principalagent

And Austin!

This is correct. Every Year Area is in effect starting this fall. Leander, Hendrickson, Rouse, Cedar Park, Wakeland, and Weiss are all skipping to go to BOA San Antonio. It seems Aledo, Lebanon Trail, and Wylie East are going to opt for Area instead. Burleson Centennial has neither listed, so presumably their directors are still weighing the choice or need approval. Highland Park and Dripping Springs have yet to update their calendars, but I assume both will go to Area. I couldn't get into Friendswood's calendar and can't find Lone Star's site.

It seems to me that the two suburban Austin UIL Regions have moved from Saturday to Tuesday. That helps explain Leander, Round Rock, Cedar Ridge and Weiss going to Waco, as well as rumors of Hendrickson and Cedar Ridge considering St. Louis.

You can add Weiss to the list, it seems!

Leander's UIL Region was one of the very few (less than five) that voted down Every Year Area. I think that sentiment was particularly strong and supported in their ISD and Region.

I also heard that CTJ might be going to the new Director’s Choice thing too. Any word on that?

It happened in 2012 when Bell traveled up to St Louis (BA originally signed up, then split—deciding not to attend BOA at all until GN) and in 2015 when Carmel signed up for an early Ohio regional (Mason also signed up, then split). BA seems pretty confident in their ability to take on Tarpon Springs. Not sure they want to take on Texas—especially after Avon couldn’t manage on their last trip.

BA and Mason have both pulled out of regionals before knowing they were going to face a potential challenge. When was the last time Broken Arrow didn’t medal outside of GN? I’m not convinced the program is up for that risk.

Hahahahahaha.

But don't you want them to get some nice hardware in Dayton in 2021?!

Yes, they were demoted (perhaps by director decision, perhaps by WGI) overall.

Gone are the days when the Leander / Cedar Park game was the last game of the season and sold out the stadium. I was hoping the Battle at Bagdad would be the season finale again with Leander and Cedar Park being back in the same class without Vandegrift or Vista Ridge!

St Louis and ended 4th.

The all-state process is conducted through TMEA, so it’s a different organization. UIL is an all or nothing opt-up, based on other concerns than competitive concerns. So bands will be stuck to their classification.

I think 9th Grade numbers will count since not all regions separate 9th Grade auditions.

The latter. How many Is at Region.

Dripping Springs! The newest member.

CPMS had that guard program when I was in middle school, which has been quite some time ago now. If the other schools haven’t followed suit yet, I don’t see them doing so now.

I would be pretty shocked if Waxahachie, a band program that has yet to even attend San Antonio, would attend GN on a State year, where UIL is the program’s historical bread and butter.

Thank you for not being a dinosaur!

Probably choice. A new director will usually give the ensemble an opportunity to move down. It allows for a director to rebuild the way they want.

I had a similar conversation with some friends a few weeks ago. Back in the 90s into the middle of the 2000s, there was an understanding that there were Four Horsemen of Texas Bands: Tom Shine of Duncanville, Scott Mason of Coppell, Phil Geiger of Westfield, and Scott McAdow of Langham Creek. These four directors had a strong hold on marching band--especially for UIL, but also for BOA in the case of Westfield--and pretty much a complete lock on concert band until Bell, Reagan and Marcus started to really shake this up. In particular, Duncanville had an unrivaled consistency in both marching and concert band, Westfield had an unmatched two decades of dominance in marching band, Langham Creek had a reputation for legendary concert performances while also fielding a consistently strong band, and Coppell set numerous and continuous all-state records in multiple classes. Now that all of these directors are retired, or sadly deceased, we tried to put together the next four for now. We came to more or less a consensus on: Mike Howard, Vandegrift Andy Sealy, Hebron as the two most obvious choices. Even if they weren't your one and two (though there's plenty of reason both should be), there was no way they weren't in your top four. Brent Biskup at Flower Mound seemed to emerge as a third. The fourth spot got interesting as there were clear pros but some slight cons to move into the fourth (or third) slot. We ultimately had five names that kept getting thrown out. George Trevino, Lopez (undeniably strong concert band, marching band very overshadowed by the others) Dan Morrison, Reagan (no big wins yet outside SA just this year, but clear and consistent strength across categories) Jarrett Lipman, CTJ (all state numbers only rivaled by FloMo, generally strong BOA performances but no medals yet at GN, weaker in UIL than others) Joni Perez, The Woodlands (GN win, dominance in region of state, representation, but concert side behind the rest of the groups) Steve Wessels, Cedar Park (dominance in class, but slight backsliding against the 6As recently) At that point, it was just what did you prize most in a band. If you cared about concert band above all, Trevino would take a spot. Consistency? Morrison. Class representation? Wessels. Big wins? Perez or Lipman. Strong cases for all, as all are amazing directors in their own right. And of course, there's still Selaiden at Leander, Christian at Vista Ridge, McGahey at Keller, and the list goes on and on.

Not an option not to attend! 2019 was my 10th San Antonio Super Regional (not in a row, unfortunately—missed some good ones!)

Weighing GN and a trip to England and Ireland. Maybe I’ll manage both.

Fully agreed. Glad it jumped many of the bands that beat them at DFW by the time San Antonio came around.