southwest Emblem, and their number is (254) 442-2500.

As a parent of a DS band member, I have often told others I am a "Hendrickson Fan Magnet". LOL Seems every competition, I'd be sitting by myself and all of a sudden the Hawk fans come swooping down and I'm lost in a sea of blue. I didn't mind. I love Hendrickson fans. Everyone is so friendly. (I'm also close friends with a HHS Varsity football parent) I was actually really sad to see HHS drop to 5th. I was rooting for y'all to take it all! I didn't get to see your show at state, but I'd seen it enough throughout the season to know we could expect great things from y'all. (Except...those color guard uniforms??? umm...LOL) I think it's easy to forget what an honor it is to advance to State at all. Everyone gets so caught up in the competition and doing their best. But the top 24 bands in the state make up something like 8% of the entire state, so looking at it that way makes one realize exactly how "big" it is to be in San Antonio at all. I hope all the bands look at it that way. I am sorely going to miss all this. My band kid graduates in June and my others are not interested in band. :-/

I was thinking the same thing about UIL scoring system being outdated. That's why I had so many questions. I need to go read up on the scoring systems, I guess. But sort of on the same topic, sort of off, if UIL switched to more of a BOA type judging system, would that merge the two (UIL and BOA) into one competition?? Would it "kill off" UIL completely? Maybe we need some type of scoring system similar to figure skating? (I know, I know...more bias issues! LOL) But I was thinking, allow the bands to freestyle their show, but require them to perform certain basic techniques into the program. They'd get judged on artistic as well as technical in marching, then also judge them on music. I'm sure there would be problems with that system, but I'm just visualizing how many different scenarios can be created with different scoring systems and the pros and cons of them all.

Thank you, Xenon, for the information. That is exactly what I was wondering.

I believe that's what all the questions were about! LOL If I had some answers to them, I might. LOL But it's not just band competitions this covers, it goes into everything that ever gets judged, KWIM? Comes down to the original question. Is there really any honest-to-goodness "fair" way to judge? Probably not, therefore maybe we should all give the poor judges a break!! Can you imagine if the band directors were allowed "instant replay" opportunities like in football? LOL "But Judge, I beg to differ, I'm certain if you check the tape you'll see those lines from our rival band were off horribly!" LOL ::groan!:: I was fascinated with the prelims results. Some of the schools almost look like they got gypped by this composite method, but because I don't have an inside view of the system, I can't tell you how it could be made better. If changes were made, someone else would still be complaining anyway, right?

I don't recall "blaming" the judges. I asked a simple question. How were they chosen? I wasn't complaining about them at all. I admitted that at ANY judged competition, you WILL have a biased judge, regardless of what they've been instructed. At any football game, you WILL have a biased referee (Believe me, I have called the refs biased even when we won!). It's impossible to get anyone non-human (i.e., totally honest...grin). I never said they weren't well-qualified. I know very well where these particular judges came from. In fact, Paula Crider was MY band director at one point and I know quite a bit about her. I don't care if their scores went our way or not, that's not my point. I'm referring to how the scores were all over the place like that for many schools (it's been complained about more than once on these forums across several different competitions, not just this one). We didn't have a strong finals performance at all. I have hunches about that, but that's beside the point. It has nothing to do with the judging. I was merely responding to another complaint about the judges and the disagreement with them. I just got curious if anyone knew how they were chosen and what the procedures are once they're selected? Were the finals judges allowed to watch prelims? Did they have contact with the prelims judges? Is that against the rules in UIL? Did they discuss among themselves certain aspects of the competition before the competition began? Judges are human. They're going to disappoint people at some point and they're going to make other people happy. Just a fact of competition. Doesn't bother me. I've had my share of the good and bad. No blaming judges from me. Just trying to make sense of the wide gap between some scores. (I tend to think it's because they're from vast locations and didn't communicate beforehand, which is fine) I do find it interesting, however, especially in the prelims, how certain judges seemed to favor certain areas, regardless of school. Just really all-around interesting is all. I've always felt that each area has it's own "sound" and "style" and each judge has his/her own "like factor" (for lack of better term! LOL). So they'll tend to judge higher those that match their own interests in many cases (but not all). Did Crider attend the Austin events and get a preview of bands from that area prior to judging? Does that even make any difference? Again, not complaining at all, believe me. Just curious. Seems to me there's no way to balance anything out. If you get all judges from far states (let's say, OR, WA, ID, FL, WV), chances are, they're not going to be used to the way things are done in TX, nor will they appreciate the general TX interest among bands, but yet, if you get judges from TX, somehow, that can be unfair to some bands in some ways and to others in other ways. Do I even make any sense? LOL

I can't really judge the bands in finals for many different reasons, the biggest being I didn't get to see any of them from the stands. But I think that's the fallacy of judging, period. Someone is always going to be biased. I'm curious how judges are selected, whether they're instructed beforehand exactly how to judge, and whether the finals judges had any information whatsoever from the prelims. I also wonder if the finals judges were there at prelims. My dad was telling me he enjoyed watching our band's final rehearsal but he hated judged competitions because there's no such thing as "fairness" in them. He says there are bands out there that play really good, sound good, and the things they can do are amazing, but everyone will have their own opinion on what "amazing" is. One thing I think would be cool (but maybe impossible) to experience....videotape the shows and let Judges judge the videos without knowing who the bands are. LOL Betcha we'd see a bunch of different marks if the Judges had no clue who the schools were. I also wonder how different the results would be if the same prelims judges also judged finals. And I wondered what the results would have been if we keep the idea of totally new judges at finals, but have the prelims judges judge again and their scores are worth 10% and added to the scores of the new judges (who would not be allowed to have contact with the old ones, nor would they be allowed to watch the prelims). I think the biggest factor, however, was that dumb cold front that decided to come visit the Alamodome. Why it couldn't have arrived a day earlier or even a day later is beyond me! Sure, the bands are expected to be able to perform with flexibility regardless, but like was mentioned before, when you have to practice outside in the wind and cold, then try to repeat a good practice in a warmer, calmer arena, hmmm...can throw some off. (And I'm sure some of the later bands in finals had difficulty resting!!! haha) In all, CONGRATS to the strong representation of area D, and to Connally who made a huge jump up from prelims to finals. To all bands who reached State, regardless of ranking afterwards, when you consider there are over 1,000 school districts in the State of Texas, and some of these districts have more than three 4A high schools, to be one of only 24 bands competing for a State Championship is something to be proud of, finals or not, top 3 or not. Congratulations to all 24 bands for representing the best Texas High Schools have to offer on the 4A level!

Y'all performed just before us in prelims, I think? So we only caught your show from the side waiting our turn on the field. We could hear y'all, but couldn't see the effect like the judges could. I remember walking past your drum majors thinking, "Wow, another maroon and gold band!" LOL We didn't catch the finals show, or at least I didn't. Most of the band was snacking/resting. Hopefully, we'll be able to watch more at State. I think y'all also perform before us at State, so we probably won't see y'all unless, if we both make finals, you perform after us, or if we fail to make finals, we'll be staying to watch finals. I wish everyone luck and an awesome time at State. Sounds like there will be some serious competition there, and that's exciting!

OOPS! My bad, that WAS the 2006 results...I'm still sleep deprived from yesterday! Sorry! LOL

We got 1st in 3A. (size based on number in band, not HS) Here's a link: I know it says "2006" but it really is the 2007 results. http://www.capitalcitymarchingfestival.org...ults_2006_2.htm We had best overall general effect in entire contest, then outstanding colorguard and percussion in class.

just for the record, DS was not pleased with the "Sorry Sherman, it's DS" either. At first, we started applauding, but we stopped when we realized what that meant to Sherman. We'd have hated to be in Sherman's shoes. Also, I hope nobody from DS was talking about State on Monday because they'd have been wrong. We go Tuesday. Seriously though, the Band Director expects the entire band to be on their best behavior and show class. I don't think he was happy with the judging error either.

yeah, there are a couple.. i play trombone myself. For one thing, we only have 3 actual baritone players right now, so it'd look kinda weird to have 9 trombones and 3 baritones..but that's probably just my opinion. Also there's a reason drum corps dont march trombones...it's easier to make a group of marching baritones look clean, especially when traversing. We started marching all baritones my freshman year (3 years ago) and i like it, or i guess the idea of it, better than marching trombone. Bowie High School does the same thing. It's a growing fad...haha

Um, i cant acess my account so i'm using my mom's... but does our show (dripping springs) really look that easy? Because it sure isnt easy to perform and, after almost 4 seasons of marching band under my belt, it's the hardest we've ever attempted. I'll admit that when we play the third movement, Huckleberry Finn, our drill turns relatively easy..but hey, it's the "fun" part of the show and we'd like to make it as pleasing to the eye of the audience as possible. I'm always gasping for breath within the first two minutes of the show and i've never really had to do that before so if we really make the drill and the music look easy, then we must be doing a great job! We definitely enjoyed competeing and watching some of the bands up in Area B and i'll agree that you all have some great bands that i look forward to seeing this tuesday. I still wish i got to see Sherman perform so hopefully i'll get my eye's and ear's worth at state. Good luck to you all!