HighSchoolBandNerd212

Unless Connally will be at the level of Dripping Springs or Vista Ridge on Saturday, here's my predictions for the state qualifiers (in alphabetical order): Cedar Park Dripping Springs Leander Vandegrift Vista Ridge

Then the Region 18 advancers are Connally, Dripping Springs, McCallum, LBJ, Reagan, and San Marcos. 25 bands at Area D. YES!

Most of the Region 18 results have been updated on uilforms.com, but so far those results only consist of the 6A bands and the first block of the 5A bands. Ann Richards and Reagan were the only bands from the first block of 5A bands to get 1s. Speaking of Ann Richards, they are listed as being Non-Varsity on the website. Does that mean that they cannot advance to area?

Who advanced from region 18 to Area? I know Reagan got a 1, but who else (other than the usual suspects, i.e. Dripping Springs, Connally, and McCallum)?

If Saturday is a complete washout, I have a feeling that UIL will have the contest on another date before or on the following Wednesday. At least, that makes the most logical sense in my mind.

Vandegrift from last Friday:

Here's Connally from a week ago at the Vista Ridge Marching Festival: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX8P6ISzn4I

I hate to be nit-picky, but there were 8 bands from Region 26 that got a 1. On another note, Region 18 had 7 5A bands receive 1s last year, and this year there needs to be 6 bands with 1s in order to have 5 state-qualifier spots at Area.

Region 8 (4A-6A) and Region 26. I will have the Region 8 6A results updated after uilforms.com posts them. - Region 8 CLASS AAAAA A&M Consolidated - 1 * Bryan - 1 * College Station - 1 * Corsicana - 1 * Rudder, Bryan - 2 Temple - 1 * University, Waco - 2 Waco - 2 CLASS AAAAAA Belton - Copperas Cove - Ellison, Killeen - Harker Heights - Killeen - Midway, Waco - * Advance to Area - Region 26 CLASS A Burton - 2 CLASS AA Flatonia - 1 * Granger - 4 Johnson City - 1 * Schulenburg - 2 Shiner - 1 * Somerville - 1 * Thorndale - 1 * Thrall - 1 * Weimar - 2 CLASS AAA Florence - 3 Hallettsville - 1 * Jarrell - 1 * Lago Vista - 2 Lexington - 1 * Rockdale - 2 CLASS AAAA Burnet - 1 Caldwell - 2 Columbus - 2 Giddings - 1 Gonzales - 1 La Grange - 2 Liberty Hill - 1 Smithville - 1 Taylor - 1 Wimberley - 1 CLASS AAAAA Cedar Park - 1 * East View - 1 * Elgin - 1 * Georgetown - 1 * Hutto - 1 * Leander - 1 * Manor - 2 Marble Falls - 2 Vandegrift - 1 * Vista Ridge - 1 * CLASS AAAAAA Cedar Ridge - 1 Lake Travis - 1 McNeil - 1 Round Rock - 1 Rouse - 1 Stony Point - 1 Westwood - 1 * Advance to Area

They have one this year for certain: http://www.texasmarchingclassic.com/modules/fmcontent/content.php?topic=competition-specifics&id=26&page=live-blog

Some random thought is now telling me that Ronald Reagan could win this, but the rest of my brain is telling me that somehow, some way, there is going to be an upset, and the rest of the top 5 (which in my opinion are, in no particular order, Cedar Park, James Bowie, Leander, and Vandegrift) will be biting at each other's heels in terms of scores.

The UIL has just announced that it is now employing a new training program from the Marching Roundtable's Judges Academy for its Area and State marching band judges. I fully agree with the UIL's intention of giving "particular emphasis...[to] developing the skills necessary to accurately compare, score, and rank the bands, all with the intention of providing the best possible competitive experience for the schools.". Whether this will work, I do not know. However, the guys at the Marching Roundtable are fantastic, and I would expect that the judging course's content would be of high quality. Interestingly, the course is available to students, directors, etc. and its very cheap compared to the other judging-related courses that are offered by the Marching Roundtable ($25 for the UIL course versus $500 for the Level One course or the $120 "Judging Demystified" course for "directors, designers, administrators, parents, fans, and marchers"). Link to the announcement: http://www.uiltexas.org/files/music/New_Training_for_Marching_Band_Judges.pdf Link to the course: https://judgesacademy.com/texas-uil-area-and-state-marching-band-judges-training/

The region alignments have been finalized and the TMEA, ATSSB, and UIL areas will be posted on December 18th, 2015. http://www.tmea.org/divisions-regions/regions/realignment-project

Even if the number of bands is at 15 for this year, hopefully a similar situation like what has happened to the Vista Ridge Marching Festival will occur for a couple of years, where a bunch of lower-profile (and sometimes from-out-of-town) bands register for the contest.

Thank you for the explanation!

I thought it was the music general effect caption that had multiple judges...

Is it possible to add or drop bands from currently existing predictions lists? For instance, for the BOA Conroe predictions, Clear Creek has been dropped and Westfield and Dawson have been added since the event was created.

It appears another on-the-bubble finalist has been added with the addition of Dawson to this contest. Conversely, Clear Creek dropped from the contest.

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Things that need attention on the predictions page: - There shouldn't be two Lone Star Preview events. - The Mansfield Preview of Champions event was probably submitted the day before the contest. But it is virtually pointless (no predictions were entered for the event) and should be removed. Also, I may be impatient, but when will the Friendswood Marching Festival results and Birdville ISD Marching Festival results be put in? I emailed the results of both contests to bands@txbands.com this past weekend.

And now the video is private...

The results from BOA Austin this year once again prove that the field of Texas marching band is constantly changing. A couple of pointers: 1. L.D. Bell and Westwood are actually attending the Atlanta super regional this year, which falls on the same weekend as BOA San Antonio. 2. Here's some other bands that have the potential to make finals: - Coppell - Owasso (from Oklahoma) 3. And just a few bands that are more towards the lower end of bubble at the moment: - Cedar Ridge - Friendswood 4. And a picky side note: It's Vandegrift, not Vandergrift.

The same judge that put Vandegrift in 6th for Visual Ensemble (14.60) in prelims put them in 8th for Visual General Effect (14.90) in finals. I'm not disagreeing with Mr. Giese, but this helps explain the scoring gap between James Bowie and Vandegrift in finals.

I don't know if I will even have an order to my top 5 by the time the contest comes around. As far as the other bands go: - I'm convinced that Vista Ridge will earn that 6th place spot. - It appears that Anderson could supplant Friendswood for 7th place after Anderson placed 11th at BOA Austin yesterday, beating out Westlake, Westwood, and Pflugerville by notable margins. - If Georgetown does well at the Vista Ridge Marching Festival, that could be an indication of a finals breakthrough come October 10th.

At this point, it's kind of a toss-up. BOA Austin prelims scores from yesterday: Westlake: 71.45 (12th place) Westwood: 71.00 (13th place)