2025 BOA Grand National Championships (Nov. 13-15)

[slowbrass]

Scores if the split was 30/30/40…

Avon

29.1 music

29.5125 visual

39.17 GE

97.7825

 

Flower Mlund

29.25 music

29.5875 visual

38.94 GE

97.7775

[JoeSchmoe]

6 minutes ago, crunchycookie3 said:

And so the trifecta (UIL State, BOASA, and Grand Nats) eludes capture yet again, and with none of the heavy hitters from TX set to go next year, doesn’t seem likely in the near future! There truly is something cursed about that 9th spot in finals LOL

Good, they won’t waste money 

[Dallas Hobbs]

Does anyone have a full recording of Carmel’s show? I still haven’t properly seen it 

[WanderingTraveler]

Congratulations to all of our Texas bands for representing Texas this year at Grand Nats! What a great way to wrap up the 2025 competitive HS marching season. Special shout out to those that advanced to finals, and Flower Mound for landing silver on the podium. Also congratulations to Avon for winning gold. Some crazy talent, weird shocks, and plenty of controversy with almost every competition this year from UIL to BOA. Excited for next year. Hibernation time now!

[Minimaster]

1 hour ago, Dallas Hobbs said:

I think this year at BOA SA was the first I’ve ever seen them finish 2nd in visual GE. I think it’s also the highest visual GE score they’ve ever had in a BOA finals competition, explains why they tied Flo Mo for the trophy, imo 

Hebron 2015 GN Semis scored a 19.8 in Visual GE and a 19.8 in Visual Ensemble.

The Visual GE ties BA in 2021 for the highest ever.

[jetliner]

7. Marcus H.S., TX 92.925
9. Dripping Springs H.S., TX 92.225

 

Not meant to be a slight at Dripping Springs, but can we acknowledge that it's ridiculous that they are in the same point as MARCUS? We saw what I believe to be a pretty representative spread between them at State, and I suspect it would've been similar had Marcus attended the Super Regional. 

 

But oh well, what's a little more inconsistent judging to cap off the year?

 

Congrats to Dripping Springs on their successes this season!

[jetliner]

2 hours ago, WishIHadOneMoreBandKid said:

We need Jerry to get GrandNats hosted in JerryWorld

Having now gone to a contest there, I can tell you this part ain't it lol. Logistics are bad, acoustics are bad. 

[Tailgate88]

How about we rotate Grand Nats between Indy and San Antonio every year? 

[anotherbandmom]

Why are we bringing drill difficulty and execution into this conversation? FloMo won that last night. A couple of people are talking about conspiracies but that isn't the majority of us. We are confused because general effect literally means how the show made a judge feel, and to a lot of us FloMo's was a better show in that regard. Toxic would be saying something negative about the kids which almost none of us have done. One person described Avon and Carmel's shows harshly and I could argue that has more to do with a limited maturity and nothing to do with the kids themselves. I'm not seeing much toxicity here, just Texas fans reacting in various ways as the individuals they are and most of us are just confused. What's toxic to me is creating an account to argue. Its like if a football team sent their champion to their first away game after an indisputably great season, then someone from the home team walks over to the visitor side to talk crap to their fans for disagreeing with the game's outcome. That's the real weirdo behavior imo. Avon's show was amazing and we are all happy for the kids. Sorry we aren't praising Avon's win in the same breath as the confusion. We feel like FloMo show had more wow moments. Avon's show is top tier, no one is arguing that. FloMo's captioned music and visual, and we feel it should have won GE too. 

[Mike McBandiel]

Just woke up, but congratulations to Avon on the win, especially with how stacked the competition was this year! Ngl, I was really pulling for Flower Mound to win tonight since it would’ve been really cool to see a band win State, BOA SA, and Grand Nats in the same year, but 2nd place is still an amazing placement and I’m so happy about their amazingly successful season. Congrats to everyone competing and what a way to close out an amazing season! 

[Thanos]

Regardless of their placement, I was extremely proud of Flower Mound this year! Loved that band and loved that show. It is depressing to me how things ended up but they did their best and that's all that matters. Congratulations to Avon on their win.

[LeanderMomma]

14 minutes ago, natertater21000 said:

I think It may be time to put on lock on this thread @LeanderMomma

Good plan. Errrrbody needs a 24 hour reset. Including me. 🤣

[LeanderMomma]

Okay I think it’s safe again to come back here now. I cleaned up the “mess.”  😅

[utee94]

38 minutes ago, LeanderMomma said:

Okay I think it’s safe again to come back here now. I cleaned up the “mess.”  😅

So now we can once again talk about what a crock it was in Indianapolis...

...that we didn't get 16 bands into Finals???

 

[BigTo]

So proud of the Texas bands. Against many odds they managed to place 5 in finals. Had Hebron, Vandegrift, Cedar Park, Rouse, and Wakeland, all the remaining top bands according to UIL 6A/5A results, made the trip they wouldn’t know where to put all the greatness. 

Can’t wait till we do it all again next year.

[LeanderMomma]

9 minutes ago, utee94 said:

So now we can once again talk about what a crock it was in Indianapolis...

...that we didn't get 16 bands into Finals???

 

Right?  I mean bands like Hebron, Vandy, Cedar Park and Vista Ridge should have made it just on reputation alone!  They shouldn’t have to actually attend!  😅

GOD BLESS TEXAS!

🤠🤠🤠

[utee94]

12 minutes ago, BigTo said:

So proud of the Texas bands. Against many odds they managed to place 5 in finals. Had Hebron, Vandegrift, Cedar Park, Rouse, and Wakeland, all the remaining top bands according to UIL 6A/5A results, made the trip they wouldn’t know where to put all the greatness. 

Can’t wait till we do it all again next year.

Well, we were lucky enough to see all of that already in San Antonio, and it was fantastic!

Sure would be fun to see Avon, Carmel, BA, and TS come on down every once in a while.

 

[anotherbandmom]

I can see why things panned out the way they did after some time to read commentary from Hornrankers and having connected dots between things I already knew about BOA and marching in general. It's out of character for me to question judges and participate in unproductive debate and it left me with the ick, even if I did try to be more thoughtful with my commentary. I'd still appreciate a fan favorite award. And thats not a dig at Avon or anyone else. One thing that frustrated me about the mess in this thread was others insinuating that not favoring Avon's show the most was a dig at the kids because it really isn't. That's like telling me I think drama movies don't deserve an audience because I prefer comedies and that's just silly. Anyways what a season. Even after all this I cant wait to do it again. 

P.s. I changed my username so that it is abundantly clear that my views don't represent my band's. 

- rousemom52

[tubapop]

8 minutes ago, anotherbandmom said:

I can see why things panned out the way they did after some time to read commentary from Hornrankers and having connected dots between things I already knew about BOA and marching in general. It's out of character for me to question judges and participate in unproductive debate and it left me with the ick, even if I did try to be more thoughtful with my commentary. I'd still appreciate a fan favorite award. And thats not a dig at Avon or anyone else. One thing that frustrated me about the mess in this thread was others insinuating that not favoring Avon's show the most was a dig at the kids because it really isn't. That's like telling me I think drama movies don't deserve an audience because I prefer comedies and that's just silly. Anyways what a season. Even after all this I cant wait to do it again. 

P.s. I changed my username so that it is abundantly clear that my views don't represent my band's. 

- rousemom52

The topic of criticism in this forum is interesting and I have mixed feelings. Criticism is part of life, and learning to process it in a healthy way is part of growing up. There is a large contingent that has a knee jerk reaction to any perceived criticism here (“KIDS are reading this!”), and it’s like, well, let them read it. It’s ok for them to be exposed to opinions of other people. Do they need to be sheltered from everything? Those same people will produce predictions that put certain bands at the bottom or leave them out entirely—what do they think that does to those kids’ supposedly fragile egos? Can’t have it both ways.

 Then again, I recognize that high school marching band in America is an exceptionally positive, uplifting experience. The kind of thing you see for example with the vandy train thing and the reaction of the community - that is uncommon. That kind of camaraderie is what I’d like to see more often in the world. It is precious and rare. And so I recognize the low-criticism environment is conducive to that and I appreciate that.

There’s some validity in both views. 

 

 

[Vegas Band Fan]

I congratulated Avon in another post. They did their job. Flower Mound gave the performance of a life time. It just came up a little short in some of the judges opinion. This was by far the most packed finals that I can remember. So much talent on the field. 

I also posted in several posts that I think GN should be on a four year site rotation.This is not a new subject and others have brought this up before. Nothing to do with sour apples and as I stated before, I don’t have a dog in this fight. I understand MFA’s reasoning that economically it makes sense for their organization to hold GN in one city year after year but I’m not buying that. If the Georgia Athletic High School Association can come to terms with the Mercedes Benz stadium in Atlanta to hold high school football games then surely MFA could. That could be one site on rotation. Add Indy and San Antonio to the list and then finally choose one more site in the west to place GN on a four year rotation. This would allow many other bands closer to home to attend GN due to costs plus IMHO it also levels the playing field and mixes things up. 
 

This will not happen. At least not in my lifetime. I really would like to see U.S Bands gain some traction. Competition can be a good thing. Again, congratulations to all the bands that attended GN. It was a great three days of entertainment. 

[lost]

1 hour ago, Vegas Band Fan said:

I congratulated Avon in another post. They did their job. Flower Mound gave the performance of a life time. It just came up a little short in some of the judges opinion. This was by far the most packed finals that I can remember. So much talent on the field. 

I also posted in several posts that I think GN should be on a four year site rotation.This is not a new subject and others have brought this up before. Nothing to do with sour apples and as I stated before, I don’t have a dog in this fight. I understand MFA’s reasoning that economically it makes sense for their organization to hold GN in one city year after year but I’m not buying that. If the Georgia Athletic High School Association can come to terms with the Mercedes Benz stadium in Atlanta to hold high school football games then surely MFA could. That could be one site on rotation. Add Indy and San Antonio to the list and then finally choose one more site in the west to place GN on a four year rotation. This would allow many other bands closer to home to attend GN due to costs plus IMHO it also levels the playing field and mixes things up. 
 

This will not happen. At least not in my lifetime. I really would like to see U.S Bands gain some traction. Competition can be a good thing. Again, congratulations to all the bands that attended GN. It was a great three days of entertainment. 

Well…MFA DID used to host a super in Atlanta at that stadium. It was cancelled due to being cost prohibitive and low attendance. 

It’s a VERY expensive get and even with high attendance from nationals it would be difficult for MFA to break even.

Lucas Oil also has the unique advantage of being built *with* marching band in mind. It’s quite literally the perfect indoor venue. It sucks and I hate that Indiana bands get the home field advantage every year, but what can you do?

San Antonio simply doesn’t have the infrastructure for nationals. The Alamo Dome is stretched thin as it is.

I do think more bands need to come down! Texas has no issue hauling band after band year after year. It was awesome having Avon in 2017, Camdenton and Alter the next.  Wish we could’ve gotten Tarpon in 2020 like it was planned.

[RattlerDad]

It looks like my comments were part of the cleanup, so I am going to re-add them here. 

I think a huge disadvantage for Texas bands is the logistical piece. 

For reference, this was my first Grand Nationals (I did not attend as a freshman parent in 2012, as we did not have the funds at the time), so we went not knowing what to expect.

The travel was going to be brutal if everything went well, and it most certainly did not for a portion of our band.  Our airport call time was 3:30 am, but due to the FAA mess, our team's flight #2 (137 kids) on Southwest was cancelled.  Those kids had to meet at the school for a 1:30 am bus trip (2 hours) to Austin for their 500/555/610 am flights.  

Our band's flights were planned to go from SAT to Orlando, Denver, and Chicago to Indianapolis to begin with.  My son's legs were SAT-MCO-IND-PHX-SA (the see America route). Redirected Flight #2 ended up being split into ATX-Chicago, Baltimore, and Phoenix-Indianapolis.

Our rooms were not ready upon check-in, so they camped out in one of the convention rooms (unable to comfortably rest).

Our first rehearsal ran from 8:00 pm to 10:00 pm, which was brutal given that many of our kids had been up all night.  My wife and I were there after practice, and many kids were on the verge of tears, understandably gassed. By the time they packed up and got back to the rooms, it was close to midnight.

A short night followed by breakfast at 6am for a 6:30am call time. Prelims performance at 11:00 and as you can imagine it wasn't our best version of ourselves.  We got so much better as the sleep improved. 

Now, I don't know what I don't know musically, but if that was the norm for any traveling band, it is a lot to ask when you have to go up against other kids who bussed over that morning and had slept reasonably the two nights prior.

If you think I was proud before all of this, you can only imagine how proud I am now!!!!

These kids performed on fumes, while many were not feeling great, downright sick, and on a dust (coconut husk/cork) cloud for a field.  My son said several kids seemed bothered by it.

Props to every student who performed (and chaperones and Directors!) but double props to the kids who traveled.  I am in awe of their determination to push through. 

Our football team lost its playoff game, so the last time my son suited up in his marching uni was their 6th-place Finals run in Lucas Oil Stadium.  It was a fairy-tale ending for this family.

Best finish for Reagan since 2005.  

Could not be prouder!

 

[itsstephenyo]

2 hours ago, Vegas Band Fan said:

 

I also posted in several posts that I think GN should be on a four year site rotation.This is not a new subject and others have brought this up before. Nothing to do with sour apples and as I stated before, I don’t have a dog in this fight. I understand MFA’s reasoning that economically it makes sense for their organization to hold GN in one city year after year but I’m not buying that. If the Georgia Athletic High School Association can come to terms with the Mercedes Benz stadium in Atlanta to hold high school football games then surely MFA could. That could be one site on rotation. Add Indy and San Antonio to the list and then finally choose one more site in the west to place GN on a four year rotation. This would allow many other bands closer to home to attend GN due to costs plus IMHO it also levels the playing field and mixes things up. 

This topic comes up every year, without fail. There is exactly a 0% chance of Nats being on a rotation. Besides just the dollars (aka contracts that were probably signed when Lucas Oil was built), as another user already stated, Lucas Oil was also designed with marching band in mind. When my family and I went in 2023, I was absolutely floored at the infrastructure and thought that went into the Indy stadium and surrounding areas. The kids in the programs can travel indiscriminately between hotels, lunch rooms, practice areas, rehearsal halls (they have several massive indoor halls that are each the size of a normal football field) and never have to be subjected to the cold air outside. 

San Antonio, as wonderful a venue as it is, doesn't hold a candle to what Lucas Oil provides.

 

[oddlynormal]

I love all of this.  My heart goes out to the Flower Mound Band.  I am sure it was a hard pill to swallow.  However, this artform is very competitive and every single band in national finals is great.  Just like the San Antonio Super Regional and the UIL SMC contests every finalist is great.  Since I was young, and I am older now, the Texas band scene has exploded.  I mean, it has always been great, but the last several years has just been transcendent.  

With that being said there is a reason UIL evolved a LOT over the last 10 years.  When I was a kid the UIL SMC was a dry, boring and uneventful contest.  BOA was really running over UIL pretty hard in the late 90s-the early 2000s.  Once UIL moved to the Alamodome and started the modern shift UIL has the same feel as the BOA super regional does.  When I was a kid we considered the BOA SA show the end of the season and the UIL SMC just a lame last contest.  Those directors who now kinda run things at UIL were students in many of those bands and hated the experience.  I am so glad to see UIL really step up for this very reason.  A trip BOA GN is NOOOOOOOT cheap for any band.  I do not care what demographic you come from.  It is stupid expensive.  Marching band is also now a lot more expensive than it was when I was a kid.  You combine those to things and you have to move a LOT of money.  I am so thankful to have a BOA Super Regional and the UIL SMC contests ran the way they are.  You get the very same experience as nationals as close as you can without going.  

I wish we could have nationals travel or even come to Texas.  This has been a dream of so many since I was a kid in HS.  However, it is not going to happen.  This is why we have the SA Super Regional and the UIL SMC step up so much.  

[LeanderMomma]

1 hour ago, RattlerDad said:

It looks like my comments were part of the cleanup, so I am going to re-add them here. 

I don’t remember deleting anything like this!  Unless it was part of a response to a post I DID delete. Who knows. Either way, I’m glad that you went to the trouble of reposting it, and I am so happy the Reagan band ended up having such a wonderful experience when it started out so rough for them. Hopefully they are well rested now! Traveling to a contest like grand nationals right after leaving a contest like BOA San Antonio is not for the faint of heart.