2025 BOA South Houston (Oct. 4)

[Tubalord11]

Congratulations to all our finalist! Shocked to see no Clear Brook, they had the same thing last year where they dominated 3A and the first Houston comp and they didn’t make finals at the second. Curious as to where they placed 

[WanderingTraveler]

10 minutes ago, Tubalord11 said:

Congratulations to all our finalist! Shocked to see no Clear Brook, they had the same thing last year where they dominated 3A and the first Houston comp and they didn’t make finals at the second. Curious as to where they placed 

I was also shocked about Clear Brook since I would’ve expected a 6-10 finish out of them. Didn’t get to see any of these runs today though, so who knows.

[lainey]

good luck to everyone tonight!! love from fulshear :))

[FwefewF]

Before they even start props to Pearland for setting that many tarps of that size on time

[jetliner]

Friendswood's show is SO GOOD

[ruben_f]

Finals Results

85.225 — Pearland H.S., TX
84.500 — Seven Lakes H.S., TX
83.650 — Claudia Taylor Johnson H.S., TX
83.550 — Dawson H.S., TX
82.700 — Cypress Woods H.S., TX
81.800 — Friendswood H.S., TX
79.500 — Foster H.S., TX
79.200 — Cy-Fair H.S., TX
78.700 — Stephen F. Austin H.S., TX
77.850 — Dickinson H.S., TX
76.400 — Clear Lake H.S., TX
75.650 — Klein Oak H.S., TX

Outstanding Music Performance – Seven Lakes H.S., TX
Outstanding Visual Performance – Pearland H.S., TX
Outstanding General Effect – Pearland H.S., TX
 

 

[Serardian]

My takeaway from this competition is Foster. That was my first time seeing them and OH MY WORD those kids can play.

[jetliner]

If you don't like that, then you don't like Houston area band.

 

But actually what on earth lol

[Tubalord11]

Congrats to Pearland on the back-to-back win! Also, 7L, wow they really are building off last year, want to see that show asap. Congratulations to all the finalist, some bands really stepping up their game 

[Wait001]

So would anyone happen to have Box5 recordings of Pearland in prelims or finals?

[Rubisco]

Pearland was wonderful! They get better every year. 86.4 in prelims, nearly three-pointing the competition. (Seven Lakes being so close in finals should be a good sign for them.) I love On the Waterfront, so their music was always going to be a hit with me. Such evocative melodies.

Their guard is probably the best one ever in a Wes show. I'm hard-pressed to think of others at this level off the top of my head. I'm glad to see them start exploring sabre work, too, as that was a "deficiency" compared to their open class competition last season at Dayton -- although not really, because they still got 3rd place in equipment. Anyway, the rifle and flag work in this production are killer. It does kind of annoy me that the performers are dressed in white, flowing dresses (for upstairs effect), because it distracts from their work, but I can already tell they're going to be a monster in open class again at Dayton. World class is right on the horizon for them.

I'm not entirely surprised to see Pearland lose the music caption, because there was a lack of control at times, but the overall effect of the music was great.

I really like how Houston programs in general are very well-rounded. Winds, percussion, guard, show design -- I tend to enjoy it all. The DFW bands are in a similar boat, although they sound better on average, which gives them an edge. 

[Rubisco]

Regarding the judging inconsistencies from week to week: I think with the proliferation of BOA regionals, BOA has had to do some major recruiting in recent years. We've seen a lot of new names on the panels. With that comes some growing pains, I guess you could call it -- or maybe even just new perspectives. Many of the newcomers do have experience from WGI or DCI, but it's not exactly the same.

Of course, my heart goes out to bands like Cy-Fair, who bear the brunt of the bizarre shifts. They have every right to be frustrated and disappointed.

[packwick]

1 hour ago, Rubisco said:

Regarding the judging inconsistencies from week to week: I think with the proliferation of BOA regionals, BOA has had to do some major recruiting in recent years. We've seen a lot of new names on the panels. With that comes some growing pains, I guess you could call it -- or maybe even just new perspectives. Many of the newcomers do have experience from WGI or DCI, but it's not exactly the same.

Of course, my heart goes out to bands like Cy-Fair, who bear the brunt of the bizarre shifts. They have every right to be frustrated and disappointed.

suuuuure does make u question the whole 2 panel prelims system for super regionals again, don't it??? if after only a week the results shift so much bc of a panel change???

but boa's chief judges claim it's not an issue bc their judges are sooo well trained and know the box system so well. eyeroll!! biggest eyeroll ever!!! lol

[marchingguardpeep]

Any thoughts on Brazoswood?

I think clear lake is going to go far with this show they did great!!

I'm shocked about clear brook not making finals and placing 18th in prelims.

[ChristopherRoden]

Copied and pasted from the 6A area I thread: 
 

Here are the ordinals for each band at the south houston comp (prelims).

With this being in excel there’s some fun stuff you can do with it.

Music judges were an average of 2.66 and 3.34 places different from the band's final placement. (IE if a band got put 6th overall by music judge 1, you can expect that their overall final placement fell between 8.66 and 3.34)

Vis judges were 3.48 and 2.38 places off respectively. 

Mus ge judges were 1.62 and 0.76 places off respectively. 

Vis ge judge was 2.38 places off respectively.

Total GE was the best predictor of a band's final placement at an average difference of 0.51 places of where the band finished. 

Not sure how well these numbers reflect a judge's accuracy. GE is heavily weighted so would make sense that the numbers a band earns their matches how they do overall. 

Also not sure how different they are compared to when we weren't experiencing these BOA growing pains way back when BOA judging was perfect!! ... 

[MazeyMiisona]

imo general effect is a bs category

[tubapop]

3 hours ago, MazeyMiisona said:

imo general effect is a bs category

Definitely is. Nobody can quite explain what it means and the closest explanation is just how it makes the judge feel. Eye roll. 

[daldhowe]

Completely agree!  Unfortunately,  I don't see it changing.

[jetliner]

Just in checking my bank account today I noticed that I was charged $20 for parking instead of the advertised $10. Anyone else?

[Bad.robot]

6 hours ago, jetliner said:

Just in checking my bank account today I noticed that I was charged $20 for parking instead of the advertised $10. Anyone else?

I was charged $10

[Ninelets]

8 hours ago, jetliner said:

Just in checking my bank account today I noticed that I was charged $20 for parking instead of the advertised $10. Anyone else?

$10 for parking.  The extra $10 was for General Effect...

[tubapop]

1 hour ago, Ninelets said:

$10 for parking.  The extra $10 was for General Effect...

I’m sure the extra ten bucks made jetliner feel something!

[Ninelets]

Exactly!

[AWF2014]

Having listened to several of the bands' performances from this contest, I have to say, Cy Fair 8th??? Having heard them perform the last 4 years, I will admit maybe that wasn't their top performance. I believe I read they were operating on very little sleep, and they felt like that affected them. It would be interesting to see the judges comment sheets though, right?

I might be biased (my daughter graduated from Cy Woods last year) ;) but I always love Cy Woods' balanced orchestral sound. All the bands I did watch on YouTube from the contest were very good and I enjoyed the performances. But I am with y'all wondering what the judges heard differently. Yes, we are not professional judges, but still. 

That said, I have to defer to them in the end and respect their opinions. Cy Fair HS, take this opportunity to continue perfecting your show and keep up the good work! Good luck to all the bands! These kids put in so many hours of work to perfect a show, they should be proud of their efforts. I'm looking forward to attending the Region contest on the 18th.

[Sideswiperr]

54 minutes ago, AWF2014 said:

Having listened to several of the bands' performances from this contest, I have to say, Cy Fair 8th??? Having heard them perform the last 4 years, I will admit maybe that wasn't their top performance. I believe I read they were operating on very little sleep, and they felt like that affected them. It would be interesting to see the judges comment sheets though, right?

I might be biased (my daughter graduated from Cy Woods last year) ;) but I always love Cy Woods' balanced orchestral sound. All the bands I did watch on YouTube from the contest were very good and I enjoyed the performances. But I am with y'all wondering what the judges heard differently. Yes, we are not professional judges, but still. 

That said, I have to defer to them in the end and respect their opinions. Cy Fair HS, take this opportunity to continue perfecting your show and keep up the good work! Good luck to all the bands! These kids put in so many hours of work to perfect a show, they should be proud of their efforts. I'm looking forward to attending the Region contest on the 18th.

If there’s something I’ve always loved about cypress woods it’s the sound quality they produce, consistently.