whitewing09

I think it's really interesting that the current realignment has half of the SA bands going to area D and half going to area G (I don't know the actually ratio of bands going to the either area). I'm assuming the same was true in the last alignment (Some schools going to area E, others to area G) If anything, they just need to unstack Area D.

For those who have seen Bell. Do they have a ballad?

From the live stream I watched Saturday, seems that it will be an uphill battle for Richland to place in the top 5. Their show seemed a little too hard. As for Bell, they're know for power cleaning, so I hope to see them in the top 2, but their show is insane. Musically it doesn't seem to have the dynamic contrast that we're used to seeing from Bell (this may have just been the venue, but idk.) Visually, their show is extremely demanding(it really seems like on state years they're trying to push their limits drill-wise, I remember thinking that their 2010 looked difficult.)

Does anyone remember when Leander and Georgetown were surprise threats for state qualifiers... I feel like it was a generation ago, I'm feeling old lol

Are there 39 bands in area D? Such a shame there isn't just one more band.. so that they could send off 8 instead of 7.

I think another factor that people often neglect is that fact that there are on-field judges in BOA. I think scores can really change when a judge can evaluate the band from a step away.

I love their show! I do hope to see it in finals at BOA SA. Though it does seem like they need to do some cleaning up before area.

OMG. Bell's show is intense. HOLY. It looked so difficult... It just flew right by.

So I'm wondering, is Bell's show harder, or does their struggle make it seem more difficult? Also, is Owasso stronger than usual, or is Bell just significantly weaker than usual?

In the case of CTJ's pre-show, as long as they play it in the 5 minute period before their actual performance time, it's legal?

So what are the chances that all four bands advance to finals?

I think Reagan is definitely gnat final's material this year.

Probably the same usual bands. Rio Hondo Port Isabel Crystal City Fredericksburg Hidalgo (I think they just had an off year last time around, but I could be wrong)

Is this a sign that CTJ won't only be a monster at BOA, but also at UIL?

Just shows how two very good bands can be evaluated very differently at different contests!

I believe Bell went to BOA St. Louis in 2004. Looks like there will be a good showing from Texas. I guess Anderson and Richland are in the same boat as Bell.

At this competition Cedar Ridge scored higher than it's BOA SA 2011 score. Did they peak early or will they be scoring in the finalist range at BOA SA this year?

Did anyone else notice the huge jump in Reagan's scores from last week? They went from the bottom of the "finals" bands of BOA Denton to the top of BOA Conroe... beating one of the top bands (CP) from the previous week.

I'm guessing the first three 5A Area D spots will go to Bowie, CTJ, Reagan. Then the next two spots will be a toss up between Churchill, Anderson, and Roundrock.

Was the flute solo at the beginning of Broken Arrow's show from the same music as the solo in Churchill's show last year?

I think that my idea got confused a little. When I said it was alright for there to be a few ties. I did not say that I advocate more conservative and "boxed in" scoring. I was trying to say, out of 40-50 bands, a few bands tieing in a range of 8 points was alright. I don't think that tieing a few bands and boxing onself in are synonymous (I think that a judge can tie a few bands out of 50 and still keep a large enough range not to box himself in). I think it's justifiable in the case of such a large set because no one is perfect, it's really hard to weigh 50 bands against each other, especially when the competition is spread across two full days. I don't think the judge necessarily has to go back and change those specific scores, just the satisfy this idea that we necessarily have to keep a clean ranking system. A few ties isn't too bad. IMO: In all it's situational. Judging a prelims is SO much different than judging a finals, therefore I wouldn't try justifying this for a finals.

Is that the reasoning behind UIL converting raw score into rankings? I could see this problem existing in UIL where the scoring system is out of 1000, but how would this pose a significant problem in BOA where the scoring system is theoretically out of 20 (realistically out of 8, but most bands don't receive scores below 12)?

What's wrong with giving ties? This is raw score that they're giving. It's not like a judge necessarily has to rank how the bands did (in direct relations to other bands). They just have to record how they felt the band performed and maybe they believed that two bands performed very similarly.

Whatever happened to Dickinson? Are they a 5A now?

Wow Cedar Park and Dripping Springs were ahead of the pack in finals. They must have been on fire! Also, for being in the first block, CP sweeping prelims is quite amazing.