1998-2018

That is extremely unfortunate. It was clearly a candidate for run of the year and felt positively redemptive. The kids definitely received the wake-up call at BOA SASR and responded in true Keller fashion. (Never doubted the kids!)

Well, our goose is cook now. Or was it our cow and pig that were cooked? And served as barbecue for lunch!

But not everyone. So far, this is the best kept secret at the BOA SASR. I'm reminded of how nothing changed Keller like Money Magazine telling the country it was the seventh best place to live.

Carol Brittin Chambers is definitely not the problem. Or at least highly unlikely she is part of the root problem. Her writing of custom music specifically for Keller is a foundational part of their history of success. But it raises in interesting question. Is it possible that instructions or feedback she has been given more recently could be a contributing factor? Some of the other music selections that lack the necessary demand have certainly been an issue too in recent years. The same goes for drill style and demand choices. (But those are clearly not her area.) The problem, and therefore the solution, has been elusive because there have also been high points along the way. For example, the recent Sweet Dreams ballad is the best they have ever done, with the possible exception of the 1999 show. Success can be so distracting from the importance of larger trends...

What happened to Leander and Keller? I had the pleasure of speaking with LeanderMomma shortly after the SASR Finals announcement. While it's safe to say both of us were clearly disappointed, I don't think either of us were particularly surprised. I certainly wasn't. Yes, there were questions and a desire to see the Prelims Recap, but right then it was time to acknowledge, accept, and move forward with some new faces in Finals. Leander and Keller will both be back. So how did Keller get here? Too much has been made of the recent significant turnover in Keller's staff. Sure, it doesn't help to lose an extremely talented Director who has been there for 28 years. Especially one who spent several of his summers while at Keller on the Cavaliers staff too. He was very instrumental in leading the Cavalier's to a string of DCI National Campionships. (Kind of helps explain Keller's hornline, doesn't it?) The longterm Assistant Director stepped up as expected and was hired as the new Director. The unexpected part was that he would suddenly resign at the end of his first marching season. A semi-plausible explanation was offered by the school district and the resigning Director, but clearly there was more to the story and full disclosure behind such an abrupt departure was not forthcoming. Questions remain. But the season had ended with Keller's second appearance in the BOA Grand National Championship Finals. So how disruptive could have been? We had weathered the storm and marched forward into concert season with a recently retired director from within the district who accepted the short-term role of Interim Director through the remaining concert season. In June, as this marching season was about to begin the program didn't have a permanent Director. The new Assistant Director, who was previously third in line and also had significant tenure with Keller was approached about assuming the position of Director. He agreed. That meant he was taking over a marching show that was primarily put in place by his two recent predecessors along with the design team. Turnover at the top generally has other consequences and there has been some minor additional impact, but nothing outside of normal expectations. It's time to look elsewhere for root causes. Others have pointed out that the last time Keller missed Finals at the SASR was 2014, but that's only part of the story. A couple days later Keller advanced to the Texas SMBC and haven't missed Finals since then. ANYWHERE! So yesterday hurt, but in my opinion, and that of others, the seeds for this outcome were planted years ago. After the 2019 show the program moved in a new direction regarding design. I don't have an explanation why, but it was the beginning of a subtle downward spiral. (Watch videos of the 2015-2019 shows versus 2020-2024 shows.) I also can't explain why there hasn't been a proper course correction, other than yesterday being the first full-blown failure. But the declining scores and placements have been there for years now. We finally reached a point where, to use the UIL terminology, content and design problems couldn't be overcome by outstanding levels of achievement. Perhaps a stronger run, like at Area B, might have delayed this outcome temporarily. But don't forget, Keller made Finals at BOA Bedford by just one tenth of a point. This bill was due and payment was going to be demanded. So what's my point? It's time for change and to look past things that can be true. It's time to see and clearly understand the whole truth before taking impulsive action. It starts with the design team because there is a limit to what the kids performance can do to overcome design problems. The frustrating part is that while this forum is filled with parents and students who don’t completely understand the subtle nuance of how this is what keeps them out of Finals, Keller knows better. But they still got blindly sucked into the trap. This is likely going to be a rough ride, particularly for the Director, but he's not the problem either. Hang in there Mr. Bloss. You did most of what could be done and the show got better along the way. I still believe you are the correct person to lead the program forward. You inherited this design and therefore the consequences were not your responsibility. But fixing the root cause is. TLDR: Three Directors in two years has not been the issue, at all. Five years of declining designs finally caught up to Keller.

Skip the Ranking link on the front page and use the link to the forums instead. There you will find a link to the weekly update to the Ranking which also includes the usual reasonable debate, as well as a large dose of absolute nonsense.

If you want to go even deeper, the videos that show UIL training judges how to apply the new system are also available. It's not intended for the casually interested as it will require a serious commitment of time and focus to complete. But they are highly informative. (Sorry, but it's too late to go searching for the video links tonight. I'll try to find them again and post links tomorrow...)

I'd like to apologize. It seems my previous post has added to the confusion rather than helping. This seems to be in part due to my use of language being less careful than normal. As a consequence my intent was misinterpreted by some. Please let me try again. I've been actively involved with band competitions for nearly 30 years. I don't always agree with judges, but I gave up worrying about that many years ago. If results are your primary priority, it can suck all the pleasure out of this activity. Disappointment will be your most likely companion. My long-term mentor on this issue is the person who was tasked with overseeing the fairly recent overhaul of the UIL SMBC rules and those results were used for judging this contest. So, I understand the intent of the rules, as well as the somewhat subjective nature of the process. Nothing I said was intended to mean the judges were "wrong". I was originally referring to possible data entry errors. The first information I saw was apparently incorrect and did not accurately reflect the scores judges had awarded. That's very different than saying the judges were the ones who were incorrect.

These Prelims scores and rankings don't make sense because they are not accurate. Apparently the Prelims issues* were not addressed before this information was released. Several bands were affected and those Directors were notified that the initial recaps, placements, announcements and Finals performance order were incorrect. Unfortunately, the information was not widely disseminated and that continues to cause confusion. Until Duncanville decides to step up, acknowledge the errors, and provide corrected Prelims recap information, please don't waste time trying to analyze the erroneous Prelims information. It will just cause unnecessary frustration. Perhaps a corrected* Prelims recap will still be made available at a later time. *NOTE: Apparently errors were made as the initial Prelims recap rankings and announcements were not correct. Adjustments were made to the Finals performance order before Finals began. The adjustments reflected accurate Prelims placements.

Both Prelims and Finals recaps have now been posted to this site in the Duncanville Marching Invitational thread. It looks like the Prelim recap issues* were not addressed before this release. Perhaps a corrected* Prelims recap will still make an appearance later. *NOTE: Apparently an error was made as the initial Prelims recap rankings and announcements were not correct and adjustments were made to the Finals performance order before Finals began.

Yeah, right there with Keller's brass in 17th place. Sure, Buddy. That's exactly what we were all thinking.

Report coming in from the front line. There was a small incident with bus three. Nobody was hurt.

My wife is on the Director's direct communication feed. Nothing there regarding an accident involving a Keller bus. She's checking with her contacts to be sure.

With just one UIL data set it seems early for drawing conclusions regarding what is cause versus effect, but it’s an intriguing possibility that bears watching. It does make me wonder if the same thing happened to preliminary scores when BOA implemented the top/bottom split in 2016. We know there has been very little movement across the BOA top/bottom split so adding that data set might be a helpful expansion.

Ha! Wow, that’s quite a collection of excellent bands. I’m not quite sure if you were intending to support my point or not, but I feel like your observation was ultimately supportive.