UIL 5A State Marching Contest 2025 (Nov. 10 & 11)

[Anthony V]

22 minutes ago, zxrzxz said:

I just want to say that is is insanely impressive how both argyle, burleson and Mcallum are significantly smaller than the other bands. Argyle has around 158, Burleson Centennial has 160, McCallum has 144. The fact these bands are at least 30 performers smaller than the next highest, which is wakeland at 190, and still able to compete on the level they are is insane. Argyle at 4th competing and beat bands almost twice their size is jaw dropping.

I was looking at this as well and was floored at how competitive McCallum is, pound-for-pound. 

Here's the performer numbers of our finalists that I cobbled together from the UIL program booklet:

144-McCallum

158-Argyle

160-Burleson Centennial & Richland

190-Wakeland

196-Hays

220-Lone Star

230-Rouse

241-Aledo

248-Leander

250-Lebanon Trail

296-Cedar Park

[Percplayer19]

3 minutes ago, zxrzxz said:

I just want to say that is is insanely impressive how argyle, burleson and Mcallum are significantly smaller than the other bands. Argyle has around 158, Burleson Centennial has 160, McCallum has 144. The fact these bands are at least 30 performers smaller than the next highest, which is wakeland at 190, and still able to compete on the level they are is insane. Argyle at 4th competing with and beating bands almost twice their size is jaw dropping.

You can include Richland, they are not big but awesome directors keep us legit. 

[talktuah]

as a midlo glazer, i can say, with 0% bias, they didn’t deserve such a low placing. obviously i would have liked to see them in finals but i think top 15 would have sufficed as well. truly heartbreaking to know how robbed they were.

additionally, hendrickson was phenomenal. emergence had a superb season, and to see it not advance is upsetting 💔

[neverplayedaninstrumentmom]

10 minutes ago, zxrzxz said:

I just want to say that it is insanely impressive how argyle, burleson and Mcallum are significantly smaller than the other bands and still being in finals. Argyle has around 158, Burleson Centennial has 160, McCallum has 144. The fact these bands are at least 30 performers smaller than the next highest, which is wakeland at 190, and still able to compete on the level they are is insane. Argyle at 4th competing with and beating bands almost twice their size is jaw dropping.

Just asking since it seems you know the numbers. You know numbers on lake Belton?

[DrumLine]

10 minutes ago, BugWub24 said:

I've been following the enrollment numbers being posted on the Dave Campbell website. This rumor sheet is fairly accurate, although there are some mistakes in here. Azle, College Station, and Sherman are not moving up to 6A - each of those schools are all under 2,200 in enrollment, and the cutoff won't go down that much.

All of those LISD schools mentioned are indeed moving up to 6A - all reported enrollment over 2,300. Lake Belton is at 2,253, so we will see with them, but I think they will move up.

Celina and Panther Creek are for sure moving up to 5A.

The rumor in Frisco is Wakeland, indeed, will make the jump to 6A, which would end a pretty epic rivalry with Lone Star in sports/band.

[zxrzxz]

6 minutes ago, neverplayedaninstrumentmom said:

Just asking since it seems you know the numbers. You know numbers on lake Belton?

252, you can find it all on the UIL program

[CDLune VA]

18 minutes ago, talktuah said:

as a midlo glazer, i can say, with 0% bias, they didn’t deserve such a low placing. obviously i would have liked to see them in finals but i think top 15 would have sufficed as well. truly heartbreaking to know how robbed they were.

additionally, hendrickson was phenomenal. emergence had a superb season, and to see it not advance is upsetting 💔

No one needs to be a Midlothian glazer to know they were robbed real bad here. They've been doing phenomenally all season, and I thought they were a shoo-in for finals, but these judges didn't exactly play nice today.

Along with Midlothian, Hendrickson, Friendswood, and Roma were hit real hard with wack scores.

Even Aledo and Lone Star who made finals had some extremely questionable numbers.

[zxrzxz]

5 minutes ago, user_028374829 said:

not to be like that but cps score being so high is very very strange. i watched the runs of the 3 to see how they compared and i really dont think that cp was all that good especially compared to rouse. their music is much much easier compared and not nearly executed as well as rouses. cps visual is very clean i will give them that for sure. also if cp was in 6a they technically would have scored first with their scores which is very werid to me. the whole scoring of prelims seems very off to me and i think there might be some sort of bias? as much i hate to say it i see it in the scores. 

I’m not sure exactly how much this affects it, but 5A did have an extra week, one whole week might just be the difference between score being better. Bands are able to clean extremely well at this point in the season very quickly so that might be why. 

[astronautika]

4 minutes ago, zxrzxz said:

I’m not sure exactly how much this affects it, but 5A did have an extra week, one whole week might just be the difference between score being better. Bands are able to clean extremely well at this point in the season very quickly so that might be why. 

This might make sense except that the scores don't even make sense when compared to BOA Super Regional.

[talktuah]

8 minutes ago, CDLune VA said:

No one needs to be a Midlothian glazer to know they were robbed real bad here. They've been doing phenomenally all season, and I thought they were a shoo-in for finals, but these judges didn't exactly play nice today.

Along with Midlothian, Hendrickson, Friendswood, and Roma were hit real hard with wack scores.

Even Aledo and Lone Star who made finals had some extremely questionable numbers.

you’re very right, midlothian is a victim of robbery and justice will be served next season you’ll all see 🙏

[OGFISD99]

It's incredibly tough and difficult to see Where judges placed Lone Star in music after sweeping at the Area competition with 1's.... and being placed below the bands they swept..... I'm saying the other bands musicality isn't bad but that's a huge shift that doesn't  make sense even at a DCI  level of judging..... From 1's in area to nearly bottom half of almost  not making finals... Am I being too critical about this or does this seem a bit off?

Edited November 11, 2025 by OGFISD99
Corrected is to isn't..

[euph67]

Consistency doesn’t matter. The run you had is the run you get. The judges could care less about your past performances. They judge how THAT performance was not what you’ve done in the past or the legacy your band has.

[OGFISD99]

36 minutes ago, DrumLine said:

Maybe these judges hate Journey and docked them because they didn’t have enough artsy-fartsy tunes written by classical composers … that’s all I can think of.

Rachmaninoff?  That's pretty artsy fartsy... lol... 

[astronautika]

8 minutes ago, OGFISD99 said:

It's incredibly tough and difficult to see Where judges placed Lone Star in music after sweeping at the Area competition with 1's.... and being placed below the bands they swept..... I'm saying the other bands musicality is bad but that's a huge shift that doesn't  make sense even at a DCI  level of judging..... From 1's in area to nearly bottom half of almost  not making finals... Am I being too critical about this or does this seem a bit off?

No, you're not being too critical. It doesn't make sense. Second in one of the hardest areas (and one point off first) in the state to 9th tonight.

[astronautika]

6 minutes ago, euph67 said:

Consistency doesn’t matter. The run you had is the run you get. The judges could care less about your past performances. They judge how THAT performance was not what you’ve done in the past or the legacy your band has.

I was talking about consistency of SCORING between comps with the same score sheets 

[Armyguy1381]

I am just really curious, how did we get boa judges or judges not from Texas to judge this competition? For a uil competition shouldn't we have uil judges?

[AreaFMaxxing]

Just now, Armyguy1381 said:

I am just really curious, how did we get boa judges or judges not from Texas to judge this competition? For a uil competition shouldn't we have uil judges?

from what im seeing, they used a predominant mix of boa judges and dci judges this year, really odd overall.

[MisiTX]

1 hour ago, Cluelessbanddad said:

Argyle finished fourth at Area B and jumped Lone Star and Lebanon Trail? 🤷‍♂️

Not an explanation, but reminder that Argyle was only 2 points from LT at Area. 

[Bandmom05]

47 minutes ago, BugWub24 said:

I've been following the enrollment numbers being posted on the Dave Campbell website. This rumor sheet is fairly accurate, although there are some mistakes in here. Azle, College Station, and Sherman are not moving up to 6A - each of those schools are all under 2,200 in enrollment, and the cutoff won't go down that much.

All of those LISD schools mentioned are indeed moving up to 6A - all reported enrollment over 2,300. Lake Belton is at 2,253, so we will see with them, but I think they will move up.

Celina and Panther Creek are for sure moving up to 5A.

Frisco schools will stay at 5A

[rnoodles]

18 minutes ago, euph67 said:

Consistency doesn’t matter. The run you had is the run you get. The judges could care less about your past performances. They judge how THAT performance was not what you’ve done in the past or the legacy your band has.

i think they mean consistency on the judge sheets because its genuinely all over the place besides for places 1-5

[Thatonedoublereed14]

Scoring is definitely nuts for prelims. One thing no one is talking about, though...

 

Is the announcer OK? He was having a very, very hard time saying the introductory things at the start - stuttering, skipping around in the introduction, and even saying the high school's name wrong during McCallum and Hays' shows. At least, that's what came across on the videos that have been posted on YouTube - was it different in the Dome?

[talktuah]

3 minutes ago, Thatonedoublereed14 said:

Scoring is definitely nuts for prelims. One thing no one is talking about, though...

 

Is the announcer OK? He was having a very, very hard time saying the introductory things at the start - stuttering, skipping around in the introduction, and even saying the high school's name wrong during McCallum and Hays' shows. At least, that's what came across on the videos that have been posted on YouTube - was it different in the Dome?

it was the same in the dome

[OGFISD99]

2 minutes ago, Thatonedoublereed14 said:

Scoring is definitely nuts for prelims. One thing no one is talking about, though...

 

Is the announcer OK? He was having a very, very hard time saying the introductory things at the start - stuttering, skipping around in the introduction, and even saying the high school's name wrong during McCallum and Hays' shows. At least, that's what came across on the videos that have been posted on YouTube - was it different in the Dome?

I noticed that too.... he also didn't announce some of the school's music program.... 

[Samuel Culper]

9 minutes ago, Bandmom05 said:

Frisco schools will stay at 5A

Not if the numbers say otherwise.

There is no opting down.

[WanderingTraveler]

I want to take a step back and look at this from a completely subjective point of view. Do I believe there are some strange results here tonight, sure…However I think we are trying to make sense of too many loose variables. Let’s start with the obvious….trying to translate BOA to UIL. While scoring positively in BOA can be an indicator of success, it CANNOT be the only value used. GE is not a concept at the UIL level, which is a primary driver of why some bands can flip flop across contests. Secondly, we have to realize that run-per-run basis exists, and is exactly what is being judged. This isn’t the prediction game that some of us do that takes everything into account. This is ‘what did the band do on the field, right here and now’. Some bands have had successful seasons and didn’t have their best run, and vise versa…All in all, just because a band should beat someone, doesn’t mean they will.

 

I’ll go top to bottom here with my thoughts. Cedar Park unanimously first, followed by Rouse…No issues here. Wakeland, especially from the UIL perspective, incredibly clean. Argyle, historically has been very precise and clean. They were like the 4A Hebron for a while in the way they approached the game and it’s paying off as they grow in number. Love it or hate it, this is the formula for success for these judging sheets. Leander got nuked in content and design, and I think this might be this first thing on the sheets that raise an eyebrow. All other scores make sense. LT under Argyle, after beating them outright at area, I would say yes in terms of todays run. Without getting to specific, especially musically, not LTs best run, despite their successful season. Aledo under Argyle doesnt surprise me after my commentary post-BOA. BC, great band, legendary percussion, content score was weird. Lone Star…had a bad run. I have seen this band a few times this season and this was off. However, do I think it was 9th? No. I have no doubt this could move up tomorrow. Top 5 show/band, maybe not top 5 run. Mentioned in my prelims comments that Richland had a good run and got rewarded for it! I think this fits perfectly. After this point I think the bubble becomes very strong, but heres a few notes: Poteet from a UIL perspective, very clean couldve made it in here. Lake Belton/Friendswood, two bands I predicted to make finals, just on the outside looking in from some great runs from the bubble bands that made it. I still personally would have taken Frindswood, but thats a one judge perspective. Again, tons of other bubble bands I commented on like Hendrickson, Roma, A&M Consolidated(I wouldve placed in finals), and the surprise of the day Harlingen South…but it is so complicated to place these bands near the bubble because of how competitive it is in 5A. Last comment I will make is regarding Midlothian. This was in my top 12 that I predicted. They had great season, but the run didn’t give them any brownie points. They had an incredible season, and they have a great production this year, that was super entertaining, but it fell short in prelims, and thats that.
 

Again, this is prelims, and a lot could shift. Its more about getting the correct bands to finals. There is some funky stuff going on, sure, but also realize the game you are playing with the sheets. Which might be a reason Hebron didn’t win a state championship this year. 
 

This was a fairly blunt recap, but blaming judges outright is just lame IMO.