natertater21000

it most likely will be. leander just got the news that the school district will not let them depart yet, so they are being scheduled for later. Pretty much what happened to Cedar park last year with the bus break down but to a greater extent. we may see Friday pre lims end at 10 not 8

Have to say this is the best I've ever heard rouse sound! Way to go!

We could definitely see a huge flip flop from pre lims to finals given that it's looking more and more like Friday pre lims bands will not get warm ups

I'm speaking of Leander btw, we do it throughout September and we usually perform the show the week after BOA Austin. A sibling of mine is still in the program and they made a little over 60,000 this year off of the march-a thon donations. However it is worth noting that in a band with over 300 total members if everyone were to only get 100$ (really easy honestly) that's already in the 30,000 range.

Literally just door to door asking for donations and then putting on a free performance, my band last year made a little over 40,000 off of doing that

Really hoping rain doesn't hurt the Friday pre lims bands, it's looking like it could complicate or even delay the contest.

These guys up here have covered pretty much everything but as a very recent Leander alumni I will say this,it is very important for every single person in the program to have a goal of great success and for everyone to believe that it is possible. To be completely honest coming from someone who was in that program at the time, our (Leander's) jump to huge success last year was in large part thanks to a very committed and enthusiastic leader team and band student body. Believing you can do it, and having every person putting forth that effort goes a long long way. It only takes a couple apathetic people to make what would be a fantastic rehearsal an inefficient one

These guys up here have covered pretty much everything but as a very recent Leander alumni I will say this,it is very important for every single person in the program to have a goal of great success and for everyone to believe that it is possible. To be completely honest coming from someone who was in that program at the time, our (Leander's) jump to huge success last year was in large part thanks to a very committed and enthusiastic leader team and band student body. Believing you can do it, and having every person putting forth that effort goes a long long way. It only takes a couple apathetic people to make what would be a fantastic rehearsal an inefficient one

I'm curious as to what your logic is in predicting vista ridge will leap frog both cp and Leander because I'm just not seeing that at all

can someone explain how the tie was broken for leander and cp? im not sure how that works for uil

*sigh* BOA isn't only show either though, you cant get the show points without the marching and music points

people need to stop assuming that all it takes to excel at BOA is flashy props and dance visuals. that has never been the case, just go look at Reagan 2003 or avon in 2009. the difference is that BOA gives more credit to the 90% clean hard show than the 100% clean easy show for UIL its flopped. (btw no im not saying state champion shows are easy but they typically excel in both arenas so that should be evident)

slotting is not near as big an issue in BOA though. At san Antonio in 2012 marcus was the first band in finals and won by a landslide. Leander and CTJ were first and second in pre lims last year and both went on Friday way before any of the other big names in the top 6. Slotting is a nice little advantage to have in BOA however in UIL it can control your entire bands fate regardless of how well you perform. Also something of note is how much more weight a judge carries in UIL a bad judge can drop your band a couple spots in BOA (see Leander last year in music GE 2 for a good example) but in UIl that same situation can drop a band from the top 5 clear out of finals.

Can I just say that the fact that we are even discussing slotting being an issue with bands that deserve to advance actually getting to advance is pretty evident proof that something about this outdated judging system needs to change? CP 7th in pre lims in 2011 is ludicrous, and while im not trying to take anything away from them (absolutely loved their show last year) Hendrickson winning 6a area d pre lims.....no

While BOA and UIL are different I don't see any reason that those differences would move vandegrift above cp or leander. They had a refined orchestral sound in 2013 but this is 2015 and currently after seeing all three live at tmc, none of them do. They all have a very big BOA impact sound, all three have quieter refined moments but none shy away from the in your face DCI sounds (which is in no way a bad thing). However if we are comparing that, Leander takes the cake by a mile and that's why in finals of both BOA Austin and TMC they were only .2 and .05 behind Cedar Park in music respectively. They aren't behind in music in the slightest, but they are consistently ahead in visual, and that's why I think they take state.

I wouldn't call beating Leander by less than half a point a solid third that would make Leander over taking them in finals all that surprising

ah, I thought that might be the case but not knowing for sure I didn't say, thank you for the correction

Another interesting note is that Leander was the only finalist to not have a complete show in finals. Being close to the program (alumni as of this year) they still have nearly a full minute to put on. This year just gets harder and harder to predict every week.

As far as the scores go they can probably be explained by a couple things. As far as Austin is concerned some of the scores, especially the top two were pretty inflated for a regional in September last year. When this happens BOA will usually give there judges a lower "score cap" per say for the next year so that the BOA circuit as a whole looks like a more linear progression. This same thing happened in 2013 to BOA San Antonio so that we didn't see grand nats winning scores two weeks before grand nats. Now as far as Conroe, some of the scores do seem to be inflated, at least in my opinion. The average any band should be improving week to week (with the same criteria such as BOA to BOA) should be around 2-2.5 points 3 is not un heard of but 6.5 points in one week?? that's inflation right there. This is why this year is so hard to predict. Bands that don't typically win are winning and scores are close in some areas and all over the place in others. What a fun, awesome mess.

well I give up predicting anything beyond finalists at this point for any contest...with Reagan winning BOA Conroe I now feel like I know nothing anymore in the BOA/UIL landscape....may the best band win

Just another example of why I believe the UIL judging system to be out dated and not nearly as comprehensive as the BOA scoring process. There are so many problems with it, chiefly in this example that UIL can't show just how much a band beat another band in a caption. Cedar Park won music by .2 and Leander won visual by .25 and with a tie in GE that equals a Leander win, even if only slightly. However as shown UIL can't be that comprehensive in over all scoring and the fact that UIL sticks to this judging system is confusing to me, but that's just my two cents.

This is going to be a very interesting contest to watch unfold, and I cant wait to see what everyone shows up with. This is about the time where for the first time bands take their entire show to contest. That being said, it makes things very very hard to predict especially with just how close 4 of the bands (Leander, Cedar Park, James Bowie, and Vandegrift) were at the Austin regional. However I do feel very confident in saying that those 4 bands plus Ronald Reagan will make up the top 5 come October 10th.