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I also think that people get hung up on “bands not being as good as they used to be” when in fact the activity is moving SO fast that groups with a certain “brand” may find it hard to maintain the level of success they’re used to. CTJ has absolutely pushed the activity from a performance and design standpoint, and now everyone in the top has caught up to them. It’s the mentality of “a rising tide lifts all boats.” If you get very good, everyone around you will also get good-which is a GOOD thing! It’s not unique to CTJ- this has happened to Spring, Westfield, LD Bell, and to an extent Cedar Park and Cedar Ridge from time to time. CTJ still has an incredible product and brand and I wouldn’t be surprised to see them surge once again in a season or two like has happened for a few of the previously mentioned groups. It’s one of the best things about TX bands!

We just got in last night. First ever Grand Nationals. Exciting to see so many TX bands picked high in your predictions. Proud Pearland parent of a freshman here. We will be at Lucas Oil shortly after lunch today.

Let’s go team Texas! Hoping all the Texas bands make finals!

The numbers thing is also very much a chicken and egg sort of deal. It's tempting to just look at the numbers and conclude that having a bigger band helps you place better, but I think it goes deeper than that. A school/district that puts a strong emphasis on music, and backs that up with resources and quality instructors, will naturally draw more kids from the school's enrollment. So, in effect, some of those bands are bigger BECAUSE they are good.

Well, well, well ….look who I passed on my way to work today!! #teamtexas

Okay so it looks like we’ll have probably at least 3 Cartwright shows in finals. I cannot personally stand the design, but each band performing those shows is doing so extremely extremely well, so kudos to the staff and performers for that! As for the design… these shows lack emotion, story, diversity, etc. It seems like they pick an Emoji with one or two colors and build a show around that. And it only seems to work with larger bands. Block here, curvilinear there, pods there, etc. Pearland: 🌕 brownsburg: 🪈 Mason: ✨ Prosper: 🇨🇱 broken arrow: ➰ Bentonville: 🌻 Honorable mentions: Pearland 2022: 🦄 broken arrow 2019: 🤠 Prosper 2022: 🪑 I will, however, reiterate that the kids and the staff are doing WONDERFUL things with their shows and each of the aforementioned bands moves and plays like the top bands they are

Awesome that you get to be there!! Proud former Pride of Pearland band mom here, and beyond excited to see the band doing so incredibly well. My son and I both are excitedly following the competition this week! Big thanks to everyone here who keep us all updated on everything!! 🥰

1st- Whitesboro HS (State Champion) 2nd- Mineola HS (Silver Medalist) 3rd- Atlanta HS (Bronze Medalist) 4th- Holliday HS 5th- C.H. Yoe HS 6th- Redwater HS 7th- Howe HS 8th- Winnsboro HS 9th- Clifton HS 10th- Crane HS

While we’re still awestruck at what the LISD bands are doing, let’s not ignore what’s happening in Frisco. Lone Star to Wakeland is 2.8 miles door to door. Lone Star to Panther Creek (4A silver, will be 5A by ‘25) is 2.3 miles door to door. Lebanon Trail is just across town. While we salute the kids and these programs, let’s not ignore the feeder schools — those three schools (LS, Wake, PCreek) actually SHARE kids from some middle schools, which is stunning in its own right — that instill this love of music and band. just an incredible few nights for these neighborhood kids. Congrats to all …

I am extremely bias but Pearland just showed out! Fan support was wild and the band brought it. Think they have to go through but I’m ok judge or expert. So proud of them! So much work to get here and sacrifice

James Bowie did great! Pearland next Texas band in this panel. Very early but we should show very well.

it’s just so formulaic these days. give me an emoji and 3 overplayed pieces of music and I gotchu 🫡 🦊: The Quick Brown Fox 🌲: Amongst the Arbor ⭐️: Starstruck 🥭: A Tropical Escape

And usually 32-34

And best of luck to our #TeamTexas bands competing today: James Bowie, Pearland and CTJ!!! I will be doing live commentary but unfortunately only over semis/finals as I do have class to attend 🥲

I pondered these exact sentiments during the Finals no joke!!! Bigger band, bigger and stronger sound, makes for a better show imo! No matter how good a smaller band it won't ever be enough to ever outperform a large band that is solid. Thanks for doing the homework on this, I was interested to see the #'s and was surprised they were here lol. It's a crazy stat at the end of the day. Cheers.

Well, that's assuming that Box5 doesn't take a crap like last year. Trying to be optimistic, but... I am going to try to get the multi-cams of the finals.

Curious how the numbers look for 6A too!

Next year, all the kids affected by the Covid mess should be graduated. I expect even greater performances!

Thanks for the kind words... I haven't been back to the SMBC since 2015 since Alamodome started cracking down on spectators bring in recording equipment such as the simple digital camcorder and external audio recorder. That year, I had my tripod confiscated but luckily had a small Gorillapod tucked away in my backpack... this was before Alamodome banned regular backpacks from being brought into the stadium. I perched myself into the camera-well high above the crowd along the 50 yard line at the top of the Alamodome. With how many bands performed in a block and how far away the concessions and restrooms were, it was difficult being a one-man operation. My brother was unable to join me in watching the bands that year. That's why I only did prelims because I was so exhausted. I do not think there is any way one could record the entire contest today. For now, I am content just going back to my home region (10) and recording/posting all the marching bands from there.

My predictions. What's the word on Pearland? 1st. Hebron (music/GE) 2nd. Carmel (visual) 3rd. The Woodlands 4th. Avon 5th. Blue Springs 6th. William Mason 7th. Pearland 8th. Brownsburg 9th. Round Rock 10th. Keller 11th. CTJ 12th. Dripping Springs

Texas will have a strong showing - expect Hebron and Woodlands to be top 4. The Woodlands will compete for best effect and best visual, Hebron will compete for best music and best effect. We’ll see Pearland top 8, with a tremendous possibility of top 5. We’ll see Round Rock top 10, though I expect top 7. We’ll see Keller and CTJ in finals, likely 7-11. We’ll see Dripping and Bowie making a strong statement in semis, with an outstanding chance of making finals. Go Team Texas!!

👹💅: Trollgirls 2 i wouldn't mind Wes doing a show about movies so bad they're good, i think he does camp well. buuut id be afraid he'd give it to one of his so called "lesser" bands and we'd get like 10 of the same giant "Versayce" set piece circling around Nomi as she thrusts it on side 1.

So happy to hear our Txbands are coming out strong!

Please re-read. I said they weren't as strong as I expected them to be. Doesn't matter where I watched them. Didn't say this wasn't their best performance.

Yeah I agree with the staging thing. both Pearland and Brownsburg are in the tier of shows that have the sameeee exact drill moves: clump with squiggle attached block on front hash with guard/dance in front block on the 50 huge arc across the front random pods? arranging the props in small triangles or circles

Very excited to hear this about Bowie! Hoping to see them in finals on Saturday- I was unable to catch them this afternoon! Everyone is raving about their flugelhorn soloist on other forums. It must have been fantastic!

I really want to see them because there are a lot of contradicting thoughts on them 😆

Agreed!! Horribly inaccurate predictions: 1. Bridgeland 2. Cy-Fair 3. Cy-Woods 4. Tompkins 5. Jordan 6. Seven lakes 7. JET 8. Cy-Ranch 9. Cinco Ranch 10. Katy 8-10 Could be a toss up between the two ranches and Katy lol.

It’s awesome to see kids like that come into a program.

I’m hoping next year is Jordan’s year! I also see Bridgeland and Cy Fair continuing their dominance. I hope Tompkins has a better vehicle next year because those kids can march and play! Cy woods and 7L still are wildcards to me. I get the impression 7L bit off more than they could chew this year. Cy Woods I felt was much improved over last year by the end of the season after a slow(er) start.

Since I’m very impatient(I should get it checked out😂) anyone have any thoughts on potential finalists and state qualifiers for next year?

I agree. With so many activities and sports for kids to choose between, many will choose to join a program with a better chance of success. If a high school band is known for consistently making state, students will want to join and be a part of that success. Likewise, it is hard to have fun when you belong to a group that never performs well and doesn't have the resources put into the program to create compelling show designs and musical education. When students don't have fun, they leave the program.

It's such a fun experience. Enjoy!

Best of luck to your kid, can’t wait to see them perform over the weekend!

This is their third championship! Last one was back in 2015. I'm very excited for the program!

What an exciting evening of marching arts! Congratulations, Whitesboro! And congratulations to all the finalist bands! I am awed by what you do so well!

Awards starting now!

He’s so freaking good. I’m a pianist myself and played the piece in 6th grade and lm tell you, it ain’t easy. But it’s so beautiful and delicate and he played it perfectly!! I remember freaking out with my mom when we got to see y’all at Wylie bc she’s the one who wanted me to learn the song in the first place, he played it so well every time!

I don’t see the 6A program on the UIL app that had the numbers. It would be interesting to compare.

oops sorry that’s fixed now

Thank you so much

Tomorrow is the day. Safe travels to all of the bands attending Nationals this year! And good luck! It'll be a blast. We'll be cheering for you back home. ❤️

While driving back from San Antonio last night I started thinking about numbers. How many bands with 200+ kids vs those with less than 200. I found the results interesting. Number of 5A schools in Texas - 251. The smallest band to compete - Liberty Hill HS with 120. The largest bands to compete - Aledo HS and Lebanon Trail HS with 238 each. The 5A State Champion Cedar Park HS with 237. Out of 35 schools to compete in prelims, 12 had 200+ while 23 had less than 200. The 12 schools to compete in finals, 8 had 200+ while 4 had less than 200. The top 5 schools had 200+. Burleson Centennial HS finished 6th as the highest ranked school with less than 200. Richland HS was the second one at 9th. this means 8 of the top 10 had 200+ students in the band. What does this all mean? Nothing most likely but it definitely appears that having a larger band helps. No matter what size, it’s all about who performs their show the best. This year, it was Cedar Parks HS. Congratulations to Cedar Park and everyone else who got to perform at the SMBC!

I was told by a few people that one of the Percussion judges is notoriously inconsistent with other judges which is why the Percussion scores so much different from the ones in preliminaries. My son who is a freshman told me there were lots of tears last night from the seniors and all the underclassman that will miss them. He got a couple notes from the seniors that made him tear up. I don't know if this normal, but it's probably one of the things that I really appreciate about our experience with the LISD band program. I know the term servant leader is overused these days but I think it's definitely the best description of the upperclassmen I've interacted with.

How my eyes and ears saw it: 1st - Cedar Park 15 2nd - Rouse 17 3rd - Wakeland 20 4th - Leander 22 5th - Forney 6th - Burleson Centennial 7th - Lone Star 8th - Hendrickson 9th - Friendswood 10th - Lebanon Trail 11th - Roma 12th - Richland (this doesn't feel right)

Marcus 21 was amazing but have you heard their ballad from this year? I feel like it's one that will be talked about for a long time. 😍

Well put together and obviously a lot of work, but the only performances that are going to matter will be the ones this week and the only scores are the ones given this week as well. I used to spend a lot of time doing just what you are doing, but learned that previous scores and results just really don't tell you a lot about what's going to happen this week. It is, however, a lot of fun to speculate. Nothing wrong with that!

This message is mostly aimed to students at Cy-Woods, Cy-Fair, and Bridgeland high schools. I'm a Bridgeland parent and I know many BL kids read this forum, and I imagine the CyWoods/CyFair kids do, too. I am beyond proud of what our district is starting to do right now. In the 1990s and early 2000s, Houston had some of the best marching bands in the nation. Westfield, Spring, Langham Creek, Clements... nobody knew of Hebron, Vandegrift or Vista Ridge back then. But the directors at those great Houston schools eventually retired or moved on, and their programs declined quickly, with Langham Creek being the last to do so. CFISD's music program has struggled for 17 years, since Langham Creek HS was the big dog and was doing great things on the field. It's been nothing but tumbleweeds since then. But to see what these three bands have put on the field the past couple of years, and especially this year, it just makes me incredibly proud of how we are representing Cypress, CFISD, and Houston in general. It is a renaissance for CFISD and for Houston. To the Cy-Fair HS kids: Your show this year was so outside-the-box. I've been following marching bands for a long time, and it's one of the most creative show designs I have ever seen. Everything was new, different, original. I have never heard so many kids from other bands "ooh" and "aah" over a show as I did at the area I contest a few weeks ago when you performed in the finals. I've never discussed the meaning of a show so often with parents from BL and other schools. That means you put ART on the field, and that's all in addition to the precision marching, the beautiful and tight woodwind runs, the beautiful brass sound, the amazing guard with its butterflies. It was just a complete package and, knowing we are friendly competition, I was sweating you guys all season and was a little relieved you weren't attending BOA SA - one less contender to worry about. I can't wait to see what you guys cook up next year. I know it's going to be absolutely incredible. To the Cy-Woods HS kids: You put on a fantastically clean and modern show. The black and yellow popped on the field visually, and it complemented the block formations and diagonals so well. The cleanliness of the front ensemble was noteworthy, and my favorite moment might have been the trumpet-led brass section in the first 1/3 of the show, where you're standing in a diagonal formation on the right side of the field and are building up to a tense moment with a constantly crescendoing double-tonguing master class that is so, so clean and in unison--that is really difficult to pull off, but you did. I'm sure you are aware from the prelims scores that you were incredibly close to making the BOA SA finals. Maybe you felt a little disrespected this season in the judging, and I'm stressed about what that's going to make you do next year. And to my Bridgeland kids: I can't say enough about you. The show was so beautiful this year. You achieved historic things. There's only one band in the history of Texas that has ascended so quickly from being a new school to being a state finalist - and that one band is Vandegrift. I remember when I was in marching band in HS, I didn't really understand the competing bands and what it meant to place at a certain level. But I hope that when you look at the list of state championship finalists and BOA SA finalists, that you understand what an elite level you are at right now. You were the new kid on the block and nobody knew who you were. And now, everyone knows who you are. In the countless times I walked back and forth from my hotel to the Alamodome this week, I spoke with parents from Hebron, Vandegrift, the Woodlands, students at the University of Houston, former Marcus students who are now in college... they were all so complimentary, and they all knew the name "Bridgeland." One of the UH kids used to play at Pearland and he was the most blunt about the 2022 show. He said, "Yeah, I saw Bridgeland was going on, and I was like, 'who's that?' But their show blew me away, I was like [expletive expletive! expletive!!!] That is AMAZING!" You are on the map now, kiddos. And I am willing to bet the directors are going to really kick it up a notch with next year's show. It is going to be incredible, and I hope you are setting your sights very high. If you're on Bridgeland neighborhood social media, you can see how proud the whole neighborhood is of you guys, with hundreds of likes and comments pouring in. Bravo on a job well done. I hope you never stop striving for greatness in life. In closing: I'm so pleased to see how the schools in some other districts in our state support each other. Leander ISD, for example -- you'll see fans of all the different HS programs in this district cheering their hearts out for each other. As CFISD starts to re-gain prominence, I hope we do the same for each other. If Bridgeland didn't make the finals, I sure as heck was rooting for Cy Fair or Cy Woods to make it. Stick together and let's go head to head against these other districts that have dominated for too long. 😉 Here's to 2024!

twhs is on the wait list for Dayton which is odd bc they usually don't attend on school years they go to BOA Nats. 2022 was an exception to make up for the 2021 COVID season. maybe they think there's a chance they'll raise the funds???

You know your comment is uncalled for.....nice way of slamming a group....whatever they did has nothing to do with drugs. Really....