Tailgate88

With all the crazy judging,maybe it makes sense to go to seven judges and then throw out the high and low scores to eliminate outliers?

True, but on the other hand the later draws are fresher on the judges mind. We had a 9AM draw time at area. I won’t get into details but ...yeah.

I think Howdy08 has a pretty good list. ;-)

Tompkins and Ridge Point have moved up to 6A I believe. It appears the Southwest high school in San Antonio is also 6A but there are a few "Southwests" in Texas so I'm not sure which one you are referring to?

Wondering who the bands to watch for in Area E 5A are this year. I have not paid attention to the Houston area in years. I saw Tomball Memorial mentioned on another thread, any others?

Got it. So, who are the 5A bands from Area E that have a chance to advance to State? I'm not that familiar with Area E.

Who among these is 5A, and/or who do we expect to be competitive at 5A Area E this year?

To be clear, I mean from other areas. Lots of deserving bands in D.

To be clear, I mean from other areas. Lots of deserving bands in D.

Props to the Area D bands that are killing it at state. I seriously have nothing but respect for those programs and I know those kids have put in the long hours and hard work to produce those crazy good shows. But it is definitely frustrating for those of us with kids in bands in Area D that didn't make it to State, only to see bands that are honestly not as good who made it. I guess no system is perfect.

Is there anywhere online to see the Hebron show?

Fantastic show. Great job FloMo!

I'm streaming this online today. Unfortunately I missed Centenniel but Waxahachie was pretty good. Fort Worth Southwest just finished and they had a pretty darn good show. I have not seen them discussed on here but I wouldn't be surprised to see them in the final 10 tonight.

$40k by just asking for donations? Wow. When in the season do you do this? I would think early on it would be hard to perform a show as it would still be under development?

Wow - the Reagan 10-10-2015 video on Youtube is impressive. Is that the biggest Guard ever? Crazy good show.

Howdy band parents, What fundraisers have been the most successful for your band/booster club? Thanks for sharing!

Wow, thanks for all the replies! I have been doing more research and am discovering the crazy awesome world of High School Marching Band. I did not know BOA even existed! I'm going to try to organize trips to take some of our kids to the Regionals/Super Regionals next year so they know what they are shooting for. Interesting to see some familiar names in the HornRank top 30! I really appreciate all the input. I do feel like our district is doing a lot of good things. Our band directors all work as a team from Intermediate to high school, so the high school directors do know and influence the kids from their first day in band. Our district has been a big supporter of the music programs. For example, when they moved the Area contest to Tuesday, we did not have enough school busses to do the regular school day and transport two high school bands, so they ponied up for travel busses at the last minute. I was impressed. Last year both my kids went to band camp at WTAMU and loved it. This year my daughter wants to take the marching band classes there. Both of my kids came back raving about the camp and ready to sign up for next year. Hopefully we can get a bunch more kids going this summer. And I am going to jump feet first into the booster program and help as much as I possibly can! (I didn't participate much this year due to scheduling conflicts with my son's Scout troop, but I am going to definitely make the commitment going forward.) Again, thanks for the input and I hope others will continue to comment. I am sure I am not the only band parent that is benefitting from the information you are sharing on this thread.

Greetings all, I'm new to the forum and this is my first post. I'm thrilled to find this site and realize I'm not the only crazy marching band fanatic around! My high school band was 4th at State in Texas 4A many moons ago when I was a Senior and I've been a marching band and DCI fanatic since. Now I have a Freshman daughter and 7th grade son so I'll be a band dad for the next six years or so at least! Our high school has only been around a handful of years, and last year was the first year that our band had Seniors. I have been really impressed with our band director and program, and they have improved every year, but naturally we are a young program so are not as well equipped or experienced as some of the other bands in our area. Nonetheless, they have earned a 1 at Region every year and advanced to Area. Obviously, I am very impressed with the top bands in Area D. My eyes were opened to exactly how stiff the competition is. I came into the day fairly confident that we would do well enough to advance to finals at least but wow - those Leander ISD schools are all crazy good. I guess that district just really invests in their marching band program. Great for them! Those kids are lucky to have such great school and parent support. That said, it can't just be about money. There must be a lot that goes into getting that quality of a show on the field. They get the same eight hours a week that we do, but their marching is pretty advanced. Do they have spring marching, or clinicians come in? Or staff with those skills? As I said, props to those bands - but it is frustrating to have a band that is good enough to advance in other regions that will likely not be as good as one of the top bands in this region for years to come. Basically, as a parent, I wonder how we can help our band be better? All insite and suggestions are welcome! Thanks!