TWHSParent

In Waco. I remember too many trips to Waco over the last few years for football games. 2016 it seemed like every game was in Waco....

That was very unexpected! Out of all the hotels and flights, whodathunk?

Completely agree. I really enjoyed meeting everyone.

My top 5 in order from today are Avon, CTJ, Carmel, Mason, and Lawrence Township.

Made it to Indy. Now trying to find dinner.

And the cold front has just started going through Houston - had dropped to 51 on my way home from 75 around 1:00.

Random Factoid: Ronald Reagan now owns the highest and lowest score ever at San Antonio Finals: 77.35 in 2009, and 97.3 in 2019.

Yes. You can see the scores at HornRank.

Maybe this one?

The lowest since 1998, and it isn't even particularly close - almost a point lower than 2012 and 1999 average across all 12 finalists.

Texas also has 4 of the low scores... 1st - Westfield 2003 5th - Stephen F Austin 2002 8th - The Woodlands 2002 10th - Winston Churchill 2002

Slight tangent, but I found it interesting that the UIL contracted with one of the PA announcers that does BOA events. Don't think that has happened before.

Just a nerd post... Since 1998 here are the max/avg/min scores for each of the 12 finals positions Max Avg Min 1 97.75 (2008) 96.62 94.35 (2003) 2 97.45 (2016) 95.79 93.95 (2002) 3 96.55 (2016) 95.02 93.10 (2003) 4 96.20 (2008) 94.20 91.60 (2002) 5 95.625 (2017) 93.36 91.45 (2002) 6 94.65 (2016) 92.13 89.25 (2002) 7 93.00 (2015) 91.18 87.40 (2002) 8 92.50 (1998) 90.26 87.35 (2002) 9 91.30 (1998/2016) 89.50 86.70 (2002) 10 91.05 (1998/2016) 88.86 85.95 (2002) 11 91.00 (2016) 87.92 85.20 (2008) 12 90.05 (2016) 86.95 82.50 (1999)

Still a little far off to make final plans as the forecast can change quite a bit in a week. From the current forecast there is a strong front going through early next week that will probably knock the temps down, but they may rebound at least a little by the end of the week. Maybe. But really, 20's and 30's isn't that cold, especially if you wear the right clothes (yes, I grew up about 150 miles from Indy, so I remember the climate there pretty well). Main thing to consider is the wind chill, not the air temperature. 30's with sun and no wind really isn't bad to walk around in. Of course, I wilt in 90's, and you native Texans probably love them.... The 2 times that I've attended: 2015 was about 20's to 30's with a steady windchill in the teens the whole time, which is what it is looking like at the moment. 2017 was quite a bit warmer for most of the competition, and I didn't need more than a jacket (certainly not a coat) on Friday to walk around outside. I think Saturday was cooler.

Wow, feels like I made that comment 30 years ago. Don't remember the full context.... I think it was a comparison of the depth of finalist contenders for GN vs SA? So Carmel, Avon, Homestead, Park Vista, Ayala, Harrison, William Mason, Vandegrift, Leander, Hebron, Claudia Taylor Johnson, The Woodlands, Round Rock, Union, Fishers, Marian Catholic, James F Byrnes, North Hardin, Lawrence Township, and maybe a few others (James Madison, Center Grove, Ardrey Kell, Panther Creek...) make for a pretty decent top 20ish set of bands.

You'll have to try to join us for our get-together Friday evening if you can.

Yeah, that one worried me quite a bit. It can't feel good to fall on one of those things. After thinking about the performer, what about the instrument? There were more falls this year than usual, and the turf was probably the issue from the info we have. It was almost like the good ole days when we marched on a grass field the day after Friday football....

1) Of course it does, especially if it has a larger ripple impact that reduces the effectiveness of the visual program, or potentially the music program. Also on the BOA sheets there is an evaluation on how performers recover from errors (such as falling) that can mitigate the issue. 2) Falls happen fairly often for many reasons (I'm looking at you tarps!). It is harder to see with a larger ensemble, especially if they recover well (see point 1 above). I think it was Flower Mound that had a sousaphone front and center fall going into their last set at finals Saturday night. I noticed it, but the person beside me did not. So it really depends on where you are looking at the time.

I'll dissent a little - I don't agree that they got any wrong bands in finals. Every one of the 14 bands was finals worthy. Others were too, but they just miss, which happens at pretty much every contest. If they go with a semifinals, then finals will only be 10 or maybe 12. They won't do a 14 band finals. And we'll have the exact same conversation about 30th to 35th that we have for 14th to 18th. Then there are also the class awards - are they part of semifinals like nationals? If so, then semis will be expanded to allow at least 4 bands from each class (assuming 4 bands from each class attend). So now we are looking at 30 to 38 bands. Or maybe semis at a super is only top 20 or 25 with a top 10 finals and class awards are based on prelims. There are ramifications for all changes that have to be fully thought through and logistics have to be worked out. I don't expect any changes in the immediate future. BOA will check the impact of UIL's change to area to determine any negatives for them - how big of a reduction of attendees will they have, if any? Is the lure of the Alamodome enough to keep getting the Valley, Houston, and DFW bands to continue to attend, or will they go to a much smaller area contest where the competitive landscape is much reduced from BOA San Antonio?

Saturday's results make this more likely to happen than not. However every band still has to go out and perform - it isn't just a show up and it will happen thing. Don't discount anyone and don't assume SA results will be replicated at GN. 2 weeks is a long time, and there is also lots of practice time at Indy. What you see in prelims won't necessarily be what you see in semis or finals.

oops. looked at the wrong bleeping scores....

Oops

Agreed. The rule change for top/bottom half (which I actually have some issues with, but that is another discussion) may help that situation. I was there in 2015, and going on first really hurt Hebron from a crowd response perspective. People are still coming in, and the stands just weren't full. People were also not yet "warmed up" to all the shows and they just didn't get quite the response they needed. It was just an unfortunate draw. If they would have gone off 7th rather than 1st, well, anything was possible that night.

What was the phrase the TXBands bloggers used? Something like "Best Jam Session"? That would be The Woodlands. I've loved that section of the show even when I was just hearing it on the poor quality football stream. And I really like that they extended that section a bit more, and made the transition to the closer less jarring. And BenedictCucumberpatch, I'm with you (surprise? Not!). I think the show has the potential with the crowd appeal of repeating Hebron 2015's unexpected catapult up at Grand Nationals. Who was talking about them before GN's that year?

Fair enough, but you were responding to comments about attending Grand Nationals, not creating a SA semi-finals.