Westlake Marching Festival 2018

[texkathi]

A couple of things:
1. I like "shopping local." That means I buy as much as possible of what I buy at local stores, not online, because I like my tax dollars supporting our Texas schools. I don't have a lot, and I don't buy a lot, but I like that my money goes to support local folks in their jobs. I don't use the "do it yourself" scanners, because I like having people employeed, not machines that increase profits for companies while doing nothing for local families. (And that goes for Marching contests, too.)
2. I am a parent, but I'm also a former band director, from many, many moons ago- back in the days that UIL only allowed 2 nonUIL events per semester. So, while marching bands have changed tremendously, I still am more about music education than competition, and I appreciate programs where all kids get to participate, as long as they pass off their music & marching, and are passing their classes.

3. I like the local festivals because they support local programs. We can argue that maybe Westlake doesn't need the $$ some other programs might (LBJ comes to mind,) but still, these local festivals benefit our local programs. They may be "rivals", but I think we're all stronger when all schools have strong programs. Not all families can afford the big money it costs to run a program these days, given all the costs for costumes for color guard, props, show writing, music arranging, etc. It is tens of thousands of dollars, and good band programs shouldn't just be for the schools that can afford them, they should be for all students. Music is often what can keep students in school.

 

All that said, Westlake was well-run, as it usually is. The competition at the top was strong- Dripping Springs and Round Rock turned in stellar performances. Round Rock's band is about twice the size of DS (158), and I swear that they've got more brass players than DS has band members, but still, RR won by 1.25 points. Dripping improved their score from prelims to finals, RR's came down a tiny bit.

Final results:
1 Round Rock 90.1

2 Dripping Springs 88.85

3 Belton 82.575 (maybe time to update their tag-"Marching 100" since they now march over 200:)

4 Connally 81.5

5 Seguin 81.1

6 Clark (SA school) 74.8

7  Stony Point  73.1

8  Akins 72.4

9 Cedar Creek 65.1

10 Laredo Martin  64.35