Fez76

Yes, it was an egregious oversight by the UIL to name a champion and then remove the title days later. It’s a dumb rule, too. Makes sense for determining if a band can advance to state, but not for placements. Woods has had a confusing and frustrating week for sure! I hope they take it as fuel to make them even stronger. There is so much talent in that program. The future is bright!

This is correct, but I didn’t say Woods was the champion. Woods score put them in 1st place, and that remains true.

Woods is slightly more BOA-oriented for sure, but it’s not like they can’t perform with UIL. People on this board are saying that the TMC and State score sheets are the same, and Woods did very well at TMC. Also, they took first place at Area, which is also UIL.

That would make sense for a little movement but 11 slots? Still think this is dumbfounding.

For Cypress Woods to go from 18th at BOA to 29th at State makes zero sense. Clearly the super early performance slot hurt them, but that can’t be the whole story. It was a good run. Truly—what in the world happened here? That show was incredible.

So sad that Cypress Woods didn’t make finals. When a 15th band was announced, I just knew it was them. Being in Panel 1 was a tough place to be for many bands. That show was something special, and they sounded so, so good. A crowd favorite for sure!

💯 They were amazing, but they aren’t doing the same skills. I love the move to include more guard captions, but those judges/criteria need to reflect the difficulty of the teams doing complex guard moves and tosses.

Some of them will be there but not all.

And keep in mind these results are without other Houston-area heavy hitters such as Pearland, Seven Lakes, Bridgeland, and Cypress Woods. Will be interesting to see how they shake things up when they enter the arena!

What happened to Jordan? 👀

B-land was 15th.

Ha! Yes, this comes from the merger of two smaller districts in the 1930s, and for many years Cy-Fair was the only high school until the area had a major growth explosion, and now there are 12.

Don’t sleep on Cypress Woods. They came out on top for Area I at both State and BOA SA last year despite the others beating them at Area. If they have an “on” day, they are fire. They are playing very difficult music very well. They beat Fair in prelims at Area this year (admittedly their finals run was not as good as their prelims run).

Holy smokes! This is just wild. Anyone seen the finals results?

The head director now is the same guy who has directed the marching band for the past 6ish years. The previous head who retired did not direct marching, only concert season. So not much will change for this band.

So interesting to see the Area I results completely flipped (setting aside JET). Cypress Woods came out on top at state. Woods definitely had a great run with a difficult and interesting show. Fair’s placement so low is very surprising, though.

Would love to hear your thoughts on what you saw! Your opinions are always helpful in terms of understanding results.

Obviously bands can make mistakes on different runs. And obviously the past doesn’t guarantee the future. OBVI. That’s not what I was referring to. When all things are pretty equal, and you get wildly different results, that is very curious. My point is that BOA scoresheets seem more consistent from judge to judge. Not always but usually. Wish this were the case for UIL.

I agree. Cy-Fair and JET got robbed. (And I am not a Cy-Fair or JET parent, btw.) It is so bonkers how bands that had strong and consistent BOA and early contest results could be beaten by bands who didn’t have those same consistent early season results. I am thinking of bands who didn’t make BOA finals or barely landed finals spots at all before UIL. How can a band do that and then suddenly be top five when their competition also had great runs and early season success? It’s just two completely different standards, it feels like. What can we do to lobby UIL for a BOA model of judging?

I agree. Studying the score sheets now. They are all over the place.

1. Cy Woods 2. Seven Lakes 3. JET 4. Cy-Fair

Anyone surprised by Cypress Woods should note the season of program building they have come through in the last few years with a new head band director and a new guard director. This school had the most all-state musicians in the entire state. Their talent is deep, and their strong state marching contest showing last year was no fluke. I see great things ahead for this program.

Cypress Woods is on the move. Amazing performance today! They have real depth.

Cypress Woods is on the move. Amazing performance today! They have real depth.