UIL 5A Area B 2025

[OGFISD99]

23 hours ago, cheesecurd21 said:

Any other new predictions or thoughts after region today? Personally I think the most improvement came from LT Emerson and Reedy

Think emerson is really going to surprise everyone.... I saw them again at region today and they have really put their show together and tge hard work shows.... I could see them sneaking into the top 5..... they did have a couple of spots that just need to be polished but they're definitely a threat . .. 

[cheesecurd21]

13 hours ago, OGFISD99 said:

Think emerson is really going to surprise everyone.... I saw them again at region today and they have really put their show together and tge hard work shows.... I could see them seeking into the top 5..... they did have a couple of spots that just need to be polished but they're definitely a threat . .. 

Absolutely agreed. Loved their ballad but closer seemed a little dirty. Argyle and WG both sound great but honestly i’m just not sold on their shows  

[cheesecurd21]

Any other new predictions? For me it’s:

1. Lone Star (I think they’ll beat Wakeland. Definitely a fan favorite and are really bringing it this year. Obviously could go either way though)

2. Wakeland

3-7. This one is hard. Includes LT/Argyle/Indy/Emerson/Reedy. LT is my lock for top 4, will probably see in the 3 seat but could somehow be 4th. Argyle/Indy/Emerson/Reedy are my 4-7. If it were right now, I think Argyle might take it. In two weeks though, I see it being any. While Argyle is great the frisco schools are improving much faster, so it’s really just who improves the most and prepares the best on area day. 

8. North. Great but I think are out of that top seat now. Kind of a wild placement, but they just haven’t scored well and I don’t think have the same ensemble as last year. Amazing soloists by the way

9. WG. Great ensemble but even though GE is not accounted for in UIL show design still does matter whether intentional or not. Not poorly designed at all, just not my favorite. Are clean but it’ll have to really step up in order to get even higher. 

10. Liberty. Great band, stuck in a very competitive area. Same thinking for probably 5-12th place. Really great bands in a very hard area. 

Bubble: Melissa/Heritage/Colony 

[Bbas]

any videos of LT/Argyle/Indy/Emerson/Reedy?

[glyde]

8 minutes ago, Bbas said:

any videos of LT/Argyle/Indy/Emerson/Reedy?

Try YouTube or football livestreams

[Bbas]

4 minutes ago, glyde said:

Try YouTube or football livestreams

no subscription

[cheesecurd21]

21 minutes ago, Bbas said:

any videos of LT/Argyle/Indy/Emerson/Reedy?

I think most bands have at least one video public on YouTube but nothing recent so might not be accurate 

[Dave609]

7 minutes ago, Bbas said:

no subscription

I know for Independence, Melissa live streamed the game this past Friday, so you should be able to see Independence as well. I'll send the link to the video in a bit

[Toasty]

21 hours ago, cheesecurd21 said:

Any other new predictions or thoughts after region today? Personally I think the most improvement came from LT Emerson and Reedy

My predictions are 

1. Wakeland (I don’t think Ls would be able to beat them this year, maybe next year?)

2. Lone star

3. LT (one of the only shows in this area I haven’t seen but placements and what I’ve heard shows they’re on track for 3rd)

4. Argyle (really clean and nice show, personally not a fan of their production this year but, if it’s clean it’s clean🤷‍♂️)

5-8 (in no order) McN The Colony Reedy Walnut grove 

9-10 Emerson/independence (personally I don’t really see the hype behind independence being so high, I could very easily be wrong as the recording I saw was wrong last week and a lot can still change, and Emerson they’ve been improving a lot.

im pretty convinced on my 1-3 spots, but with 4-10 it really comes down to who improves the most these 2 weeks and who overall throws down their best prelim run, since I’m assuming just like last year, finals will be bottom half top half? So not much will really change with 1-4 then.

[glyde]

I can see Reedy or Walnut Grove fighting for 4-5th place now! MN will probably not score well. Love the ballad still. But as far as I can tell, North might not even make finals

[bandguy13]

My best guess post-region is:

1. Wakeland

2. Lone Star

3. Lebanon Trail

4-7: Argyle, Walnut Grove, The Colony, Reedy (could see any order)

8. McKinney North

9. Liberty

10-12. Emerson/Melissa/Independence (could see any order)

[jamminsalmon_]

13 minutes ago, glyde said:

I can see Reedy or Walnut Grove fighting for 4-5th place now! MN will probably not score well. Love the ballad still. But as far as I can tell, North might not even make finals

not sure if i see a world where mn doesnt make finals, this year is going to be a toss up for sure but i'm very confident they'll be locked for finals. 

these last 2 weeks are going to define how well each band places at area, while comps are good checkpoints, i don't think it's too fair to judge a bands final placement based off of one run from 3/4 weeks prior, not that predictions aren't fun to make, it's just something i always think about. usually bands aren't scheduled for comps in between region and area and since 2, 24, and 25 all have region on 10/18, there's not much we can compare to besides football game halftime shows and early season comps, usually these last 3 weeks bands put the finishing touches which will hopefully result in some surprising results 👀. still don't know if i'll be able to pu to this comp (unt vs navy game time hasn't been announced yet) because it just gets exciting each year. there are so many amazing bands everyone is going to be outstanding.

[cheesecurd21]

6 minutes ago, thatoneguywhodrums said:

My best guess post-region is:

1. Wakeland

2. Lone Star

3. Lebanon Trail

4-7: Argyle, Walnut Grove, The Colony, Reedy (could see any order)

8. McKinney North

9. Liberty

10-12. Emerson/Melissa/Independence (could see any order)

Curious, why do you see Emerson/Independence out of finals? I think it’s more like Liberty or Colony don’t make it

[Toasty]

5 minutes ago, cheesecurd21 said:

Curious, why do you see Emerson/Independence out of finals? I think it’s more like Liberty or Colony don’t make it

I think with the way uil judges now with the new sheets, difficulty will play a bigger factor than before which definitely could shake things up for programs. 

[bandguy13]

5 minutes ago, cheesecurd21 said:

Curious, why do you see Emerson/Independence out of finals? I think it’s more like Liberty or Colony don’t make it

With the new judging system, having a judge for percussion is going to help Liberty and The Colony score higher. Emerson’s percussion is their weakest section by far, and for Liberty and TC, it’s their strongest section.

[glyde]

17 minutes ago, cheesecurd21 said:

Curious, why do you see Emerson/Independence out of finals? I think it’s more like Liberty or Colony don’t make it

I think Emerson will not be favored well in UIL this year especially with the weak visual package, I noticed a lot of poor marching technique on the field which was shown through their shaky plumes. 

[dciisrproudtopresent]

after region this week, these are my new predictions for this area:

1. wakeland - no explanation needed

2. lone star - one of their best shows in the past few years in my opinion, but after boa scorings, its hard to put them above wakeland

3. LT - they've been proving their abilities all season since melissa marching showcase and are guaranteed for state.  

4-7: reedy, liberty, wg, argyle 

8. mn

9. independence

10. emerson

i think any of the bands i have listed for the 4-7 spot could go for that state spot. mn placing below liberty, wg, and reedy, at boa prosper makes it harder to put them up in the state spot. emerson have had very clean visuals consistently throughout the season and I cant seem to predict them under 10th place. however independence and emerson are interchangeable. liberty and walnut grove have surprised me the most in the past two weeks with their rankings at boa and what i saw of them at region, i think they are dark horses for the 4th state spot along with reedy and argyle. 

[Miswordedstatements]

My locked in predictions 

1. Wakeland (cmon guys)

2. Lone star (awesome show super super awesome)

3. LT (holy crap they’re good)

4. Reedy (calm luh frisco sweep, but reedy is a underestimated and underrated program this year)

5. Argyle (really good it’s them or reedy but I’m locking them in at 5)

6. McKinney North (idk wsp w them sums funky)

7. WG (da grove, they’re tuff on the rise)

8. Independence (WALL OF SOUND, idk that’s what everyone says)

9. The Colony (good program they got snubbed last year)

10. Emerson (cool show they’re good!)

lmk what yall think 

[bandguy13]

21 minutes ago, thatoneguywhodrums said:

With the new judging system, having a judge for percussion is going to help Liberty and The Colony score higher. Emerson’s percussion is their weakest section by far, and for Liberty and TC, it’s their strongest section.

Along the same lines, I wouldn’t be unbelievably shocked if Argyle or Lone Star slipped below where we expect them to because of percussion scores. They’ve been carried by wind scores in previous contests, but those are their weak links also, and they’re not very clean this year.

[dryyellowmangos]

With no disrespect to all of the bands in our area, there are some bands that are being severely underestimated, and some bands that I think are being placed a lot higher than they might really fare. All of the band programs in this area are frighteningly good, each being able to contend for a state spot in any other area but regardless, there's an issue.

Independence. I've seen the word's Wall of Sound from Independence dozens of times on this forum, it's become a meme at this point. They've made vast improvements and they do sound amazing, and I'm not trying to judge them based off of their previous contest placings, but I do think that placing them above bands like Heritage, The Colony, Walnut Grove, and Liberty is a little unfair to those band programs. At Mckinney, they placed really well, but one judge (the same in prelims and finals), had them a few spots higher than all of their other judges in both rounds, placing them a little higher than what the average of the other judges had. Obviously this was earlier into the season and they've made significant progress since then and are a wonderful band program overall, but I don't have them as high as most people are putting them.,

 

Reedy. Another very amazing band program that's made leaps and bounds since last year. However, people consistently have them contending for a state spot or top 5. Although they may have had an early performance time, they were beat both visually and musically by Liberty at BOA Prosper. They have the hunger to do good, and have an excellent band program that will undoubtedly place high, but I feel like there's more wiggle room that could be given to some of the bands that are consistently placing below them.

Heritage. This band program has a cool show theme this year and is incredibly clean. Their percussion is splendid and musically really clean too. Only gripe I really have with this band is that at Region the other day, they did not receive straight 1's. I can't recall what for, but they received a '2' in one of their captions, making them one of two bands in Area B to not receive straight ones. It could have been a poor run or a strict judge, but that's something to take into account

Now for the bands that I think are facing a little unfairness, their efforts are being a little overlooked.

Liberty. They went from placing 14th two years ago to placing 7th last year with their new director. They are on the smaller end, closer in size to Walnut Grove but I believe they've been doing amazing work. Visually there are some messy forms and they have some individual stickouts in their brass sections but overall they're musically really clean and getting their visually too. With two more weeks of cleaning, I think they could beat their 7th place finish last year, especially taking into consideration that they beat Reedy (without GE) and Mckinney North at BOA Prosper.,

Walnut Grove. Another smaller band program that's doing amazingly this year. Individual stick outs were there a lot, but they received a score of 17.4 for individual music at BOA Prosper, putting them on par with the likes of Wakeland and Coppell for that caption. Their ensemble scores didn't reflect that, and maybe the judges really enjoyed what they were listening too, but by no means are they weak in any sense. Their trumpet screamer is crazy good too, throwing around those high notes like candy, and I really love their closer. They are super clean visually and their music is really nice too, and I definitely think they can be a 5-8 contender for this coming contest at area, way to go Walnut Grove.

 

[TubaTurkey57]

I know some people think that Lone Star could possibly beat Wakeland but I honestly just couldn't see it. I LOVE their show but maybe not this year, but I could definitely see it being a possibility in the near future. North has had quite the fall off compared to last year, even getting 20th at BOA Prosper was quite surprising to me, and I know that they had a worse than usual run, but I've noticed their show is overall not as clean as years past. I could definitely see them continuing to go down hill after their director change last year and could see it to continue even more with the possibility of them moving up to 6A. This competition is really starting to get stacked from top to bottom this year as these bands are continuing to get better and better, especially Lone Star and LT. I can't wait to see how it will turn out! 

All that said here are my predictions:

1. Wakeland

2. Lone Star

3. LT

4. Argyle/Reedy

5. Reedy/Argyle

6. Walnut Grove

7. Liberty

8. McKinney North

9. Independence

10. Emerson

 

[zxrzxz]

16 hours ago, dryyellowmangos said:

With no disrespect to all of the bands in our area, there are some bands that are being severely underestimated, and some bands that I think are being placed a lot higher than they might really fare. All of the band programs in this area are frighteningly good, each being able to contend for a state spot in any other area but regardless, there's an issue.

Independence. I've seen the word's Wall of Sound from Independence dozens of times on this forum, it's become a meme at this point. They've made vast improvements and they do sound amazing, and I'm not trying to judge them based off of their previous contest placings, but I do think that placing them above bands like Heritage, The Colony, Walnut Grove, and Liberty is a little unfair to those band programs. At Mckinney, they placed really well, but one judge (the same in prelims and finals), had them a few spots higher than all of their other judges in both rounds, placing them a little higher than what the average of the other judges had. Obviously this was earlier into the season and they've made significant progress since then and are a wonderful band program overall, but I don't have them as high as most people are putting them.,

 

Reedy. Another very amazing band program that's made leaps and bounds since last year. However, people consistently have them contending for a state spot or top 5. Although they may have had an early performance time, they were beat both visually and musically by Liberty at BOA Prosper. They have the hunger to do good, and have an excellent band program that will undoubtedly place high, but I feel like there's more wiggle room that could be given to some of the bands that are consistently placing below them.

Heritage. This band program has a cool show theme this year and is incredibly clean. Their percussion is splendid and musically really clean too. Only gripe I really have with this band is that at Region the other day, they did not receive straight 1's. I can't recall what for, but they received a '2' in one of their captions, making them one of two bands in Area B to not receive straight ones. It could have been a poor run or a strict judge, but that's something to take into account

Now for the bands that I think are facing a little unfairness, their efforts are being a little overlooked.

Liberty. They went from placing 14th two years ago to placing 7th last year with their new director. They are on the smaller end, closer in size to Walnut Grove but I believe they've been doing amazing work. Visually there are some messy forms and they have some individual stickouts in their brass sections but overall they're musically really clean and getting their visually too. With two more weeks of cleaning, I think they could beat their 7th place finish last year, especially taking into consideration that they beat Reedy (without GE) and Mckinney North at BOA Prosper.,

Walnut Grove. Another smaller band program that's doing amazingly this year. Individual stick outs were there a lot, but they received a score of 17.4 for individual music at BOA Prosper, putting them on par with the likes of Wakeland and Coppell for that caption. Their ensemble scores didn't reflect that, and maybe the judges really enjoyed what they were listening too, but by no means are they weak in any sense. Their trumpet screamer is crazy good too, throwing around those high notes like candy, and I really love their closer. They are super clean visually and their music is really nice too, and I definitely think they can be a 5-8 contender for this coming contest at area, way to go Walnut Grove.

 

I’ve been thinking this too. A lot of these bands (Mostly frisco schools other than Lt, Lonestar, and Wakeland) are getting predictions that are a lot higher than what we can actually expect in two weeks. While I’m in no way trying to diminish their efforts, I don’t see bands that have historically not been state qualifiers suddenly be put in bubble zone or even make the leap to 4th. And while we can make the argument that the new judging system may change some rankings, I don’t think it will affect one singular band too much. That being said, we need to remember that previous state qualifiers are much more likely to stay in that position than suddenly drop out, which I only see happening if a band isn’t actively Improving themselves each year. As far as I know, no band is having an off year and I expect The top 5 will still largely consist of the same groups we saw in past years. Again, I don’t want to diminish any group’s hard work, but some of these predictions are a little unrealistic.

[zxrzxz]

6 minutes ago, zxrzxz said:

I’ve been thinking this too. A lot of these bands (Mostly frisco schools other than Lt, Lonestar, and Wakeland) are getting predictions that are a lot higher than what we can actually expect in two weeks. While I’m in no way trying to diminish their efforts, I don’t see bands that have historically not been state qualifiers suddenly be put in bubble zone or even make the leap to 4th. And while we can make the argument that the new judging system may change some rankings, I don’t think it will affect one singular band too much. That being said, we need to remember that previous state qualifiers are much more likely to stay in that position than suddenly drop out, which I only see happening if a band isn’t actively Improving themselves each year. As far as I know, no band is having an off year and I expect The top 5 will still largely consist of the same groups we saw in past years. Again, I don’t want to diminish any group’s hard work, but some of these predictions are a little unrealistic.

In the same note regarding predictions, a lot of these bands don’t have a video uploaded of them since Prosper or even McKinney/Bedford. That means some of them won’t have posts online for 3 or 4 weeks, a LOT can change in that time in terms of design, cleanliness, and addition of new content. 

[dciisrproudtopresent]

1 hour ago, zxrzxz said:

I’ve been thinking this too. A lot of these bands (Mostly frisco schools other than Lt, Lonestar, and Wakeland) are getting predictions that are a lot higher than what we can actually expect in two weeks. While I’m in no way trying to diminish their efforts, I don’t see bands that have historically not been state qualifiers suddenly be put in bubble zone or even make the leap to 4th. And while we can make the argument that the new judging system may change some rankings, I don’t think it will affect one singular band too much. That being said, we need to remember that previous state qualifiers are much more likely to stay in that position than suddenly drop out, which I only see happening if a band isn’t actively Improving themselves each year. As far as I know, no band is having an off year and I expect The top 5 will still largely consist of the same groups we saw in past years. Again, I don’t want to diminish any group’s hard work, but some of these predictions are a little unrealistic.

I see where you're coming from. However, in just one year, reedy went from going two years consecutively not making finals, to jumping up to 6th place last year. same thing we saw with liberty going from many spots away from finals into 7th. yes, the odds of previously top 5 finishers making those spots again is high, but we shouldn't rule out anything especially given rankings in other contests and just the sheer competition that this area brings. the top three have usually been locked in for state, but there has been volatility between 4-7 in the past and I believe it will be no different this year. 

[cheesecurd21]

5 minutes ago, dciisrproudtopresent said:

I see where you're coming from. However, in just one year, reedy went from going two years consecutively not making finals, to jumping up to 6th place last year. same thing we saw with liberty going from many spots away from finals into 7th. yes, the odds of previously top 5 finishers making those spots again is high, but we shouldn't rule out anything especially given rankings in other contests and just the sheer competition that this area brings. the top three have usually been locked in for state, but there has been volatility between 4-7 in the past and I believe it will be no different this year. 

I agree. Plus judging sheets changing should be taken into consideration both positively and negatively. Lots of schools had surprises bad or good last year, a very surprising amount. Not saying it will revert back to years before, but could be noted not to rely on last year