2025 BOA San Antonio Super Regional (Nov. 7 & 8)

[mussheet]

with all the crazy scores from tonights comps here are some new predictions for SA

1. Flower Mound 
2. Vandegrift
3. Hebron 
4. The Woodlands
5. Vista Ridge
6. Cedar Park
7. Moe and Gene Johnson
8. Ronald Reagan
9. Pearland
10. Rouse
11. Dripping Springs
12. Cedar Ridge
13. Seven Lakes
14. Leander
--------------------
15. Westlake
16. Wakeland
17. McNeil

Music-Hebron

Vis-Flomo

GE-Flomo

[northtexasbandfan]

15 hours ago, mussheet said:

with all the crazy scores from tonights comps here are some new predictions for SA

1. Flower Mound 
2. Vandegrift
3. Hebron 
4. The Woodlands
5. Vista Ridge
6. Cedar Park
7. Moe and Gene Johnson
8. Ronald Reagan
9. Pearland
10. Rouse
11. Dripping Springs
12. Cedar Ridge
13. Seven Lakes
14. Leander
--------------------
15. Westlake
16. Wakeland
17. McNeil

Music-Hebron

Vis-Flomo

GE-Flomo

I think you forgot Marcus.

[TWHSParent]

26 minutes ago, northtexasbandfan said:

I think you forgot Marcus.

Nope. They aren't attending BOA San Antonio this year. First time not attending for them since it became a super regional in 2003.

[Rubisco]

Now that I've seen a lot more bands, I think there's still a bit of a panel imbalance here in terms of locks. But in terms of strongest finalist possibilities, I got 11 in each panel going down the schedule.

P1: Round Rock, Rouse*, CTJ, Wylie, Keller, TWHS*, Cedar Ridge, Wakeland, Leander, Dripping Springs, and Flower Mound*

P2: Cedar Park*, Moe and Gene Johnson, Westlake, Bridgeland, McNeil, Reagan*, Vandegrift*, Vista Ridge*, Hebron*, Pearland*, and Seven Lakes

So, panel 2 has 6 I'd be surprised to see miss finals; panel 1 has 3.

Top 5 Panel 1 = Rouse, TWHS, Wakeland (?), Dripping Springs (?), and Flower Mound

Top 5 Panel 2 = Cedar Park, Vandegrift, Vista Ridge, Hebron, and Pearland (?)

Panel 1 champion will be between Flower Mound and TWHS, leaning towards Flower Mound.

Panel 2 champion will be Vandegrift or Hebron, with a chance of Vista Ridge.

Those 5 collectively will very likely be the top 5 here. I'm still leaning toward a Vandegrift win. Not my favorite show design, a little dated for my tastes, but the difficulty and achievement from the musicians are remarkable. And the show itself is an improvement year over year. Also, it's unusual for a band attending Nats to win here, and Vandy isn't, so there's that.

Flower Mound and The Woodlands probably have the two best-designed shows in Texas -- FloMo a little more classic and formal, The Woodlands a little more modern and stagey. Flower Mound is performing theirs better right now, but The Woodlands has room for growth with their difficulty. I think they'll probably both get big effect scores.

It is hard to write off bands that sound as good as Hebron and Vista Ridge do, however, so I'm not entirely sure whom I'd pick for top 3. Vista Ridge sounds spectacular, especially the brass. Hebron's show is wonderful, and a bucket of fun thematically, but doesn't quite impact me as strongly as last year's from moment to moment -- what they have so far, at least. And that's the thing: Several of the shows are still incomplete. It's hard to pass judgment.

For finalists, I don't even know. BOA San Antonio often holds really big surprises, and I'm sure this year will be no different. I wonder if we get another out-of-left-field, surprise finalist, like Seven Lakes last year. Nobody was talking about them. What a huge rush that must have been for the kids and staff!

[packwick]

ok maybe no GN band has won in a long time, but flomo always wins it when they're top 5 at BOA SA, so which trend will be broken, luv?? which one, huh? HUH? lol

if the choice is vandy or flomo, i choose flomo.

visually i think it will be team foot vs. team face again. music is a big crapshoot.

[packwick]

how high will moe and gene fly do u think? tmc prelims and finals GE panels, both w/ experienced judges, had significantly different opinions of them, but good agreement w/in each round.

[Vegas Band Fan]

I think it’s still too early to make a call. Most of the shows that I have seen do not have their closer in. I want to see a Texas band take it this year. 

[utee94]

43 minutes ago, Vegas Band Fan said:

I think it’s still too early to make a call. Most of the shows that I have seen do not have their closer in. I want to see a Texas band take it this year. 

Here on the SASR thread, I will go out on a limb and predict that a Texas band will win BOA-SA. 😄

 

[Vegas Band Fan]

24 minutes ago, utee94 said:

Here on the SASR thread, I will go out on a limb and predict that a Texas band will win BOA-SA. 😄

 

Sorry, I meant GN.

[josephbandfan]

22 hours ago, mussheet said:

with all the crazy scores from tonights comps here are some new predictions for SA

1. Flower Mound 
2. Vandegrift
3. Hebron 
4. The Woodlands
5. Vista Ridge
6. Cedar Park
7. Moe and Gene Johnson
8. Ronald Reagan
9. Pearland
10. Rouse
11. Dripping Springs
12. Cedar Ridge
13. Seven Lakes
14. Leander
--------------------
15. Westlake
16. Wakeland
17. McNeil

Music-Hebron

Vis-Flomo

GE-Flomo

If i'm not mistaken, there has never been less than 3 DFW bands present in SASR finals. The band gods would never allow that

[TWHSParent]

10 hours ago, packwick said:

ok maybe no GN band has won in a long time, but flomo always wins it when they're top 5 at BOA SA, so which trend will be broken, luv?? which one, huh? HUH? lol

if the choice is vandy or flomo, i choose flomo.

visually i think it will be team foot vs. team face again. music is a big crapshoot.

In fact, they've never finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th. 4 wins, once 6th, once 7th, twice 9th, once 11th and once 13th. Of course all such records are made to be broken, so who knows. Maybe we'll even have a Grand National winner from the 9th finals performance slot for the first time ever this year...

[LostChoirGuy]

9 hours ago, josephbandfan said:

If i'm not mistaken, there has never been less than 3 DFW bands present in SASR finals. The band gods would never allow that

It's tradition at this point for people to vastly overrated the Austin area bands going into this contest.  Of course there will be plenty of them in finals and just outside, but we will also see more of the DFW groups in the mix.  It's too bad that several of the best groups from up there aren't going this year.

[seafoodbuffet]

7 minutes ago, LostChoirGuy said:

It's tradition at this point for people to vastly overrated the Austin area bands going into this contest.  Of course there will be plenty of them in finals and just outside, but we will also see more of the DFW groups in the mix.  It's too bad that several of the best groups from up there aren't going this year.

who besides Marcus isn’t attending? Why isn’t Marcus attending?

[Tubalord11]

29 minutes ago, seafoodbuffet said:

who besides Marcus isn’t attending? Why isn’t Marcus attending?

Probably bc they’re also going to grand nats, sometimes bands will skip to save $, and some just don’t go every year even w/o grand nats on their schedule 

[seafoodbuffet]

12 minutes ago, Tubalord11 said:

Probably bc they’re also going to grand nats, sometimes bands will skip to save $, and some just don’t go every year even w/o grand nats on their schedule 

Oh I didn’t realize Marcus was going to Nats

[TWHSParent]

2 hours ago, seafoodbuffet said:

who besides Marcus isn’t attending? Why isn’t Marcus attending?

Looks like, in addition to Marcus: Coppell, LD Bell, Lone Star, Prosper, Waxahachie to name a few.

[Rubisco]

16 hours ago, packwick said:

visually i think it will be team foot vs. team face again. music is a big crapshoot.

This took me entirely too long to understand, but I concur. 😅

15 hours ago, packwick said:

how high will moe and gene fly do u think? tmc prelims and finals GE panels, both w/ experienced judges, had significantly different opinions of them, but good agreement w/in each round.

If the judges couldn't agree, I don't know how I'm supposed to predict where they'll land, honestly. It seems like they could end up anywhere from just outside of finals to the top half of finals. My opinion of their show is that it's very well performed, but I'm questioning if the content is enough to make a big splash late season. 

 

3 hours ago, LostChoirGuy said:

It's tradition at this point for people to vastly overrated the Austin area bands going into this contest.  Of course there will be plenty of them in finals and just outside, but we will also see more of the DFW groups in the mix.  It's too bad that several of the best groups from up there aren't going this year.

I kind of agree. I also think that certain regions are just more gung-ho (I guess) about band in general. Austin is certainly one of those regions. And they have good reason to be! They have lots of fantastic bands. So does DFW! Those are really the two powerhouse regions in Texas. Maybe if Houston continues to climb, we'll see more chatter about them. Already in some of those UIL and local threads we're seeing more engagement and, well, conflict as the marching scene there grows. 😬

[tubapop]

16 hours ago, packwick said:

how high will moe and gene fly do u think? tmc prelims and finals GE panels, both w/ experienced judges, had significantly different opinions of them, but good agreement w/in each round.

It's well-performed, so the kids are doing well here, but I don't like the show design, and I can understand why it's polarizing. Some of the musical phrasing is odd, particularly in solos. Not that it should matter much or at all in terms of scoring, but something about the costumes and props doesn't sit right with me, either. Hopefully that doesn't count against them too much, because they're performing it fairly well.

I think some of the rankings placing MGJ ahead of Reagan, Rouse, Pearland, Bridgeland, and 7L are off base.

[josephbandfan]

54 minutes ago, tubapop said:

It's well-performed, so the kids are doing well here, but I don't like the show design, and I can understand why it's polarizing. Some of the musical phrasing is odd, particularly in solos. Not that it should matter much or at all in terms of scoring, but something about the costumes and props doesn't sit right with me, either. Hopefully that doesn't count against them too much, because they're performing it fairly well.

I think some of the rankings placing MGJ ahead of Reagan, Rouse, Pearland, Bridgeland, and 7L are off base.

I finally got to catch a vid of M&G and I loveee the props and costuming. I guess you’re right about them being polarizing. Great music selections too 

[AshTru9]

1 hour ago, tubapop said:

 Not that it should matter much or at all in terms of scoring, but something about the costumes and props doesn't sit right with me, either. Hopefully that doesn't count against them too much, because they're performing it fairly well.

I don’t think it’s supposed to sit right. That’s what Alebrijes are. Hopefully it doesn’t count against them. 

[cheeto2401]

21 hours ago, TWHSParent said:

Nope. They aren't attending BOA San Antonio this year. First time not attending for them since it became a super regional in 2003.

😮

[FaultLineBlues]

1 hour ago, tubapop said:

It's well-performed, so the kids are doing well here, but I don't like the show design, and I can understand why it's polarizing. Some of the musical phrasing is odd, particularly in solos. Not that it should matter much or at all in terms of scoring, but something about the costumes and props doesn't sit right with me, either. Hopefully that doesn't count against them too much, because they're performing it fairly well.

I think some of the rankings placing MGJ ahead of Reagan, Rouse, Pearland, Bridgeland, and 7L are off base.

Might just be a me thing, because I know Woodlands show design in particular is generally liked here, but I've always found that with their design, and now MGJs, there's a disconnect between the visual and musical components. The themes are always richly depicted visually, through uniforms and prop work, but the music writing just feels a bit watered down compared to the cultures, concepts and themes that are supposed to be conveyed. 

[tubapop]

2 minutes ago, FaultLineBlues said:

Might just be a me thing, because I know Woodlands show design in particular is generally liked here, but I've always found that with their design, and now MGJs, there's a disconnect between the visual and musical components. The themes are always richly depicted visually, through uniforms and prop work, but the music writing just feels a bit watered down compared to the cultures, concepts and themes that are supposed to be conveyed. 

Hm, I haven't noticed that with the Woodlands. I think back to their show 2-3 years ago (the "007/James Bond" theme) which I thought did a marvelous job blending music and visuals. I haven't liked their show the past two years. Just goes to show personal preference is all over the board.

[FaultLineBlues]

2 minutes ago, tubapop said:

Hm, I haven't noticed that with the Woodlands. I think back to their show 2-3 years ago (the "007/James Bond" theme) which I thought did a marvelous job blending music and visuals. I haven't liked their show the past two years. Just goes to show personal preference is all over the board.

I should note that there's musical choices they make that I really like, I just think I'm wanting the music to match the crazy visual excitement they bring to the field. And as always, they execute at a crazy high level, so they elevate everything they do just by virtue of that. 

[TWHSParent]

45 minutes ago, FaultLineBlues said:

I should note that there's musical choices they make that I really like, I just think I'm wanting the music to match the crazy visual excitement they bring to the field. And as always, they execute at a crazy high level, so they elevate everything they do just by virtue of that. 

This is an interesting topic to me. Speaking to The Woodlands I think their music choices melded really well in 2019, 2021, and 2022. I agree that 2023 and 2024 were not their best shows. So far I am liking 2025, should be interesting (theming and music strongly support "Hi-Fi" which is short for High Fidelity. The music is from the 60's and 70's when hi-fi was coming on the scene for everyone and leaving the nasty old monaural in the past).

Now to the interesting part - what do you think would make the music match the crazy visuals? A more upbeat style or are you thinking more virtuosity? I certainly can appreciate your point, especially during the years my child marched (2015-2018). I do see a gradual improvement overall since those years. They were in danger of falling off the top rung of Texas marching band, but have come back strong to keep their place. I have some awareness that there were discussions with the designers to improve the product but I have no knowledge of the details.

Who are the designers for MG Johnson? I don’t know. Just because Joni is now there does not necessitate they'll follow that same path that The Woodlands has taken. I would assume she wants to bring the program to a stronger level but let it have it's own identity. Anyway, just some rambles...