Beanbag52

Congratulations to all 5A bands across the state of Texas! This year was by far the best and most competitive I’ve ever seen. So many memorable shows and moments from this year, and thank you to all students, directors, and parents who have made this season possible. All of the bands here should be extremely proud of what they have achieved this season, these finalist bands define excellence. Special shoutout to LeanderISD for sweeping those medals, that is absolutely incredible with such a competitive competition, congrats. Also to Area B for having all 4 bands advance to finals, and FriscoISD for having 2 schools in the top 6. And last but not least, to Aledo, for coming back from not making finals last year to coming top 5 at state, amazing. To you students: whether you won the gold, or had your final run of your show in Prelims, be proud and don’t take for granted what a privilege it is to be a part of your program. All of you are wonderful and belong where you are. Thank you for such an incredible season. Can’t wait for what you have to bring next year!

It’s difficult to rank bands I haven’t seen as much, but Leander is always incredible and never to be underestimated. Anything 3-6 is up in the air and will probably be very close. I don’t like taking BOA competitions from 3 weeks ago into account as much as Area, only 1. If you look at the breakdown scores, Lone Star was on par with Wakeland (bronze medalist last year) with only losing to them by 1 ordinal and having a better raw score. I have seen massive improvement from Lone Star these past few weeks and only see them improving more this week. Excited to see how the top 6 place!

After doing a little research with Area scores and watching what videos I could find on YT, here are my predictions for Finals! Bottom 6 is pretty much based on what I’ve heard from others, last year, and Area scores from Saturday since I don’t know much about most of them. 🥇Cedar Park 🥈Rouse 🥉Lone Star 4. Wakleand 5. Leander 6. Aledo ———————————— 7. Hendrickson 8. Midlothian 9. Argyle 10. Friendswood 11-12 bubble: Centennial, Colleyville Heritage, McKinney North, Roma

Wakeland always performs their shows incredibly, but there’s only so much they can do with their lack of demand in their shows. In my opinion, for the last 4-5 years at least, they have had much easier shows than their FISD counter parts. Lone Star especially has an extremely high demand, but until this year, they could not execute it to the level that Wakeland does. But after seeing many performances from both schools all year it’s evident that Lone Star is not messing around, and if Wakeland wants to keep beating them, they’ll have to step up their game in that aspect. Not to take anything away form Wakeland, since what they do is still very difficult and performed at a very high level, but everyone is improving so much every year that I start to think they might not be able to get away with that this year.

State judges are good enough that they won’t allow any major advantages to later performing bands. A little will happen naturally, but I they’re trained to judge fairly all day, and I doubt anyone will be kept out of finals/top half because of their performance time.

By UIL standards, I think Lone Star and Wakeland are very very close. This is the closest I've ever seen an area competition, with Lone Star losing by 1 point. Not only that but in both of the music captions they lost, it was by 4 and 2 points out of 1000. Both of of those judges were extremely close to giving Lone Star the upper hand. And Lone Star won raw score, also by a very small margin. Out of 5,000 possible points, Lone Star only got 14 more than Wakeland. I think it is common for people to just assume history will repeat itself again and again without doing any research first, and although it does happen a lot, the gap between these 2 schools is getting smaller and smaller every year. They are both incredible programs with amazing staff, and it's always exciting to see them compete. In my opinion, the placements at state with these 2 will be solely based on how they spend the next 5 days. It's anyone's game, and and props to Lone Star for starting to give Wakeland a real run for their money, both in Prelims and Finals. I know this is a tense rivalry, and both schools are going to do all they can this week to get the upper hand, so best of luck to both!

I haven’t seen anyone outside of area B so I can’t speak on overall, but I will say that last night Wakeland and Lone Star both looked super hot and will be a tight race between them this year. Both schools have seen major improvements and I know they both want medals. Haven’t seen anything from Rouse or CP yet, but I’m hearing they’re better than ever and want those top spots as well. From what I’ve seen and heard I think it’s very possible top 4 will be Lone Star, Wakeland, Rouse, and Cedar Park (not in any order). If memory serves me right, 10 finalist bands are returning to state from last year: Cedar Park Rouse Wakleand Leander Burleson Centennial Lone Star Henderickson Fiendswood Richland Roma (Forney moved up to 6A, LT missed state at Area B I remember many people were shocked Aledo missed finals last year at state, and I think they want it this year, so it’s very possible they’re in the mix. I don’t know much of other schools outside area B though. Once I hear opinions and hopefully see some recordings of bands I can give more confident predictions before state.

From my experiences, if the directors do not want their kids to cheer until their band is called, they will tell them not to. Yes, upperclassmen and leadership should know better, but this falls on the directors as well for doing a poor job of maintaining integrity of the program.

100% agree. This is caused by terrible leadership, stemming from the directors. If any MN kids are in these forums, I would hope you see the comments about this and reevaluate, because that is extremely rude and disrespectful. I know people at LT and how hard they worked this season. It doesn’t matter what the situation is, you do NOT cheer at another band’s misfortune. And props to Argyle and the others who made it to showing some class.

No, it’s just that the judges that picked wakeland over lone star had much smaller differences than the ones lone star beat wakeland in. For example, in one of the Music captions, Wakeland beat Lone Star, but only by 2/1000. While the visual caption Lone Star won, they beat wakeland by 20 points.

I know Wakeland and Lone Star had a football game tonight. Was anyone there to see the bands?

Reminder that BOA and UIL judging are very very different, and a lot can happen in 2 weeks. I agree Wakeland is having an amazing year and will most likely come out on top, but it could be closer than many are thinking for 1 and 2.

Gonna take my turn at predictions now that Area is less than a week away. 🥇Wakeland* I have seen their show multiple times and it just get cleaner and more enjoyable every time. I don’t see any way that anyone here is beating them. Their sound is so professional and will almost definitely get them a medal at state for the 2nd year in a row. 🥈Lone Star* Love the show design and such a powerful sound they’re putting out. Clearly a huge step up from previous years. Everything about them has improved from last year and it’s possible they can also come out with a medal at state. This is such a thriving program which never fails to impress me. 🥉Lebanon Trail* Has a short but incredibly successful history, so I wouldn’t count them out of anything so soon. They are known to really pull it together towards the end for the last couple of weeks. Their show design has also improved quite a lot and are putting out more air than they have in the past. If they continue on their trajectory there’s potential to place even higher than last year at state. 4. Argyle* Ever since their class up to 5A, Argyle has been improving so much every year. I think this will be the first year to advance to 5A state for them. These 3-6 placements are really hard to predict and could go any way, but they have really been sounding and looking better than ever all season. I don’t see them placing any higher than this though, those top 3 Frisco schools can seem untouchable, but anything could happen on Saturday. 5. Reedy It’s really tough to choose a first out of state, and until this year, Reedy wasn’t really in the question for this. But after seeing how much they’ve improved, and some results of other comps this year, they’re definitely not here to mess around. However, this being Area B, it’s stupid competitive, and they would probably safely make state in any other area. Excited to see how they’ll do! 6. McKinney North Despite them having good placements the past 2 years at Area, it’s hard for me to see them at the top of that mix again this year. Their shows are always fun and enjoyed by the crowd, but never really what the judges are looking for, which is why come state, they were kind of forgotten about last year. There being so many amazing programs in the area, it’s unfortunate I have to put them at 6th. 7. Walnut Grove It’s crazy to think it’s only their 2nd year and they’re already competing at such a high level. They’re still young and can’t wait to see what more of this program will put out in the future once it’s fully developed. 8. Emerson Also a fairly new school which has been having great success, but again, extremely competitive area. I would love to see all these schools make state, and so many of them deserve it, but unfortunately there’s only 4. 9. Memorial Haven’t seen them at all this year, but they always seem to sneak in the back of finals at area. Pretty consistent program and always has some cool shows. 10. The Colony Also have yet to see the Colony, but I want them to have a spot in finals because they have for so long, but these other schools especially in Region 24 have seen astronomical improvement this year and it’ll be very hard for The Colony to keep up with them. It was really hard to place some of these schools where I did, but here’s my idea of the groupings to make it a little more accurate: 1-2 (Wakeland, Lone Star) almost definitely locks 3-6 (LT, Argyle, Reedy, North) tough to pick 2 to go home, they’re all phenomenal programs 7-8 (WG, Emerson) Both new programs that will surely rise to the level of the others ahead of them in a few years 9-10 (Memorial, The Colony) Great programs but I just don’t know much about them, and they’re going to have a hard time competing with this powerhouse of an area. Any feedback is appreciated!

How do you think the rankings would have been different if at all if it were judged by UIL scoring?

Does anybody else think it’s weird how General Effect counts for 60% of the scoring for BOA? That seems very excessive, especially considering not a lot of people can even define what it means. Can anyone here explain for me?