BOA Conroe 2018

[Guest]

  On 10/7/2018 at 3:14 PM, Fwguard17 said:

 

I heard friendswood had a couple weird things happen in their run

Id say Austin was visually more than clean enough for finals, they just didnt have nearly as much depth or volume to their sound as anyone in finals.

[ChristopherRoden]

  On 10/7/2018 at 3:40 PM, Cityscapes said:

 

Id say Austin was visually more than clean enough for finals, they just didnt have nearly as much depth or volume to their sound as anyone in finals.

How fixable of an issue is this for them?

[Guest]

  On 10/7/2018 at 3:43 PM, ChristopherRoden said:

 

How fixable of an issue is this for them?

Just get more people playing out.

[MarkD33]

Good afternoon all,

 

As the BOA Houston Host Band Booster President, I wanted to take a moment to tell you how great your kids were all day. It was a hot one in h-town and the kids performed well.  And kudos to the directors and parent volunteers for keeping the kiddoes hydrated.  We had minimal issues with dehydration and overheating.  Unfortunately, I didn't get to see many bands due to responsibilities during the day but, what I heard sounded incredible.  Congrats to Reagan for another big win.  See y'all next year!

 

Mark

[Tomcat491]

  On 10/7/2018 at 2:37 PM, ChristopherRoden said:

 

Anyone know what happened to Friendswood? Also we’re Austin and Pearland just not clean enough for finals?

They didn’t have the GE. Ironic considering Oak Ridge was behind them in everything at Friendswood and then proceeded to surpass them in GE and match or almost match their best vis/music scores

[ChristopherRoden]

  On 10/7/2018 at 6:16 PM, Tomcat491 said:

 

They didn’t have the GE. Ironic considering Oak Ridge was behind them in everything at Friendswood and then proceeded to surpass them in GE and match or almost match their best vis/music scores

Very interesting. My understanding is that typically GE comes from design? They could’nt have changed that much to make it have much more GE?

[gmtb617]

  On 10/7/2018 at 6:16 PM, Tomcat491 said:

They didn’t have the GE. Ironic considering Oak Ridge was behind them in everything at Friendswood and then proceeded to surpass them in GE and match or almost match their best vis/music scores

I believe that this explanation alone can’t explain a 10 point drop in their score relative to Conroe 2017. Something about their prelims run must have been off, because I refuse to believe that their talent dipped that much in one year.

 

This situation reminds me of their struggles at Conroe 2016, where they got 19th place, but rebounded to solidly make state later that season, scoring ahead of other fantastic programs at Area. Hopefully their 2018 situation will be similar to 2016 in that regard.

 

I didn’t see their run yesterday, so if anyone who did catch it could fill me in that would be great.

[thebashful15]

A year ago, Oak Ridge(15th) and Seven Lakes(14th) scored behind Churchill(9th) at Conroe.

 

This year, they placed 6th and 7th respectively to Churchill's 8th place showing at Conroe. Very impressed. 

 

Harvey definitely played a part in last year's competition, but still those are massive jumps for Oak Ridge and Seven Lakes.

[TWHSParent]

  On 10/7/2018 at 12:53 AM, principalagent said:

Bridgeland!!!! They're going to ruin some lives in a couple of years.

 

Note my comment from their prelims run (maybe I overstated, but I was impressed as they were very unexpectedly good). I ended up sitting by some of their parents late in the afternoon. They were so excited to win class AA and get to perform that night. It was great for them!

[TWHSParent]

  On 10/7/2018 at 6:45 PM, thebashful15 said:

A year ago, Oak Ridge(15th) and Seven Lakes(14th) scored behind Churchill(9th) at Conroe.

 

This year, they placed 6th and 7th respectively to Churchill's 8th place showing at Conroe. Very impressed. 

 

Harvey definitely played a part in last year's competition, but still those are massive jumps for Oak Ridge and Seven Lakes.

 

I don't think any of us, including those of us that were affected, truly realized the impact that Harvey had last year (granted marching band is small potatoes versus the lives impacted). It really set all the Houston programs back quite dramatically during 2017.

[Set15]

I saw a couple posts about the importance of the top 5 bands at BOA competitions, and I thought it was strange because I’ve never heard that before (I always assumed people really just paid attention to the top 3). Does placing in the top 5 at these earlier BOA shows impact future competitions?

Also, I want to give a huge shoutout to SFA and Bridgeland. Even though they didn’t get to compete in finals, I’m glad both bands had the chance to perform a second time.

[TWHSParent]

Congratulations to Ronald Reagan. I thoroughly enjoyed their show. I also sat near several of their band parents at various points during the day, and caught some of the rivalry between RR and CTJ (especially since CTJ dropped from Conroe a few weeks ago). As someone not from San Antonio, is that a completely friendly rivalry? I ask because there seems to be some level of friction there. Maybe I'm reading that wrong...

 

I thought the contest as a whole was outstanding. I unfortunately missed the first 3 bands but caught every performance from then onward. I left some comments in the thread with some of my really high level thoughts. As I'm obviously affiliated with a program I try to not criticize but rather talk about what I enjoyed. There was not a show that went on that field that didn't have something to offer the audience from 1st place to 30th place.

 

I also had a great conversation that I'm still ruminating over. So for those more in the know on the internals of BOA and DCI, what are your thoughts on the amount of crossover that is happening? It seems that some BOA judges are really rewarding DCI style visuals and music rather than more classic Band visuals and music. I personally like the split - a DCI group should look and sound a certain way, while a BOA group should look and sound a different way as these are not the same activity. Otherwise all we get are DCI-like shows, and most high school bands will struggle hard with that. Probably a contentious topic...

[gmtb617]

  On 10/7/2018 at 8:55 PM, TWHSParent said:

I don't think any of us, including those of us that were affected, truly realized the impact that Harvey had last year (granted marching band is small potatoes versus the lives impacted). It really set all the Houston programs back quite dramatically during 2017.

Last year, our band’s (7L) show designers decided to cut a movement from our show due to the time we lost from Harvey. It was a fast-paced, frantic, and fun arrangement of Danse Macabre, and it sucked not being able to perform it.

 

So, our ballad closer was produced in order to compensate for the cut reducing show time.

 

From my perspective, Houston bands as a whole really came together after the hurricane. Many Houston bands had surprisingly strong 2017 seasons despite the setbacks. (Pearland, Oak Ridge, Cy Fair, Clear Brook, etc.)

 

Nonetheless, glad we (and Houston) don’t have to worry about 40+ inches of rain this year. Jesus.

[LostChoirGuy]

Making top 5 in prelims at regionals is important because it determines if you will compete in the first or second half of finals. It is often difficult to break from the bottom half into the top half because of the way they give better performance times to the top 5. Thats why it was significant that 5-7 was so close.

[Tomcat491]

  On 10/7/2018 at 6:25 PM, ChristopherRoden said:

Very interesting. My understanding is that typically GE comes from design? They could’nt have changed that much to make it have much more GE?

The judges at Friendswood's contest has always been inconsistent with BOA judging. SFA is always on top with no real competition for instance. 

[Tomcat491]

  On 10/7/2018 at 6:35 PM, Lemondude617 said:

I believe that this explanation alone can’t explain a 10 point drop in their score relative to Conroe 2017. Something about their prelims run must have been off, because I refuse to believe that their talent dipped that much in one year.

 

This situation reminds me of their struggles at Conroe 2016, where they got 19th place, but rebounded to solidly make state later that season, scoring ahead of other fantastic programs at Area. Hopefully their 2018 situation will be similar to 2016 in that regard.

 

I didn’t see their run yesterday, so if anyone who did catch it could fill me in that would be great.

Wasn't talking about Friendswood, although Friendswood has never done well in BOA (2015 San Antonio aside) and, having seen them in past years, their show design isn't half of what it was last year and the kids aren't performing it half as well

[MarchingBandNerd]

  On 10/7/2018 at 3:02 AM, Avisshadow said:

Jeez, a crazy amount of people left after Vandegrift. I get it, the top 3 bands already performed but there’s only 2 finalists left. I feel bad for Cy-fair, but they sound great so far.

I noticed that too. I’m sure there were some finalist bands watching though - just before, there was an announcement telling them to get ready for the Finals ceremony.

[allyarcher]

  On 10/7/2018 at 6:16 PM, Tomcat491 said:

 

They didn’t have the GE. Ironic considering Oak Ridge was behind them in everything at Friendswood and then proceeded to surpass them in GE and match or almost match their best vis/music scores

[allyarcher]

Being a member from Oak Ridge, Friendswood didn't have the props because of the rain. We also had our clinicians come this week to help clean up the show musically and visually. Happy y'all enjoyed our show.

[CTJBandPops]

  On 10/7/2018 at 9:26 PM, TWHSParent said:

Congratulations to Ronald Reagan. I thoroughly enjoyed their show. I also sat near several of their band parents at various points during the day, and caught some of the rivalry between RR and CTJ (especially since CTJ dropped from Conroe a few weeks ago). As someone not from San Antonio, is that a completely friendly rivalry? I ask because there seems to be some level of friction there. Maybe I'm reading that wrong...

 

I thought the contest as a whole was outstanding. I unfortunately missed the first 3 bands but caught every performance from then onward. I left some comments in the thread with some of my really high level thoughts. As I'm obviously affiliated with a program I try to not criticize but rather talk about what I enjoyed. There was not a show that went on that field that didn't have something to offer the audience from 1st place to 30th place.

 

I also had a great conversation that I'm still ruminating over. So for those more in the know on the internals of BOA and DCI, what are your thoughts on the amount of crossover that is happening? It seems that some BOA judges are really rewarding DCI style visuals and music rather than more classic Band visuals and music. I personally like the split - a DCI group should look and sound a certain way, while a BOA group should look and sound a different way as these are not the same activity. Otherwise all we get are DCI-like shows, and most high school bands will struggle hard with that. Probably a contentious topic...

there is always friction with 2 programs that are from the same district and CTJ was a bleed off of the Reagan boundary, just as Reagan bled off of Churchill years before - I think I speak for all NEISD parents that enjoy the rivalry with Churchill, Reagan and CTJ as they compete in BOA events. I am sure there is the same healthy respect/competition between FloMo/Hebron/Marcus as well as the Leander ISD bands. 

[TWHSParent]

  On 10/8/2018 at 1:26 PM, Gogogo said:

First, loved your show! So the NEISD ‘rivalry’.. Churchill’s sister school is Reagan and Reagan’s sister school is Johnson. The bands’ include sisters, brothers, sons, daughters, friends and neighbors. At BOA Houston you witnessed the ‘rivalry’ between Churchill and Reagan - the Reagan band went into the backside stands to cheer on Churchill during prelims. During finals you saw the Churchill band in the backstands yelling a group cheer for Reagan and the Reagan and Churchill parents combining for a group cheer in support of Churchill. You would’ve seen the same support for Johnson. So, is this a ‘rivalry’- no. This is a Sibling Rivalry. The schools want to show off their talents, especially within the district. I can assure you at the NEISD Fall Festival the schools were excited to see each other’s shows. And most likely left thinking theirs was the best so much talent and class from all these kids! They make us proud to be part of the NEISD family.

 

Since I like to cross-pollinate with other school's band parents, I was sitting in the top row right in front of the judges during finals, and hence smack dab in the middle of the group of Reagan parents, with the Bowie parents also close by. I thought it was great that they set up and then performed the cheer for Churchill when they went on.

[TWHSParent]

  On 10/8/2018 at 6:24 AM, allyarcher said:

Being a member from Oak Ridge, Friendswood didn't have the props because of the rain. We also had our clinicians come this week to help clean up the show musically and visually. Happy y'all enjoyed our show.

 

Your show was fantastic. I didn't get to see your prelims run due to a long line at the ticket counter, and I let some of your parents go ahead of me so they could get in the gate to watch. I did see the finals performance. Keep up the hard work - I think you have a great shot at state out of area F, and BOA San Antonio finals are not out of the question.

[jcbg]

Having missed the competition, I am surprised to see Cy-Fair in the top 5. I figured they would be in the 6-8 range. Was their performance that good?

[TWHSParent]

  On 10/8/2018 at 3:57 PM, jcbg said:

Having missed the competition, I am surprised to see Cy-Fair in the top 5. I figured they would be in the 6-8 range. Was their performance that good?

 

Yes. It was pretty close between Cy-Fair, Oak Ridge, and Seven Lakes, and each program had a great show. Bowie wasn't that far ahead of them in 4th either, and Churchill made great strides over the last week in cleaning their show from the Austin regional, but still finished 8th behind them. They absolutely deserved their placements and are bands to consider for San Antonio (BOA and UIL). Don't forget Seven Lakes finished second at McAllen, and their show has done nothing but improve in the 2 weeks since.

[Meatball100100]

Stephen F. Austin was 0.35 points from finals... mostly because of the GE. But can anyone tell me what GE really stands for? Yes, i know its music and visual combined. But what makes the scores so different from the actual separate music and visual scores?