whitewing09

I definitely agree the the differences are narrowing, insofar as bands that are successful at BOA are having more success at UIL. They aren’t converging; UIL is conforming. CTJ is a great example of this, which is why I mentioned the relationship is inidirectional. Some bands are good at doing both like FloMo 2016. This is a trend that’s become more obviously in the past decade. What you don’t see is very traditionally UIL shows (e.g. duncanville until very recently, coppell several years ago, and North Shore now) doing amazingly in BOA. Heck even in 2016 Bell failed to make finals at BOASA, while round rock was safely in. However, Bell managed to stay ahead of both Round Rock and NorthShore at UIL, which is more execution focused. Just from that evidence alone, I’m not convinced that North Shore could have made finals at BOA SA. Their show wasn’t design as a BOA show and their execution wasn’t enough to beat bell who Round Rock handily beat at SA. From a video I saw earlier, it’s hard for me to imagine that North Shores priority isn’t to make UIL state finals. I’ll be happy for them to prove me wrong! But, it just doesn’t seem probable.

Technically Round Rock won, but they actually got 3rd. North Shore did indeed beat Rock Rock in 2016 at UIL State, but the relationships between UIL success and BOA success tends to go the other direction; Bands that do better at BOA tend to do better at UIL. Rumor has it, they're having a rough transition after Drinkwater's promotion.

Looks like Cedar Park and Round Rock will duke it out for champion. Interestingly, they are probably the two most storied bands to have never won a regional, both having placed in the top 5 at gnats in relatively recent history. Maybe Hendrickson can dark horse it and surprise us. Rock underwent design change and Henny had a major director change...things have been quiet... The suspense is killing me. Otherwise I'm excited to see what Northshore will bring.

Can the predictions be updated to fix this?

dang, talk about civic engagement at its finest.

Does Seven Lakes count? What about our potential phoenix, SFA?

Where is Weiss?

There’s probably not to much because this year is just business as usual. FloMo and Hebron will do their thing and probably medal at UIL. Whereas, last year you had FloMo, a band that hadn’t been to nats since 2014 and that has improved leaps and bounds since then, head up after a season of total domination.

Live and learn, right?

VR is sounding great. Very curious where they land this year at Austin.

Why do they couple so many schools in one district? For funding?

Not that it really matters to a band like TWHS, but it's not like yall get a discount for forgoing finals. Isn't the idea that BOA contests are expensive because y'all get the critical feedback from experts in the field.

The top three will be interesting. From the videos I’ve seen.. Vandy is probably the most dynamic and impactful w.r.t to music, but their visual book is somewhat tame. CTJ’s show is somewhat confusing right now. Their visual book is insanely demanding and very obviously so that it is impressive. I’m not sure how cool the musical book is. The jury is still out. Leander’s show design is a huge step up from last year. I think they were heading a little too far down the path of novelty and frills, but recognized it and adjusted. This show seems really cool and they seem pretty confident playing it. Depending on the judges, I could see any of those three winning. I don’t see CTJ running away with a three point margin, but I also don’t see them without a medal. I think we texans sometimes forgot that execution is heavily discounted conditional on difficulty, especially early season.

How many weeks before Austin did CTJ have the whole show on the field last year? Maybe their drills is a little too insane this year (usually it's just insane enough).

Remember when Hebron went from 4th at SA to Class Champ GNat Semis and 3rd in Finals. So.bitter.sweet.

I wouldn't be surprised to see TWHS with a medal again or Leander in the top half of BOA SA. They are sounding a lot better than last year around this time and they usually put out good visual production. Dark Horse: -I am really excited to see/hear Vista Ridge's production. Their show is a cool concept. I thought they sounded like a budding state finalist band in a video I saw a couple of weeks ago. -Duncanville also has a cool show theme and new design leadership (if I'm not mistaken), so cannot wait to see them return to BOA. Surprises: -I'm curious to Marcus handling of Drinkwater retiring. Her direction really made them shine. -There have been pretty big shake ups at Round Rock and Henny. No clue what they will lead to. -Argyle's director also retired and they got someone from Richland. Curious if they'll return to state champ after they were narrowly edged out by N Lamar via judges preference. -Pearland had a very underrated show last year, I'm curious to their showing this year. -Del Rio impressed me when I saw their Midland show, I want to see them grow.

The fact that Beto is even remotely within striking distance of Teddy is pretty astonishing. Texas has for the most part been as red as roses since my childhood.

(Specifically liking the use of ‘alternative fact’) Politics is basically groups of people interacting and making collective decisions. So, it’s almost impossible to avoid politics, from the bands that we choose to talk about to our silly non sequitur threads.

That would actually be pretty cool! I think BOA should really consider how it can engage smaller bands. The fact that school like Argyle, North Lamar, and Canton don't participate in BOA DFW kinda signals that either 1) BOA isn't putting an effort into reaching out to these schools or 2) the competitions are too much more expensive than locals. While BOA is different from UIL, the insight from a BOA judge should still be considered invaluable given the natural progression UIL is slowly taking towards BOA friendly shows.

I guess I have to respectfully disagree. It is a huge disadvantage for a community if people cannot share their political opinions respectfully, yet candidly.

Unfortunately, we just don't have the venue to provide that grand nationals experience. As much as I hate to say it, Lucas Oil is built perfectly for that. I can't think of a stadium in Texas that can compete in terms of quality and logistics. What would be cool is if it weren't such a financial burden for Texas programs to go to G'Nats. Would love to see lesser known Texas programs in Semis. SA should at least be like a... mega regional. For at least the past 5 years, a finalist at SA would have undoubtedly been a finalist at any other regional; I'd argue that the reverse is definitely not true. Heck, you could probably argue that top 10 at SA would have been a medal at any of the other regionals last year. For the foreseeable Texas will only have the informal title of "Grand Nationals of the South". I feel like that joke has been made enough by officials enough for it to stick

Generally off-topic Madison man.

Lord, that sound track was fire. I'd also love to see Hallelujah Junction on the field.. somehow. I think it could fit with something like Vista Ridge's show this year (also, if anyone has a private video of that.. PM me plz).

Would love to see this on the field.

ahh I've been on this site for around 12 years.. I found this when I was a freshman in high school. I got watching the Reagan vids of the early years and listening to the shows from 04 like Bell, CP, Bowie, etc. This site turned me into a hard core band nerd.