How do you stay on top of bands’ progress?

[tubapop]

Most of the prolific commenters here seem to have real time knowledge of how many bands in the state are progressing. So I’m wondering, what’s the source of your knowledge? Do you really attend that many BOA or independent contests? Is there a treasure trove of videos online somewhere im not aware of? Word of mouth? Attending football games or watching online? 

[Miyazuu]

Not so much a prolific commentor but maybe prolific lurker but...Between my partner and I it's a combination of all of the above. We're pretty central in TX so we're able to attend BOA Austin, Waco, San Antonio and UIL contests plus any showcases the ISDs have. Otherwise it's videos online, tuning into football livestreams if we're free, or looking at contest results. 

 

I'm not one for sports but I treat marching season like it's fantasy football to add fun lol 

[Tubalord11]

 

  On 10/15/2024 at 5:40 PM, tubapop said:

Most of the prolific commenters here seem to have real time knowledge of how many bands in the state are progressing. So I’m wondering, what’s the source of your knowledge? Do you really attend that many BOA or independent contests? Is there a treasure trove of videos online somewhere im not aware of? Word of mouth? Attending football games or watching online? 

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When I first came across this site, Boa and DCI for the first time after my sophomore year of HS, I think the best way was looking at past results, specifically Hornrank. They make it sooo easy to look at all the past boa comps, and many local circuit comps have historic results on their websites. YouTube is always great for finding past seasons performances, which you can then try to compare across recent years to find an upwards/downwards trends of programs, though there are many reasons for that (director changes, better/worse show designs, more overall talented kids, Ect..). Going through past forms on here is always great, but it's definitely a lot considering how many programs there are competing in Texas, which we all know is a lot, but then you even have the out-of-state programs 

[TexasStrangers]

As for me, I typically find myself at a competition every weekend and go to several district/area competitions as well. When you live in East Texas like I do you pretty much  know quite a bit about many of the 3A/4A bands because this area is where a good majority of the state level schools come from. I'm not really a big fan of going to BOA contests because it's just a different kind of animal.

 

[bk_bobb]

There are the DanPodcast and General Effect Media.  They both give good upcoming and recap summaries.