slw13

Very nice job, longhornsax. I wasn't able to be there, but I did follow the live blogcast. As I said earlier, this was an absolutely brutal area competition. I also agree with Donezo...I'm glad I don't have to judge these contests. So many bands in this state are so good and so gifted. It is great to be able to enjoy the many shows that we get to see every year. Thanks to longhornsax for a good perspective on Saturday evening's contest, and to my buddy Danpod for helping to keep some people's feelings in perspective. Hopefully everyone will be able to enjoy the big events of this coming weekend and next week. There are still some great shows to see before the season is over.

I've got a feeling there is going to be some discussion here about the differences in judging between prelims and finals. It is almost like a complete flip-flop from on to the other. Since I didn't see the performances I can't really comment, but UIL judging has always been problematic for me (Xenon and I had a long discussion about this several years ago). Still, congrats to those that qualified, and I hope they do a great job of representing Area D at state.

Dan, Was that one placement of CP way out of line with the other music judges?

Wow! I am very surprised by these results. Then again, anything can happen on the field. Remember, it is prelims...finals may be completely different. Dan, do you think bands playing later will have more problems as it gets cooler this evening?

This is an absolutely brutal Area....which is going to have some bands feeling very sad at the end of the day Saturday. Its very unfortunate that it looks like only 4 bands are going to get to go to state. Redistricting really had an impact on this area. Two years ago Cedar Park, Connally, and Vista Ridge were 5A bands; also, Vandegrift was just getting started. With Lake Travis improving significantly this year it really makes it hard to decipher who will still be standing at the end of the day. Schools who have been to state over the last 4 years from this area include (please correct me if I am wrong): Cedar Park (in 5A), Vista Ridge (also in 5A), Dripping Springs (defending 4A champions), Connally (missed 5A state by 1 point last time around if I am not mistaken, but last time in 4A finished 2nd in state), Hendrickson, Hayes (I think McCallum also perhaps made it, but I may be thinking of another year). With the ascension of Vandegrift, and the improvement of Lake Travis, IMHO there are 8-9 bands that are probably worthy of representing this area at state, and only 4 slots. If past history is any indicator all 4 bands who emerge from this area will probably place in the top 10 at state. I think someone on another forum suggested that some of the bands that don't make it out of this area probably could also be top 10 bands at state. Amazing. Good luck to all at this contest. I expect to see some great shows from all of these bands, and I will be feeling sad for those who don't make it.

Also on October 8 - USSBA DeMoulin Challenge, Kyle (Hayes ISD)

Just saw the news myself on the Austin American Statesman website. Truly sad. Thoughts and prayers go out to the entire Bowie community. http://www.statesman.com/news/local/bowie-...xtype=ynews_rss

show times and information are now available at this URL: http://www.marchingbandcontest.org/index.p...20PLYQD%20SB1FJ

you get to go to new braunfels and you are complaining?!?

whoa! tough finals! 3 bands each from Areas B,C and D. should be interesting to see who will medal out of this group. From my perspective I can see 5 bands that could medal: Poteet, Dripping Springs, Friendswood, Forney and Newman Smith. Still, not sure I could count anyone out of this group of 10. Surprised that Galena Park didn't make it.

Just wanted to add my $.02 worth for the work that Mike does. I have a lot of respect for him and all he puts in to help support marching band in texas. The contest was one of the best (outside of Super Regionals or Nationals) that I have witnessed. Many amazing bands and wonderful performances. My final thought, however, is for not only the bands of that area, but for all of the people who are still feeling the effects of Hurricane Ike. I was struck by how much damage we could see in the area (roofs still covered in tarps, trees still down, mulching work going on, broken windows, etc), and I also know it was much worse closer to Galveston Bay. My thoughts, prayers and support continue to go out to all who have suffered in that area.

After watching BOA Houston this past weekend I would like to add Hidalgo to that list of "small" bands that succeed very nicely.

Don't forget PHS in the district too. That is not an enormous stadium by any means. P'ville may have to up the ante on our stadiums (finally!).

not bad. my only complaint here is that you are still working with placement values. i would like to think that where the adjustments need to be made is at the actual scoring level before placements are made. at that level is where you see that actual variance in scores. i have not worked on any yet, but i intend to in the days/weeks ahead.

I would be interested in hearing more about your idea. Another thought of mine was if the variance between judges was more than a certain percentage that perhaps some alteration might be in order, not necessarily throwing a score out. I don't know if that is what you are thinking of or not. Having up to 7 judges might be difficult at the Area level, and the same judging methodology exists there as in state.

DS, you have one of the classiest programs anywhere. Truly some of the friendliest people you will find anywhere (and cook a wonderful catfish dinner at home football games, a great place to visit). Your guard is phenomenal (anyone wishing to see excellence in performance should try to catch the Dripping Springs Winterguard group during their competition season). Hard to argue with you on the color guard uniforms of ours, some of us even cringed when we saw them for the first time! Sorry that you will not be a part of the band community anymore, but feel free to visit HHS anytime, you are always welcome.

I have put some thought into the way UIL does its judging. What I keep going back to as the closest example of a type of subjective judging where some "control" factor is used is actually in diving (of all things). If you think of what is done there, you see a panel of judges in which they throw out the high score and low score to try to remove some element of the subjectiveness involved. In that regard perhaps UIL could use 5 judges for music, 4 for marching, and then remove the high and low of each, then use the averages of those scores rather than a rankings system. Of course this assumes that UIL (who is most stubborn to change) will stay with the way that they are grading bands now (as opposed to BOA or USSBA style). The UIL really, IMHO, isn't set up to have the number of judges that BOA or USSBA does, so we are probably not going to see a change in that direction. Ultimately it might be nice to see some type of discussion within UIL of removing subjectivity from judging critique. Just remember that band isn't the only area affected by this type of judging, we also see it in drama and speech.

specifics on how the judges are supposed to critique bands at UIL can be found here: http://www.uil.utexas.edu/music/scoring_procedure.html 3 judges are supposed to judge nothing but music performance, while the other 2 judges are supposed to judge marching. In Marching there are 4 categories that each judge critiques (for a possible total of 1000 points) and in Music there are 5 categories (again for up to 1000 points). Once the judges post their scores, then they place each of the bands, for example in finals, on a rank of 1-10, based on the total points that they gave each band. The ranking that is posted on the UIL results page does not tell the "full" story of how each band has been graded. One would need to see the grade sheets as well as listen to the commentary of each judge to know what they were actually thinking when watching a performance. As a parent of a Hendrickson band member, I just want to say that we do understand that our marching has not always been the cleanest, but we usually score quite well in music. I want to emphasize that we are not upset by the results in terms of who won, ALL of the bands that performed Tuesday evening were VERY good and richly deserving. It is difficult to try to assess the bands at this level because of that. We are VERY proud of our kids and the job they did leading up to State, as I am sure all parents of all of the bands are. We are very happy for the winners, and especially happy for our "cross-town" friends from Connally, they are richly deserving. Indeed, we are still using some borrowed instruments from them after our bus accident back on Oct 14, and without their help we could not have made it as far as we did (and we also have to thank Dripping Springs and Vista Ridge for the same thing...perhaps some good karma to them also for their generosity). Still, we were a bit shocked at dropping from 2nd after prelims to 5th, especially after what we thought was one of the best performances we had all season (especially shocked that one judge had us 9th musically). PLEASE, that does not mean any sour grapes here. Finishing 5th in state is still a mighty accomplishment. Kudos to EVERY band student in the entire state, you are ALL amazing in the work you do and the performances you give. GO BAND!

or trying to find a place to park with the woefully inadequate parking outside the a'dome.

Thank you, that is kind. We competed last night in UIL Region, and got a 1, which allows us to advance to area. As I said on another thread, MANY THANKS to Connally HS, Westwood HS, Elgin HS, and Pflugerville Kelly Lane Middle School for allowing us to borrow equipment in order to compete. Band is truly a community.

neither is serious, thankfully, and both were dismissed after a few hours in the ER. both are suffering what is basically whiplash, but both performed last night at UIL Region here in Austin. We got a 1, which allows us to advance to Area. MANY THANKS to Westwood HS, Connally HS, Elgin HS and Pflugerville Kelly Lane Middle School for instruments that they loaned us that allowed us to compete at Region.

Hendrickson decided not to go to BOA Arlington because of a late Friday football game in Marble Falls, and a early show time (9 am) in Arlington. Lone Star gave us (Hendrickson) a later show time (3pm), which allowed for us to get some sleep. It was a pretty remarkable day for us, winning 1st place in prelims, then finishing tied for 2nd in finals. Then things got interesting as one of our buses was in an accident on the way home (after we got back to Austin). We had several injuries, but thankfully none serious. We did lose several pieces of equipment though, so we are scrambling to try to make it to Region later today.

as a parent of a Hendrickson student, I just wanted to say that it is flattering to be listed as the first choice by some members of this forum. However, we may have difficulty getting to area. On early Sunday morning, while returning from Conroe and the Lone Star Preview, one of our buses was struck by a car. Fortunately no one was seriously injured (in the band), but we lost a lot of instruments. Two of our students were taken immediately by EMS to the hospital, and 6 others have since been treated for minor injuries. Several other band programs, including Connally, Westwood, and Elgin, have come to our assistance to offer help with loaned instruments. On behalf of our program, I want to thank all of those schools. Always remember, though we compete, band is indeed a community. We greatly appreciate all the support from so many people.