Mineola's Iron Horse Marching Classic (Saturday October 4th, 2025)

[TexasStrangers]

1 hour ago, Ahsoka said:

This might be a dumb question, but does the Mineola band compete in this contest or do they only host it? Also, I’d like to attend as a spectator and want to know the price of admission and what time it starts. 

Mineola is hosting and will also perform in exhibition between the Finals and the Final Results. Not sure on the cost and what time it starts. It's a month away, I am assuming info will probably come out in another week or two about it. 

[TexasStrangers]

On 3/28/2025 at 8:41 AM, SwarmFan1 said:

I know it's 3 weeks away, didn't know if anyone has seen a schedule for this yet. I heard it's full

[Trumpeter75]

[TexasStrangers]

On 9/18/2025 at 7:11 PM, Trumpeter75 said:

Nice little preview of what could be some teams in 4A Area C Finals and 3A Area C Finals!!

[rudy12]

Updated predictions.

I have heard NL is pretty great this year. If the rumors are true then they will be the ones to beat.

I don’t know much about Terrell but the predictions have them high. 5A?

Marshall has always been a good 5A band 

I think a lot of folks are sleeping on Pine Tree. Them Farmersville and PG  should be competitive with Terrell and Marshall. I haven’t seen PG but I was really impressed with them last year. 
 

after that will be Redwater and Winnsboro. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they take out one of the 4As 

[Trumpeter75]

1 hour ago, rudy12 said:

Updated predictions.

I have heard NL is pretty great this year. If the rumors are true then they will be the ones to beat.

I don’t know much about Terrell but the predictions have them high. 5A?

Marshall has always been a good 5A band 

I think a lot of folks are sleeping on Pine Tree. Them Farmersville and PG  should be competitive with Terrell and Marshall. I haven’t seen PG but I was really impressed with them last year. 
 

after that will be Redwater and Winnsboro. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they take out one of the 4As 

I think I am going to go 

1. Farmersville

2. North Lamar

3. Redwater

4. PG

i know redwater and PG beat those 5a-6a schools at Winnsboro last year. 

[rudy12]

4 minutes ago, Trumpeter75 said:

I think I am going to go 

1. Farmersville

2. North Lamar

3. Redwater

4. PG

i know redwater and PG beat those 5a-6a schools at Winnsboro last year. 

I wouldn’t doubt it. Those are great programs. Have you seen Farmersville this year? I haven’t seen a vid. Hearsay is that they are really good, but maybe not quite as much as last year. 

[Trumpeter75]

1 hour ago, rudy12 said:

I wouldn’t doubt it. Those are great programs. Have you seen Farmersville this year? I haven’t seen a vid. Hearsay is that they are really good, but maybe not quite as much as last year. 

I have not seen Farmersville but word of mouth is they are always a very good band with a good show so I would expect no change. I have seen first part of Mineola, Winnsboro, Atlanta, Mt Vernon, and Redwater. 

[Alexa890]

Overall prediction on who is making finals? 

[bigbluebandisthebest1122s]

19 hours ago, Alexa890 said:

Overall prediction on who is making finals? 

marshall is most likely to get first place in the competition.

 

[purplepeople2030]

On 9/3/2025 at 10:13 PM, TexasStrangers said:

Mineola is hosting and will also perform in exhibition between the Finals and the Final Results. Not sure on the cost and what time it starts. It's a month away, I am assuming info will probably come out in another week or two about it. 

Any updates on cost of admission? 

[TexasStrangers]

19 hours ago, purplepeople2030 said:

Any updates on cost of admission? 

I dunno have not seen anything online anywhere

[tej9017]

Adults - $10

Students - $5

6-Under - Free

[TexasStrangers]

Anyone going to this?

[Alexa890]

Predictions on finals??

[rudy12]

2 hours ago, TexasStrangers said:

Anyone going to this?

I wish. A friend of mine is going bc his kid marches for one of the bands. He doesn’t use this site. I can share his opinions. 

[rudy12]

58 minutes ago, Alexa890 said:

Predictions on finals??

I think the aggregate predictions are pretty acurate.

[Trumpeter75]

11 hours ago, TexasStrangers said:

Anyone going to this?

I will be there. I am glad Redwater chose this event over the Four states competition although they have a few good bands showing up there this year, plus would like to see Benton Louisiana play our old show Prisoner of Time and see how they arrange it for a larger band. I think Redwater will try to make top 5 against some of these very good large 4a-5a bands. I know they are still finishing up their drill so they won’t park for 2 mins this time but prolly still park for the last portion of their music. I would say they prolly have about 75% of show on field so far. For this I don’t think they will take down a 1-3 spot but who knows. I know their main reason for going is to have judging similar to state. I think it will be a good experience for the kids and also give them some ability to see a few good larger bands to watch after they perform. It will be a very long day.  

[Cgrad01]

I missed the 2A and 3A Prelim Awards:

4A

Outstanding visual - North Lamar

Outstanding Color Guard - Farmersville

Outstanding Percussion- Pleasant Grove 

Outstanding Music - North Lamar

Outstanding Band - North Lamar

 

5A

Outstanding visual - Terrell

Outstanding Color Guard - Marshall

Outstanding Percussion - Terrell

Outstanding Music - Terrell

Outstanding Band - Terrell

 

6A

Outstanding visual - Grand Prairie

Outstanding Color Guard - Grand Prairie

Outstanding Percussion - Grand Prairie

Outstanding Music - Grand Prairie

Outstanding Band - Grand Prairie

 

FINALS Performance Order:

  

Redwater

Elkhart

Farmersville

Marshall

Grand Prairie

Terrell

Queen City

North Lamar

Palestine

Winnsboro

Pine Tree

Pleasant Grove

[Trumpeter75]

2a

Alba golden 

best visual, music, overall band

centerville 

best percussion 

3a

redwater

best music, guard, visual, percussion, and overall band

4a

farmersville

best guard 

PG

best percussion 

North Lamar

best visual, music, band

5a

marshall

best guard

Terrell

best visual, music, percussion, overall 

6a

Grand Prairie

best music, guard, visual, percussion, band

[Gpk1968]

All I know from finals in that north Lamar took 1st and win best music and visual. Go panthers!

[TexasStrangers]

Final Results

12th Place Palestine (5A)

11th Place Elkhart (3A)

10th Place Marshall (5A)

9th Place Grand Prairie (6A)

8th Place Queen City (3A)

7th Place Redwater (3A)

6th Place Terrell (5A)

5th Place Winnsboro (3A)

4th Place Pine Tree (4A)

3rd Place Farmersville (4A)

2nd Place Pleasant Grove (4A)

1st Place North Lamar (4A)

 

 

Overall Percussion - Terrell (5A)

Overall Colorguard - Farmersville (4A)

Overall Music - North Lamar (4A)

Overall Visual - North Lamar (4A)

 

I'll post my thoughts tomorrow, it's been a long long long long day of 23 bands and 12 bands in finals. Kuddo's to Mineola for hosting! The place was packed and I could see this being a huge beginning of the year showdown for several bands to start the season off for the new few years to come. 

 

[Trumpeter75]

I will just start by saying Wow?!?  I would love to see the judging scoring from prelims to finals. And I am not just talking about Redwater. They placed about where I had them, think I actually had them maybe 6th overall. After watching all of the finals- I had North Lamar and PG fighting for top two spots. Thought North Lamar was best band there entire day. Thought PG music selection and show was better then last years show. Felt after those two it would be a toss up of Marshall, Farmersville, or Terrell. Thought Marshall had improved hugely from last year when we watched and competed against at Winnsboro comp. Thought Farmersville was OK but think the other two main 4a competitors were much better. Farmersville guard were excellent. After that I had my Redwater band. Thought there were issues in the quartet but overall thought they played better in finals then in prelims where they swept the 3A awards. After that the other bands did not show much for me. The spots that just made me go hmmm was the placement of Marshall and Winnsboro. Did not see Palestine being last over Eckhart either. How is scoring for visual not subtracted by not having any guard over another that had guard for visual effect. Anyway as with all band competitions it is all subjective. What one likes etc may not be someone else’s show or visuals.  Those are my early, almost sleepy thought. Kuddos to Mineola tonight. I thought they sounded 10x better tonight over PG invitational. 
I will say one thing I heard over and over from spectators that I think Mineola will have to fix or come up with a plan is bathroom issues. Every woman I heard was complaining of their facilities and lack there of. It might be a suggestion to rent a row of porta potties, other then that it was a wonderful day watching some good marching. 

[lolflame]

what suprised me the most was marshall’s placement, i thought they did way better than 10th

[Trumpeter75]

2 minutes ago, lolflame said:

what suprised me the most was marshall’s placement, i thought they did way better than 10th

Yes. When Palestine was called 12th and Marshall 10th I was like what?

Edited October 5, 2025 by Trumpeter75