UIL 4A State Marching Contest 2025 (Nov 5)

[CarKeyes]

Davenport Show Reveal:

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/16YpGpSfZR/ 

[cheeto2401]

On 5/3/2025 at 10:39 PM, bandisfun2000 said:

Head director from West Plains is moving to Sachse HS. Do yall think this will affect West Plains at all this upcoming season?

China Spring's head director is moving to Highland Park also, i dont think it will affect China Spring however, since they have always had a strong band

[rudy12]

Has anybody seen any videos or previews from any of the bands? Id like to see how shows are shaping up. 

[TexasStrangers]

18 hours ago, rudy12 said:

Has anybody seen any videos or previews from any of the bands? Id like to see how shows are shaping up. 

You probably won't see much until the first weekend of contests which is usually the last week in September. There are a few people who will upload a halftime show before then on Youtube typically. A lot of the good programs usually like to keep things close to the vest on stuff like that though. 

[cheeto2401]

hot take: 4A is more comp than 6A

[J-Mike16]

9 minutes ago, cheeto2401 said:

hot take: 4A is more comp than 6A

I can get behind that.

[wtxbd02]

Seriously impressed with Valley View at BOA McAllen.  Building huge off last year.  Keep an eye on them 👀

[tastiestbiscuit123]

2 hours ago, LKendrick said:

Seriously impressed with Valley View at BOA McAllen.  Building huge off last year.  Keep an eye on them 👀

Valley View and Krum. Valley View with their whopping 74.550 at BOA McAllen and Krum sweeping the Class 1A over Gatesville at BOA Round Rock.

[cheeto2401]

3 minutes ago, tastiestbiscuit123 said:

Valley View and Krum. Valley View with their whopping 74.550 at BOA McAllen and Krum sweeping the Class 1A over Gatesville.

if krums beating state finalists then they definetly got some high hopes for the season

[Tx_bands08]

I saw Krum's performance from Round Rock, and they already have the entire show on the field. Their shaping up to be able to make state this year, especially after seeing them beat Gatesville, taking all the captions. 

[TexasStrangers]

I would take BOA with a grain of salt when talking UIL. BOA is a different scoring system compared to UIL. Yes, many of your bigger schools can pull off both but some struggle in BOA compared to UIL. I have seen it several times where a school can put on a good scoring UIL show and go to a BOA show and get ripped and vice versa. 

 

 

[TexasStrangers]

6 hours ago, Tx_bands08 said:

I saw Krum's performance from Round Rock, and they already have the entire show on the field. Their shaping up to be able to make state this year, especially after seeing them beat Gatesville, taking all the captions. 

That could have been the reason they beat Gatesville. Krum has their entire show down and on the field where as Gatesville maybe only has the first 3 movements. It's very early in the season and lots of tweaking and changing to shows will happen between now and then. Yes, celebrate your victory over the weekend but Monday it's time to move on and get back to work on trying to figure out how to make it better. 

[Saxtastic45]

Is it “really” a good idea to have the entire show on the field at this point?

[smelloz]

1 hour ago, Saxtastic45 said:

Is it “really” a good idea to have the entire show on the field at this point?

eh. someone correct me if i’m wrong, but i think it just depends on how the directors prefer to clean the show…some like to learn the drill slower, but clean it more along the way, while some prefer to learn it all then clean it. all that really matters is the end result and cleanliness. judges should only be judging based off the given criteria, none of which is how much of the show is learned, but of course at the end of the day each judge has their own opinions and ideas of what makes a show good that influences their final decision. 

[TexasStrangers]

3 hours ago, Saxtastic45 said:

Is it “really” a good idea to have the entire show on the field at this point?

I would say probably not, you never want to peak too early. If someone has their entire show on the field already then I would say it's probably not very challenging. I think most programs at this time of the year should have their 1st 3 Movements down. I saw several videos from this past Friday Night of several programs doing only up to movement 2.

The 4th movement probably comes this week or next and then it's all about refinement, tweaking the routine (adding visuals, increasing the rigor of marching.)

[tastiestbiscuit123]

11 hours ago, TexasStrangers said:

I would say probably not, you never want to peak too early. If someone has their entire show on the field already then I would say it's probably not very challenging. I think most programs at this time of the year should have their 1st 3 Movements down. I saw several videos from this past Friday Night of several programs doing only up to movement 2.

The 4th movement probably comes this week or next and then it's all about refinement, tweaking the routine (adding visuals, increasing the rigor of marching.)

I agree 100%. In my Freshman Year of high school, my band had the whole show on the field by this time. At first, every contest we went to, we were annihilating every other 4A and even beating some decent 5As and 6As. But then at Area, we got our butts handed to us and made State Alternate.

The following year, it took us a while to get the whole show on the field, and we didn't even make it to Finals at one of the competitions, dropping in terms of performance compared to the past year. But then at Area, we bumped up two places compared to Freshman Year and made State.

Having the whole show on the field by this point can be good, but can also be bad. Just depends. We'll see how Krum fares this Saturday at Melissa, that'll give a proper gauge.

[tastiestbiscuit123]

Also, Melissa is this Saturday, and hoo boy, Melissa is a big day for 4A. Correct me if I miss any, but the following 4A bands will be there:

Canton (8th Place at Area C)

Celina (1st Place at State)

China Spring (5th Place at State)

Farmersville (13th Place at State)

Krum (6th Place at Area B )

North Lamar (10th Place at State)

Robinson (20th Place at State)

Springtown (9th Place at Area B )

Sulphur Springs (4th Place at State)

9 bands from 4A, all Area Finalists, 6 State Qualifiers, 4 State Finalists, and the State Champion. Cannot wait to see results. Surprised not to see other programs like Gatesville, Pleasant Grove, Aubrey, Alvarado, Castleberry, and especially Panther Creek making an appearance since it's in the Dallas area.

But the results are going to be so cool to see. I want to know if Canton and Springtown are actually done for or if both of them just had a 2-year-long hiccup. Also, with Farmersville being close to State Finals, Robinson getting better each year, and Krum with this past Saturday's confidence.

[TexasStrangers]

6 hours ago, tastiestbiscuit123 said:

Also, Melissa is this Saturday, and hoo boy, Melissa is a big day for 4A. Correct me if I miss any, but the following 4A bands will be there:

Canton (8th Place at Area C)

Celina (1st Place at State)

China Spring (5th Place at State)

Farmersville (13th Place at State)

Krum (6th Place at Area B )

North Lamar (10th Place at State)

Robinson (20th Place at State)

Springtown (9th Place at Area B )

Sulphur Springs (4th Place at State)

9 bands from 4A, all Area Finalists, 6 State Qualifiers, 4 State Finalists, and the State Champion. Cannot wait to see results. Surprised not to see other programs like Gatesville, Pleasant Grove, Aubrey, Alvarado, Castleberry, and especially Panther Creek making an appearance since it's in the Dallas area.

But the results are going to be so cool to see. I want to know if Canton and Springtown are actually done for or if both of them just had a 2-year-long hiccup. Also, with Farmersville being close to State Finals, Robinson getting better each year, and Krum with this past Saturday's confidence.

The problem with Melissa is that it has become a big school contest now. Last year more then half the schools were 5A/6A bands with Canton/Celina/North Lamar/China Spring/Sulphur Springs/Community all competing as a 4A and Celina was the only 4A or lower to make Finals. 

The year before was the first year of the contest and more then half the schools were made up of 4A schools and lower. Mineola(3A)/Canton/Celina/North Lamar/China Spring/Sulphur Springs/Community/Farmersville/Van Alstyne competed and only Celina, North Lamar and China Springs made it to Finals along with Mineola who so far has been the only 3A or lower to make a Finals at Melissa. 

If I was a 4A school or lower I don't know if I would want to go to this contest anymore unless maybe I had a program like Celina who is moving up to a 5A probably next year. Yes, you would like to see the other competition but I would rather want to go somewhere else and get a chance at 2 runs and build on that. 

[tastiestbiscuit123]

11 minutes ago, TexasStrangers said:

The problem with Melissa is that it has become a big school contest now. Last year more then half the schools were 5A/6A bands with Canton/Celina/North Lamar/China Spring/Sulphur Springs/Community all competing as a 4A and Celina was the only 4A or lower to make Finals. 

The year before was the first year of the contest and more then half the schools were made up of 4A schools and lower. Mineola(3A)/Canton/Celina/North Lamar/China Spring/Sulphur Springs/Community/Farmersville/Van Alstyne competed and only Celina, North Lamar and China Springs made it to Finals along with Mineola who so far has been the only 3A or lower to make a Finals at Melissa. 

If I was a 4A school or lower I don't know if I would want to go to this contest anymore unless maybe I had a program like Celina who is moving up to a 5A probably next year. Yes, you would like to see the other competition but I would rather want to go somewhere else and get a chance at 2 runs and build on that. 

Melissa did take that into account last year, though, by categorizing 1A-4A schools as Small Schools and 5A-6A as Large Schools. In Finals, they have 4 Small School bands as an exhibition (it was only 3 last year since Celina advanced to Finals). So the top 4 performing schools will get a second performance.

Programs still decide to attend contests like those for many reasons, but one reason I often hear is that it allows them to receive critiques from these particular judges, who tend to be some of the best, which is more beneficial than attending a smaller contest.

[Gpk1968]

Celina is playing Panther Creek tonight in football. If anyone happens to catch a livestream, I would love to see it. 

[mrmusicfreak]

On 6/1/2025 at 1:38 PM, Clarinet512 said:

Hey everybody! I’m super excited for this year’s marching season with all the amazing bands and UIL division realignments happening after this year! I was wondering if anyone would like to share their band’s show music and theme for this year and how they feel about it so far.

I’m a senior marcher at Sulphur Springs (4A) and our show is titled “Stained Glass.” Honestly, we love the show theme. We’ve got pieces like the Doxology (heard in our euphonium and clarinet soloists) and Church Windows by Respighi (definitely spelled that wrong) and I think it could be a show that puts us over the top. It’s a more serious and impactful show than our last couple. I mean it’s clearly doing something right, seeing as we went toe-to-toe with powerhouse 5A-6A bands like Hebron, Lebanon Trail and Lone Star at Melissa yesterday. I think if we keep it up, this could be an awesome year for us. But yeah, I love our show this year 🔥

[bandisfun2000]

I saw some say this last week but Krum is really representing themselves amazingly this early on. Outscoring Gatesville (2024 state finalist) last week and now scoring higher than NL at Melissa in prelims (another state finalist) is impressive! I haven’t personally seen their show but from the judges it looks like they are doing some remarkable work in 4A.

[TenLostDogs]

Melissa Showcase

Small School results.  UIL scoring format 4A and up.

 

1 Celina

2 Sulphur Springs

3 China Spring

4 Krum

5 North Lamar

6 Farmersville

7 Canton

8 Springtown

9 Robinson

10 Italy (2A)

[tastiestbiscuit123]

9 hours ago, TenLostDogs said:

Melissa Showcase

Small School results.  UIL scoring format 4A and up.

 

1 Celina

2 Sulphur Springs

3 China Spring

4 Krum

5 North Lamar

6 Farmersville

7 Canton

8 Springtown

9 Robinson

10 Italy (2A)

I think it's also important to take into account what place they got overall (out of 25 bands).

Celina got 10th in Prelims and Finals

Sulphur Springs got 11th in Prelims and Finals

China got 16th

Krum got 18th

NL got 19th

Farmersville got 20th

Canton got 22nd

Springtown got 23rd

Robinson got 24th

Celina and Sulphure were miles ahead of the others, and Krum not only beat North Lamar, a State Finalist, but also Farmersville, who got 13th at State, and Robinson, who got 20th at State. I have a feeling we'll see Krum perform twice in the dome, or get dang near close.

[Dave609]

19 hours ago, tastiestbiscuit123 said:

I think it's also important to take into account what place they got overall (out of 25 bands).

Celina got 10th in Prelims and Finals

Sulphur Springs got 11th in Prelims and Finals

China got 16th

Krum got 18th

NL got 19th

Farmersville got 20th

Canton got 22nd

Springtown got 23rd

Robinson got 24th

Celina and Sulphure were miles ahead of the others, and Krum not only beat North Lamar, a State Finalist, but also Farmersville, who got 13th at State, and Robinson, who got 20th at State. I have a feeling we'll see Krum perform twice in the dome, or get dang near close.

Would love to see Krum advance. Their performance was really good this past Saturday in prelims! Hopefully Area B can take a 6th band as well!