UIL 4A State Marching Contest 2025 (Nov 5)

[cheeto2401]

the 4a state marching contest literally had me mad hyped, and i want to see your guys' opinions, predictions, and thoughts about the 2025 season!

[LKendrick]

I think it's going to be a bloodbath.  Tons of bands are getting better, you will have bands like Long Creek, Legacy Ranch, Freeman, etc. all in their second years, etc.  

Will be an exciting one before the realignment in 2026. 

[TexasStrangers]

I think you will see several of the usual players that are involved on a yearly basis. I do think based on student counts that were turned in for this year and if the trend continues next year then there will be several schools jumping to 5A for the 2026 yr. Of course the question would be where would the cutoff number be. I expect the number to go up but how much is to be determined.

 

[DumbBandLoser]

Alright, this time I'm calling it, Panther Creek is gonna a win gold (If I keep saying it maybe I'll be right eventually).

[Liam Allen]

Panther Creek in the winners circle.  Celina narrowly behind.  Davenport still narrower behind.  CS and SS still battling it out for fourth.

I want to see Krum make it out of Area B.  Thought they’d get it this year.

[GarbagePatchKid]

9 hours ago, TexasStrangers said:

I think you will see several of the usual players that are involved on a yearly basis. I do think based on student counts that were turned in for this year and if the trend continues next year then there will be several schools jumping to 5A for the 2026 yr. Of course the question would be where would the cutoff number be. I expect the number to go up but how much is to be determined.

 

To everyone in 4a’s delight, Celina and Panther will both be 5A after this next cycle. 
 

There will likely be others but I know those two are likely already over the threshold. 

[TexasStrangers]

1 hour ago, GarbagePatchKid said:

To everyone in 4a’s delight, Celina and Panther will both be 5A after this next cycle. 
 

There will likely be others but I know those two are likely already over the threshold. 

Well under the current threshold yes, but UIL always raises the cutoffs to try and keep an even number of schools in each classification. There were several schools last year that were over the threshold for going up to 4A and going up to 5A but when UIL released the cutoffs they stayed where they were because the cutoffs got raised. 

 

I figured Panther Creek is a 100% moving up. I might be wrong but last year the school was only 9th/10th grade right and they added 11th this year?

[GarbagePatchKid]

11 minutes ago, TexasStrangers said:

Well under the current threshold yes, but UIL always raises the cutoffs to try and keep an even number of schools in each classification. There were several schools last year that were over the threshold for going up to 4A and going up to 5A but when UIL released the cutoffs they stayed where they were because the cutoffs got raised. 

 

I figured Panther Creek is a 100% moving up. I might be wrong but last year the school was only 9th/10th grade right and they added 11th this year?

I believe PC now has all four grades but I could be wrong. If not this year, def next year  

I found a news article that quoted Celina at 1336 for the 24-25 school year. I could not find a recent count for PC. I saw a post on here a while back that said the Celina middle school ( I believe there is only one) has over 500 kids in the band. With that type of growth coming up, I think celina will definitely move up unless UIL significantly changes the numbers. I thought I read somewhere that PC has lower numbers than celina but I don’t know where I found that. 
 

im also wondering about Davenport. Their band certainly was big. 

[TexasStrangers]

17 minutes ago, GarbagePatchKid said:

I believe PC now has all four grades but I could be wrong. If not this year, def next year  

I found a news article that quoted Celina at 1336 for the 24-25 school year. I could not find a recent count for PC. I saw a post on here a while back that said the Celina middle school ( I believe there is only one) has over 500 kids in the band. With that type of growth coming up, I think celina will definitely move up unless UIL significantly changes the numbers. I thought I read somewhere that PC has lower numbers than celina but I don’t know where I found that. 
 

im also wondering about Davenport. Their band certainly was big. 

I was at the Celina Competition they hosted this year to watch Celina, North Lamar, Farmersville and Mineola and a person working there told me they are in the process of building a 2nd high school. I know there is a tremendous amount of school construction going on there. 

[GarbagePatchKid]

2 minutes ago, TexasStrangers said:

I was at the Celina Competition they hosted this year to watch Celina, North Lamar, Farmersville and Mineola and a person working there told me they are in the process of building a 2nd high school. I know there is a tremendous amount of school construction going on there. 

I don’t believe that is accurate. There’s currently a massive expansion of the existing high school. I was at the UIL competition they hosted and it was a mess at the back of the school. My understanding is they want to stay a one HS town for as long as possible.
 

Frisco is opening up smaller high schools moving forward so there might be additional 4a frisco schools in the future. We will also at some point have another argyle school, but I believe they are starting as a 3a. 

[cheeto2401]

if celina and panther creek both move up, then the chanpion battle will be CRAZY

we've always had bands who've repeatedly won 4A (argyle, celina, probably more), so if celina and pc move up, (possibly davenport as well because their band was massive), their will only be a few bands that actually have a really good chance at winning state like SS, CS, Canyon, Randall, etc.

[Liam Allen]

A reminder that this realignment isn’t for next year but the year after.  This would, however, send tremors through 4A.  Suddenly CS, SS, and Davenport would be fighting for the medals.

[bandiscoolfortnite]

Area C is going to, again, be one of the toughest uil areas. What do yall think happens in that area for state?

[cheeto2401]

9 hours ago, Liam Allen said:

A reminder that this realignment isn’t for next year but the year after.  This would, however, send tremors through 4A.  Suddenly CS, SS, and Davenport would be fighting for the medals.

Gatesville's growth has also been crazy, 2021 they were state alternates, 2024 they were state finalists, not even being 10th place either, probably by the next realignment it will be CS, SS, Davenport (if SS and Davenport don't move up since they have the highest numbers [1200+]) then those schools + Gatesville could be fighting for the podium

[Bonjoben]

Here's the Davenport details, a huge amount of the school is part of the marching band about 1/7. The colorgaurd alone gained 25 members this year. Now at around 50. The total band being 170/180ish. The school will likely not move up as the administration is removing students who don't live in district and taking other steps to reduce student numbers. The band will likely grow as colorgaurd is going heavily into recruiting and as the smaller senior class leaves. 

[shqipe]

What do you guys think about the west plains band? It’s only their 3rd year as a school and all years they qualified for state, 2 of them making it to finals. If they continue growing at this rate, then they might a shot at winning state in the future (especially considering they are this year’s 4a honor band, which somewhat contributes to this).

[Euphoniblue]

On 11/25/2024 at 9:04 PM, Bonjoben said:

Here's the Davenport details, a huge amount of the school is part of the marching band about 1/7. The colorgaurd alone gained 25 members this year. Now at around 50. The total band being 170/180ish. The school will likely not move up as the administration is removing students who don't live in district and taking other steps to reduce student numbers. The band will likely grow as colorgaurd is going heavily into recruiting and as the smaller senior class leaves. 

I have a strong feeling that Davenport will have more than enough freshman next year compared to the amount of seniors leaving. 

[BandConnoisseur]

On 11/21/2024 at 8:46 AM, GarbagePatchKid said:

To everyone in 4a’s delight, Celina and Panther will both be 5A after this next cycle. 
 

There will likely be others but I know those two are likely already over the threshold. 

2025 could possibly be Davenport's final year in 4A as well.

[TrenBS]

12 hours ago, BandConnoisseur said:

2025 could possibly be Davenport's final year in 4A as well.

Frisco is getting antsy with having a non 5A school in their zone for sure lol

[Tubalord11]

18 hours ago, TrenBS said:

Frisco is getting antsy with having a non 5A school in their zone for sure lol

Yeah, Area B next year is gonna be insanely competitive, more than it is already. I’m hoping that sooner than later it gets to the point where they have to split it up, could do a Frisco area and then everyone else in another 😂

[TexasStrangers]

Unless something crazy happens and the UIL cutoffs numbers rise a bit I see several schools competing at 4A for the last time in the 2025 school year. I bet some schools will survive but just barely.