Leaderboard

(We are getting dangerously close to the Nationals-Should-Be-In-Texas conversation)

I really wish they would just do a semifinals here.

It makes me sad to think about all the bands that end their season at San Antonio and despite being a top 100 band in the country, they will not make it to finals, I wish more texas bands would go to grand nats so they can see how good they are and just how high the standard is in texas

putting backwards marching drill over this is attempted murder btw

Leader was realllly great. Much much much prefer this show to last year. Soloists kinda stole the show for me.

Cedar Park was pretty fantastic. Much better of a design than last year. Really don’t love the trend of putting jv/wind players on swing flag (especially when the guard is plenty big enough!), 9 times out of 10 it just makes those moments lack clarity visually.

history of excellence culture of success it continues to feed itself in the most positive way for those same reasons those districts attract exceptional teachers who in turn continue their success like a snowball rolling down a hill

As someone from Rockwall. I just wanted to say one thing in this forum about them. We killed it. We absolutely killed it this season. School history was made with this show and we will keep writing history until there’s nothing left to write. As a senior who had the same thing happen to her during her freshman year (one placement off from state) it’s a bittersweet full circle. I appreciate everything this band has done for each other, some of the best community I’ve been apart of, and I may just be a random guard member to everyone in my band but in reality I am so dedicated and so invested in how this band succeeds and I can’t wait to sit back, relax, and watch the next generation of our colorguard, band, and people grow. Jacket fight never dies. -The obnoxious guard captain

If CR rifles has million fans, then I'm one of them. If CR rifles has one fan, then I'm THAT ONE. If CR rifles has no fans, that means I'm dead.

Missed most of Round Rock, oops. What I was able to see was really great but the ending felt a bit anticlimactic? Cedar Ridge just understands GE and buy-in like no other. Reagan kindof exceded my expectations after their early season results. That was pretty fantastic, love how well the shows flows despite having so many different moments.

Lucas Oil stadium with its nearby convention center is a far superior site to host a competition than anything Texas has to offer.

First time seeing Tom Glenn this season and really enjoyed that performance!! I see why they did so well this season because they have come a long way in how they look and sound. Great musical presence, both from soloists and the ensemble as a whole, with plenty of showcasing of each section. Some cool visual moments, but was really impressed with their sound, especially given their size, great job Glenn!

Yep, that's how you do it Cedar Park!! Such a powerful opener, really great work going between the brass and WW's. Great flute solo, been on point all season long. Such a mature sound from the Trombone, and such a beautiful ballad, just wow. Great brass moments during the Barber symphony going into the closing movement. The presence this band has on the field is truly something special, and visually so clean. The bodywork is this show is so fun, and they are executing at a top level. I do feel like they've got a stronger performance in them, and have no doubt we will see that tomorrow, amazing job CP!

Wow Lake Travis, SO much improvement from the last time I saw them!!! Beautiful euphonium solo going into the opening impact, great job with the rotating snowflake. I love how they make Battle of the Ice a brighter piece, great WW feature. Such a pretty ballad, that soprano sax plays with such maturity, and a super big closer. Guard brought so much, loved the flag work throughout, amazing job today!!

I think CP is going to be in the top 5 ... just my opinion from watching them at uil... yes I know it's a different judging style but don't see them that low.. I would even say top 3... they are at the level of Hebron Marcus and Vandergrift.

Good luck to everybody competing tomorrow and the day after. I get the feeling that not a single person in this forum or in the predictions subsection can predict the 14 finalists in correct order. This is by far my favorite competition of the year, all these end-of-season tx bands coming together to play for one last time, its basically a state championship of its own but with get. I personally enjoy this competition for the Grand nats, basically anybody making finals or on the bubble of making final here can make it to the grand nats finals and its just not the same without texas bands, there is just something special about tx hs marching bands that pulls me in. Regardless of the outcome here or at UIl 6A state to those going, congrats on a great year, every single band has put in so much work since July or August back in the texas heat all building up to these last few weeks, it has been such an amazing season, cant wait to see what happens.

Yes, this is technically true looking at the graph, but I'd say the factors of band size and placement correlate with each other, band size doesn't cause higher placement. Not directly. As the bands tick up in size, they have more possible talent in their program. More good players to put on the field, with the ability to put the lower skilled and inexperienced members on JV marching bands or alternate spots on the field. Bigger programs most likely have superior teaching to make their students better, and directors that can retain kids coming out of feeder middle schools (get them to stay in band). In an easy example of Cedar Park, I imagine it's pretty easy to convince incoming 9th graders to be in the band that's a six-peating state champion. Larger bands generally do better, yes! But not because they're scored higher by judges because they're large, but because larger bands tend to have a deeper pool of talent.

I really love how Cedar Ridge incorporates their school colors into a great color palette for their show. Such a visually appealing group to watch with the pendulum sets and everything.

Unfortunately I'm eating soup today 😞

It’s a good idea but it would just turn into boa San Antonio 2.0 but I would like to see something that would allow Texas bands to come a little easier so we can really compare all Texas bands

This is one thing that does sort of suck with Grand Nationals being so far away. I would love to see much more Texas representation at this event. But I do understand the distance makes it a cost thing.

Seeing the “Thing” hand in the Winston Churchill band was so entertaining.

Really wonderful performance from my alma mater, best run of the year from them by far. The bulldogs want it really bad I can tell. Will it be enough? I really couldn’t say, but they gave their absolute max today. So happy they’ve found their footing in this post-covid era and I know they won’t slow down as they have some really great kids and incoming classes on the way. Phenomenal season for them so far and whether or not that was their final performance of this year, they should be very proud because I couldn’t be more so. ❤️🖤

The soloists for Leander were INCREDIBLE

I just love Cedar Park’s show this year. And of course they’re consistently executing it at the highest level. Beautiful, balanced, and powerful sound and great visual program. Looking forward to an even stronger run tomorrow night which I’ll get to see in person!

Im pretty sure Cedar Park will make finals, but I thought their performance at 5A finals was a bit stronger so I can see them in the bottom half. We will have to see how other bands do.

Hendrickson has brought a beast of a show with them. Demand is through the roof and it was really entertaining throughout. That one was a first viewing for me today and man it was good.

Good morning everyone! We are here live on Box5 for the San Antonio super regional! I'll be on today for the first two blocks and all day tomorrow! If you buy the prelims/finals, it does include both days of prelims and finals for a much cheaper price! Good luck to everyone competing this weekend!

To everyone performing this weekend I hope all of you have amazing performances! Seniors, for some of you this is your last performance inspire your bandmates and leave it all on the field! Don’t leave an ounce of doubt that this was the best performance you have given all year! In order to make finals here you have to give it all that you have. Perfection is what it takes! But no matter what enjoy the moment! Us as audience members will enjoy every performance no matter what!

hmmmmm.... i think there was a discussion on this earlier. don't think tw will win a major championship again until they narrow the musicianship gap b/w them and Hebron/Vandy. frankly imo they've been quite rickety early season musically every yr since the director change. still a lil freaked out by their trumpets lol. at the same time they're already in the elite tier, despite whatever the random forum predictions indicate. i mean, they've been 2nd place and less than a point off of 1st place the past two years, aaand prob should have been top 3 at BOASA in 2021 as well, given the Nats results, w/ them like 3 pointing CTJ or whatever. think i said this before, but they're good at things that are less well understood by fans, like visual and effect. maybe all the H-town bands could step it up a bit musically. ofc that doesn't mean falling into the "Texas loud" trap or playing a billion questionably musical 16th notes, bc that gets tiresome. tho maaaybe a lil more technical razzle dazzle could be nice.

I disagree this year especially in regards to Cedar Park. I don't see why they would not be on a similar score trajectory to Leander in 16,18, and 19. Well on their way to a top half or even top 5 finish.

keyword in my original comment was always. lots of people tend to attribute their own program's losses to their larger competitors, when it shows that size is not everything. also while the graph is trending downwards, you can see there are plenty of bands outside of finals that are larger or around the same size as "small" bands that did make finals so your statement about the graph is untrue

Very neat to have a marching band competition on a Wednesday evening with this really awesome lineup of bands. The show ran a bit late. All I could think was that this competition was not the well oiled machine that BOA is. Flower Mound was excellent. I love this show from them and the kids perform the snot out of it. Thought they won last night, personally. Hebron's music, as always, propels them to the top. I didn't think it was their best performance, but the show is cleaning up nicely. That closer is insane. We've heard Rocky Point on the field before, but it seems like they just grabbed the hardest sections of it and stuck it on the field. Somehow this show is even higher in difficulty than their past 3 years. These recaps have to be very, very interesting. How does FloMo win 3 captions and not win? I suppose Hebron must've been like .05 or .1 behind in each caption to still win by .2. But surely Hebron didn't crush FloMo by over a half point in just music. AT&T is an absolutely horrible stadium, so so so echoey. It's hard to hear any clarity since everything sounds like a one big warble. This sets up a wild SASR and SMBC. FloMo has been nipping at Hebron's heels this entire season and they could take over down in SA. Hebron needs to clean clean clean the next few days. Throw Vandergrift, Reagan, and TWHS and you have an absolute bloodbath for the gold medal and podium spots.

I thought it'd be cool to make a graph showing the 5A State bands' placement relative to their band sizes. Got the member numbers from the UIL program Some points of interest and outliers: -Of the Top 10 largest bands, only 6 made finals. -Of the Top 5 largest bands, 4 were in the top half of finals, with the other one (Lake Belton, 4th largest band) missing finals at 13th, making them the largest band outside of finals with 223 members -Cedar Park (5A Champ) was significantly larger than any other band here, ranking as the biggest group with 267, far ahead of Lonestar's 2nd rank with 225 members. -Roma was the smallest band in finals, tying for the 26th largest band (154 members) and placing 12th in the competition. -BC was the second smallest band in finals, ranking as the 25th largest band, squeaking ahead of Roma with 155 members. They placed 9th in the competition. -Argyle was not too much larger, ranking as the 21st largest band with 168 members and placed 7th in the competition. -Glenn placed impressively high (16th in the competition) considering they were the 3rd smallest (36th largest) band here. -The largest size difference between two bands that placed next to each other in competition was a 98 member difference between Lakeview Centennial, who placed 34th in competition and had 198 members, and Lopez ECHS, who placed 35th in competition and had only 100 members. Lopez ECHS was also notably the smallest band at the competition by 20 members (Liberty Hill was 2nd smallest), while LC was the 11th largest band. -Close behind this difference is Glenn and Pieper. Glenn placed 16th in competition, just ahead of Pieper in 17th. Glenn (36th largest), with only 1 member more than Liberty Hill, had only 121 performers. Pieper (Tied 7th largest) had 215, making it a 94-member difference for the two bands. -Other neighboring bands with gaps in member size that are worth noting are Argyle and Lonestar's difference of 57, College Station and Liberty Hill's difference of 70, and Lake Belton and Colleyville Heritage's difference of 63. NUMBERS ARE COOL!

Where my Berkner peeps at? You have some great kids….my daughter is in 6th grade band and came out last night to see her brothers in finals. She wad sad they didn’t make state but she thought it was so cool that Berkner band kids were building each other up and talking about how proud they were to make finals. Thank you. Little Ears are always listening?

SACHSE!!! Congratulations to Sachse, Waxahachie, Forney and Duncanville on advancing to state!! Absolutely heart-broken for those kids at Rockwall, I really wish they could have taken 5, but it's just how these comps be sometimes. And to Sachse, wow, if they get one of the good slots, they could place very well.....maybe finals? Idk, but either way congratulations to everyone who competed here today!!

Flower Mound is always my favoriteeee. The ballad is absolute perfection (other than some balance issues lol). Glad they didn’t just do the polka dots.

I just walked out. It's windy, chilly, and gray this is peak BOASA weather yippee.

I don't know if the show quite connected with me but holy MOLY is Flower Mound clean

flower mound my beloved, my favorite shows every year also i hope someone gets this reference but this show feels like arcadia’s winter guard show from this year

I love Reagan's show, though I bet they have a visually cleaner run in them. The ending is beautiful!

It's definitely been more of a trope recently. As long as woodwinds aren't hidden away for large chunks of show I'm pretty ok with it.

"Quiet Please" screens while Reagan parents cheer the loudest they can is cracking me up

I didn't really mean for it to be an argument. I just think ballads are fun moments to play during, and my sister as a woodwind often complained about not being able to do so, so it's just a concern I've been more aware of recently. The flags definitely add a ton of effect and I imagine a lot of the woodwinds are having a lot of fun in the moment.

They've been historically huge, and they're still up there this year! Here's the list of bands by performance size, according to the UIL SMBC program, with any ties listed in alphabetical order. 1st Cedar Park: 267 2nd Lone Star: 225 3rd Rouse: 224 4th Lake Belton: 223 5th Leander: 222 6th Barbers Hill: 220 T-7th Aledo: 215 T-7th Pieper: 215 9th Midlothian: 210 10th Wakeland: 200 11th Lakeview Centennial: 198 12th Hendrickson: 194 13th College Station: 190 14th North Mesquite: 186 15th Hays: 185 16th Mckinney North: 180 T-17th Friendswood: 175 T-17th Mount Pleasant: 175 T-17th Richland: 175 20th El Dorado: 170 21st Argyle: 168 22th Smithson Valley: 164 T-23rd Colleyville Heritage: 160 T-23rd Mequite Poteet: 160 25th Burleson Centennial: 155 T-26th Angleton: 154 T-26th Roma: 154 T-28th Lubbock: 153 T-28th Sharyland: 153 30th Hanks: 150 31st Sharyland Pioneer: 147 T-32nd A&M Consolidated: 140 T-32nd Kempner: 140 T-32nd Rio Grande City: 140 35th Lubbock Cooper: 136 36th Glenn: 121 37th Liberty Hill: 120 38th Lopez ECHS: 100

MG Johnson!!!! That was incredible!! Powerful sound, united visual - an absolutely finals worthy performance!! Be so proud of the production you’ve put together, y’all were awesome!

Oh CAM... the Box 5 commentary is wild this year.

It’s the arms race that Reagan started when they integrated their dance team and guard combo. (Insert gif of Kylo Ren yelling MORE!!)

Houston bands are great! I just think that the lack of them at the tippy top makes it feel like they're overshadowed. I also think design down there (here? I'm a Houstonian now) tends to peak earlier when the Austin and Dallas groups really put on the afterburners. That said, being not-from-DFW, there's a TOOOOOOOON of DFW bands that are overshadowed in the same way. Byron Nelson blew me away last year, Braswell is AWESOME this year, and McKinney is gonna turn some heads tomorrow morning. So many great bands that you never see in the dome. Wish more of them would come!

we consider china spring our rival, but i truly love this show.