Mash

We need a forum for recovering band parents like me :-) I think I have a problem with watching bands,,,,

I love watching the 2A and 3A bands. It is a totally different experience and type of show. I also like watching the military style marching of big schools, the precision is pretty incredible.

Would it be against UIL rules to hand out Kleenex prior to the show and turn the four boxes on the field into giant Kleenex boxes? "Vista Ridge's show brought to you by Kleenex, we will soak up your tears of joy!" :-)

Oh boy..... Football is weird at Vista. Many times when a particularly talented player comes around he transfers to Cedar Park or they move to Lake Travis. I couldn't imagine doing that IMHO, would you move so your trumpet player could play for a different band?

I think the new band director pick up was a good free agent pickup for the season. This isn't even his show, so it will be interesting to see what happens when he gets input into developing the show for next year. The middle schools that feed Vista (and the other LISD bands) are phenomenal so musically, they have a great base just coming in.

My daughter got a concussion from a flag toss and stitches another time from a rifle. Soon they will need to wear bike helmets on the field....

Vista's Football team are great band boosters :-) Honestly, they really do support the band and the band supports them. I remember two years ago when the band were the only ones in the stands during a downpour supporting the team and the football boosters kicked in money for nicer buses for the band competition. This has been a very hard year for the football team.

Yes, but that is a limited number of people in the stands. I have seen many non-chaperones/pit crew show up 5 minutes prior to a band playing and leaving immediately after their band plays at many band competitions. I have also seen many people put their hands away for any band other than their own. All the bands work hard and some have to travel extremely long distances and have limited crowd support, they all deserve it. We have met a lot of great people from other schools from all around Texas and had a great time hanging out watching the bands.

I am partial to Vista's old band uniforms and Vandergrift's which are nearly identical.

And stay and cheer for all the bands in your bands block. It is very disrespectful to cheer only for your band (feel free to cheer louder for yours) and leave the minute they finish.

that is correct.

When is the best time to go historically? I know, officially it makes no difference, but is it best to go later, I understand morning sucks because of the early rise and traffic.

Judge 3 in Finals didn't seem to like Vista and agree with the others. Interesting to see the differences between them,

Agreed!

Glad everyone is ok.

I am not too familiar with the area way up there... :-)

Yep and the other 3 from Austin area. 2015, 5A it was 5 and 5 (LISD at the top) 2013, 4A it was 4 and 5 (LISD at the top) 2011, 4A it was 4 and 5 (LISD at the top) both metroplexes clearly cultivating great programs. Fort Worth is pretty close in population size to Austin and Dallas is about 1/3 bigger than Austin so you would expect based on population size there to be about a 2:1 ratio. Houston appears to be the anomaly in this statistically as they have a big population and not represented proportionally it appears.

It will be interesting to see the 5A (old 4A) results as well. How many times has Cedar Park won that now? I wonder if the results could be skewed by school population sizes. Does DFW tradionally have larger schools that the rest of the other metros? I wouldn't be surprised if there are very few 6A school not in a major metro area.

Yes, I agree on this. Our schools in the southern LISD have traditionally been one level down in size and dominated that for many years including a 1-4 sweep at UIL three years ago. Now that the schools have moved up to being 6A by only a handful of students in many cases they immediately performed at high levels with the North Texas Schools with larger population. It great to have a competitor to shoot for and I think the southern LISD will be giving the northern LISD competition for a long while. And the Northern LISD will continue to get better with the competition as well. We all win :-)

NO! it needs more tinder....My school is the best! Your school sucks! Even when your school beats mine, the judge was blind/deaf maybe both! Go Team! I mean go BAND! As EVERY band director tells people at the beginning of every season, we don't do this for the medals or trophies. That stuff doesn't really matter. Just try your hardest and enjoy the experience. That is what really matters.

Area H is a cake walk(battling for three spots will be tight)......LOL. Seriously, there are many great areas no reason to get into area feuds on the forum.

Good luck! I hope you hard work pays off.

Because San Antonio is the real Grand Nationals? LOL We do everything bigger in Texas.

Yeah, he has really put together a lot a great videos. I wish I had that talent.

Thanks for the clarification.