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2019 BOA San Antonio


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Slight interjection into the topic at hand but John B Alexander has seriously become one of my favorite groups of all time. They don’t perform for judges or placements, they perform their way into all of our hearts. Those students are so very passionate in what they do, and deserve so much more credit than those scores are giving them. Sure, they may not play to impress judges anyways, but their shows these past couple years have been total crowd favorites, and even then they have been looking and sounding better and better every year. This whole 58th place thing really leaves me scratching my head. I sure hope that one day soon in the future they can earn themselves a spot in finals, because lord knows they deserve it.

JBA show was awesome - the tarps where a bold choice and and I remember the kids frantically scrambling to get off the field in prelims with them - the show was longer than most. I loved the show and recall that it took so long to get off the field and asking the kids to slow down so they did not get hurt. it took so long to stow the tarps and pit equipment that they missed their photo spot. I know that there was conversations with directors to come back on Saturday morning in uniform for pictures - while I was busy on Saturday and not sure that it happened - I hope it did.

 

that show rocks!!

 

JBA had a show to be proud of

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Really unfortunate that I missed their performance. Not sure what could have caused the judges to rank them the way they did; they were so impressive at McAllen. Some other shocking statistics:

 

Their McAllen finals score was higher than their SA score.

They were outscored by both Pioneer (57th) and Roma (40th).

 

Imo JBA will be just fine if they keep doing their thing. Mix in late-season cleanliness with their unparalleled emotion, and they will be rewarded. Give ‘em some time.

An earlier season regional score being higher than their SA score seems to have happened to other bands also. Off the top of my head, Coppell scored a 87.95 at St. Louis finals I believe, then scored an 87.2 at SA, which was also lower than their score they earned at SA last year even though it seems most are in agreement their show this year was a further improvement from years in the past.

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An earlier season regional score being higher than their SA score seems to have happened to other bands also. Off the top of my head, Coppell scored a 87.95 at St. Louis finals I believe, then scored an 87.2 at SA, which was also lower than their score they earned at SA last year even though it seems most are in agreement their show this year was a further improvement from years in the past.

Sure.

 

But McAllen was on 9/21, while SA was on 11/2 for Alexander. The range between those 2 dates is astronomical!

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I'm not sure how long Vista Ridge has been using field mics, perhaps they haven't fully figured out how to use them to their advantage yet. However, CTJ, who has been using them for a few years now, if not longer, has definitely mastered using the amplification to their advantage. I hope to either see more groups using full field amplification in the future, or seeing a rule change regarding the usage. I think the scores show that a levelling of the playing field is necessary in some way or another.

This is the first year Vista used amplification on the field, and I believe they did just so the woodwinds could speak out a little more. But I don't know much about amplification myself.

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The situation with the Rose Parade brings out some very unpleasant memories about how the BOA got Bands in the Rose Parade.

First let me explain I grew up in Southern CA and marched with the Spirit of Troy in the Rose Parade while in College. I also worked with Bands in CA that were trying to go to the Rose Parade and had to deal with the Tournament of Roses. The story is not a pretty one.

1. The TOR wants Bands that are at least 250 members.  The Bigger the better. . In 2005 Nacogdoches represented TX(Great Band but not enough folks for the TOR) The next year Kingwood represented the Lone Star State. Better but still not gigantic.  The year after that guess who represented TX, the then 550 member Allen Eagle Escadrille who were lucky enough to be marching in the same Parade as the Longhorn Band who were playing in the Rose Bowl.   

 

2 ln 2008 the TOR made it known that they wanted large Bands.  CA schools may be excellent Parade Bands but with one exception they number about 100 to 140 members. The TOR went through the motions of going to Band Contests throughout CA in the hope of finding a good enough(Big Band) for an appearance. Son of a gun they could not find a big Band.  Now please understand that the TOR invites one Band from CA every 4 years and they are coming again in 2021. THAT IS ARCADIA, which not only is next door to Pasadena but is the 300 plus member monster on the street. They have been to the TOR 17 Times  and if the truth was known they are the only Big Band in CA that can look good against Bands from out of State.

 

3. This is where BOA comes in. Folks from BOA met with the Tournament of Roses to try and get a selection committee to send the best Bands from BOA contests to the TOR.  The began to look at Bands who were top notch winners in the BOA contests. However the TOR folks did not understand that Drum and Bugle Corps style Bands followed DCI type of Marching .  The TOR thought that the Bands would march like the " COMMANDANT"S OWN"  USMC Drum and Bugle Corps who march a whole lot different than the BOA Bands.  

 

4. The Rose Parade is a 5 1/2 mile monster to march with a requirement to play 3/4 of the time. The TOR Bands choosen to Pasadena were in most cases a very big disappointment to the TOR. CTJ was great in their Field show before 5,000 folks two days before the Parade, they were in the words of many CA directors who watched their performance" Abysmal " on the street. Other BOA Champions such as Broken Arrow, Dobyns Bennett   and Round Rock also did not impress anyone in the parade.

 

5. What is not mentioned in this agreement was that the TOR could replace a BOA Band with another Band if they thought the other Band would be a better selection About 3 years ago the Eagle Escadrille from Allen made a return trip to Pasadena. When the TOR offered them an invitation, they happily accepted and BOA sent no Band that year. Allen by the way did a decent job on Grandioso on the street.

 

6. I think the agreement with the TOR and BOA was not a winner for anyone. I do not blame Bands for not wanting to go and spend several Hundred Thousand Dollars to march down a street.  Trust me it is not worth it. . 

 

I can't for the life of me figure out why you are on these forums. You hate BOA AND Texas bands. You push outdated things like NAMMB, which is almost dead, and complain about everything that is not like it was or is in California. This is TXbands not CAbands. We like our Texas bands and are proud of our kids. You are of course welcome to post your opinion like everyone else, but you really don't seem to be enjoying yourself here. You may want to take a good long think on that one.

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Checking in to see how the Hive Mind did on predictions for this contest.  Actual placements vs predictions submitted:

 

1 Ronald Reagan   0

2 Vandegrift     +1

3 Vista Ridge     +4

4 Leander     +2

5 Hebron     -1

6 Marcus     +2

7 CTJ     -2

8 The Woodlands     +1

9 Flower Mound    -7

10 LD Bell     +2

11 James Bowie     +2 

12 Round Rock     +10

13 Keller     -3

14 Pearland     +49

 

Of the 14 bands predicted to make Finals, 12 did.  Nine of those were predicted with 2 spots of where they did finish.

 

The Hive Mind did pretty well.

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Checking in to see how the Hive Mind did on predictions for this contest.  Actual placements vs predictions submitted:

 

1 Ronald Reagan   0

2 Vandegrift     +1

3 Vista Ridge     +4

4 Leander     +2

5 Hebron     -1

6 Marcus     +2

7 CTJ     -2

8 The Woodlands     +1

9 Flower Mound    -7

10 LD Bell     +2

11 James Bowie     +2 

12 Round Rock     +10

13 Keller     -3

14 Pearland     +49

 

Of the 14 bands predicted to make Finals, 12 did.  Nine of those were predicted with 2 spots of where they did finish.

 

The Hive Mind did pretty well.

Pearland +49  :o

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Pearland realistically wasn’t predicted to make 63rd. They have never placed lower than 28th. The predictions on txbands are only used to predict finalist. As the number is displaying they were just a long shot over their actual placement.

 

Yes, I was coming back to make that point.  IN THEORY, every single predictor that didn't enter them as a Finalist could have had Pearland as #15 on their personal list.  But, it is a pretty good indicator of how little chance the Hive Mind gave them to be in Finals.

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Congrats to all the finalists! Some things to note

 

After watching finals and watching videos of the groups that narrowly missed, I think groups like Cedar Ridge, Westwood and Westlake could have easily been in over groups like Pearland and RR, but contest dynamics especially with the format of 2 panels plays a huge role. There is not much a performance difference between the groups that place 11-18 or so. 

 

Surprised that Cedar Park and Rouse were so low....Cedar park seems to be GE which many predicted, Rouse just kind of low in everything, except for Music GE where both judges had them in the top 14. Crazy to think that rouse beat Bowie at the Texas Marching Classic. Contest dynamics play a HUGE role in a contest of this size. When you play and who you play near. 

 

My summary is that BOA needs to respond to the extreme interested in this contest and the extreme number of amazing bands. A semifinals round with the top 30 would make the placements much more accurate and gives the judges a better shot at picking the right bands for finals. 

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I'll dissent a little - I don't agree that they got any wrong bands in finals. Every one of the 14 bands was finals worthy. Others were too, but they just miss, which happens at pretty much every contest. If they go with a semifinals, then finals will only be 10 or maybe 12. They won't do a 14 band finals. And we'll have the exact same conversation about 30th to 35th that we have for 14th to 18th. Then there are also the class awards - are they part of semifinals like nationals? If so, then semis will be expanded to allow at least 4 bands from each class (assuming 4 bands from each class attend). So now we are looking at 30 to 38 bands. Or maybe semis at a super is only top 20 or 25 with a top 10 finals and class awards are based on prelims. There are ramifications for all changes that have to be fully thought through and logistics have to be worked out. I don't expect any changes in the immediate future. BOA will check the impact of UIL's change to area to determine any negatives for them - how big of a reduction of attendees will they have, if any? Is the lure of the Alamodome enough to keep getting the Valley, Houston, and DFW bands to continue to attend, or will they go to a much smaller area contest where the competitive landscape is much reduced from BOA San Antonio?

Im not saying none of those groups didn't deserve to be in. Of course they did. I am saying there are so many worthy bands that in order to accurately place them a smaller number needs to be taken to semifinals. Then they all need to be judged by the same panel in Semifinals. 

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This was great competition with one exception...so many performers tripping and/or falling during shows, Finals included. I counted a total 9 falls and numerous trips without a fall, and I only attended one prelim block plus finals. I have a couple questions that I hope someone here can answer -

 

1) Does a fall normally result in point deductions? If so, were exceptions made this weekend?

 

2) I have only been a BOA spectator/parent for a couple of years, I don't recall ever seeing a performer fall at any event. Does BOA have any commentary on the Alamodome turf issue?

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