Mash

As a parent of a Senior at Vista I can say that they along with every other high tier school are practicing as hard as they can every day. My daughter has blisters every day from all the practice. No Vista is probably the smallest 6A school so they have to compete with schools with a bigger pool of band students because of just the population of the school. The points about the support of the school district and the quality of the feeder schools is dead on. I certainly don't see how my daughter could handle more practice hours. She is already up to 1am everynight with all her AP and early start college courses. Band is awesome but not 99% of the future of the kids. The other issue for these shows is economics, we can see it even in our district that schools with parents of deeper pockets don't need to think about fund raising and can have more elaborate props and support. That is a district advantage for sure, it isn't anything that can be solved but if you look at the amount of money that Vandegrift raises each year vs. Leander each year, Leander impresses me more. Life isn't fair, it just isn't. It costs a lot of money to run a good band program and I can only imagine what schools in poor areas have to do to even have a band program. I don't know much about the Flower Mound area but I do know they are a huge school with multiple marching bands.

Cedar Park is 5A

Vista Ridge's show progressing nicely:

Wow so crazy tight results. LISD sweeps another competition. Proud Vista Ridge dad here.

Same here.

I'm not there but this is what I heard from my sources: The Vista Ridge Drumline won Best Front Ensemble, Best Quadline, and Best Snareline. The Vandergift Drumline won Best Base and Cymbol Captions. Finals include Vista, Vandergrift, Plano West, John Horn , and Cedar Park.

Interesting, I heard Vandergrift was staying 5A. I guess that kills the 5A LISD sweeps. It will be interesting to see how we all do in 6A competition next year. I did enjoy seeing the 1A bands, they were so different that the 5A experience.

Disclaimer: I'm a Vista Ridge parent. The finals were amazing, I was shocked that Leander ended up third and not second. Cedar Park definitely was my favorite show last night, they killed it in the finals. We were all confused by the playing order, I don't think it played into the final placement but it was certainly odd. Regarding the mic dropping out in the solo for Vista, does anyone know how the judges would take that into account? I imagine marked down because it turns into dead air time. I heard that Vista Ridge and Leander are moving to 6A next year, barely. Kinda frustrating as a district parent because they could have kept them all at 5A with some easy changes. And a new high school coming the year after next will probably drop Rouse and Leander back to 5A.

From the Vista Ridge parents: Leander HS are performed an exhibition performance of their show - they were unable to compete in the time slot they were given in the lottery Great job Leander band! Very very classy move in the Leander HS parents - they were outside as Vista Ridge left the stadium earlier today and they applauded and cheered and yelled encouragement and best wishes to the band and Starline! They are supporting the district bands even if they were unable to compete.

I'm pretty sure they are all angry for having to go through all the drama.

I don't understand why Leander would be more angry than Vista or Dripping Springs. I am sure all those bands have felt the emotional swings of this weekend. The thing to realize is that these are kids and they amazingly just go with the flow. I don't think the BOA weather mess gives them an advantage or disadvantage. I don't understand the whole situation exactly by why they are exhibition vs being judged, but I am sure there is a logical reason. They world is not against them. Potentially they have a disadvantage because they play in the venue once where others may get to play twice. My prediction is still an LISD sweep: Leander Cedar Park Vista Vandergrift I do feel that you can reorder these four and make a case for each one.

Ugh, I hope they work it out. I hope all the bands get to play. They deserve it.

Hopefully the roads will be clear so the buses with our babies can make it there safely.

Looks like Vista Ridge is in and playing at 11:15. They re-evaluate roads prior to departure.

A JV band? How many schools have a JV band?

only thing we know for Leander and VR is that they are in the same boat. either both in or out. We don't know yet.

Just heard Vista Ridge is play tomorrow early. I would assume Cedar Park and Leander are in the same boat. or bus :-)

Yeah I our band is stuck at school and last we heard I-35 is closed due to flooding. They opened up an evening preliminary block for schools that are having trouble making it but it doesn't look good for them to make it there.

I see Leander/CP as a toss up and Vista Ridge/Vandergrift as a toss up. All four shows are pretty different and impressive. I think at this point it will depend on the judges preference which can't really be predicted. That being said my prediction of the Area D bands (I haven't seen the others) is: 1: Leander 2: Cedar Park 3: Vista Ridge 4: Vandergrift They are pretty amazing but I am sure others from the other Areas are amazing as well and can break up the LISD block on the top spots. All the kids in these final bands amaze me every time I see them. It does make me sad when you see the financial differences between schools/areas significantly impact the shows for UIL.

Yeah it is true and also insane. They kids pay the penalty on this for potentially playing their performance after midnight. I can't imagine that is beneficial for them performing their best when it really counts.

From what I saw last night from Area D it looks to be impressive again in State finals. It will come up to the judges. Leander and Cedar Park appear to be in a dead heat. Both are very impressive. Clean and powerful. Vista Ridge and Vandergrift appear to be in a dead heat as well. Very intricate shows that are performed well. Vista's show is more subtle and nuanced and Vandergrift's is more in your face. Depends on the judges. I can see any of these four shuffling in order depending on the performances, I predict that they will take 1-4 with Leander, Cedar Park, Vista Ridge, and Vandergrift. Question; there were drops in the drill team for CP last night, how are those accounted for in the scoring?