archeryfan0267

They've been historically huge, and they're still up there this year! Here's the list of bands by performance size, according to the UIL SMBC program, with any ties listed in alphabetical order. 1st Cedar Park: 267 2nd Lone Star: 225 3rd Rouse: 224 4th Lake Belton: 223 5th Leander: 222 6th Barbers Hill: 220 T-7th Aledo: 215 T-7th Pieper: 215 9th Midlothian: 210 10th Wakeland: 200 11th Lakeview Centennial: 198 12th Hendrickson: 194 13th College Station: 190 14th North Mesquite: 186 15th Hays: 185 16th Mckinney North: 180 T-17th Friendswood: 175 T-17th Mount Pleasant: 175 T-17th Richland: 175 20th El Dorado: 170 21st Argyle: 168 22th Smithson Valley: 164 T-23rd Colleyville Heritage: 160 T-23rd Mequite Poteet: 160 25th Burleson Centennial: 155 T-26th Angleton: 154 T-26th Roma: 154 T-28th Lubbock: 153 T-28th Sharyland: 153 30th Hanks: 150 31st Sharyland Pioneer: 147 T-32nd A&M Consolidated: 140 T-32nd Kempner: 140 T-32nd Rio Grande City: 140 35th Lubbock Cooper: 136 36th Glenn: 121 37th Liberty Hill: 120 38th Lopez ECHS: 100

Yes, this is technically true looking at the graph, but I'd say the factors of band size and placement correlate with each other, band size doesn't cause higher placement. Not directly. As the bands tick up in size, they have more possible talent in their program. More good players to put on the field, with the ability to put the lower skilled and inexperienced members on JV marching bands or alternate spots on the field. Bigger programs most likely have superior teaching to make their students better, and directors that can retain kids coming out of feeder middle schools (get them to stay in band). In an easy example of Cedar Park, I imagine it's pretty easy to convince incoming 9th graders to be in the band that's a six-peating state champion. Larger bands generally do better, yes! But not because they're scored higher by judges because they're large, but because larger bands tend to have a deeper pool of talent.

I thought it'd be cool to make a graph showing the 5A State bands' placement relative to their band sizes. Got the member numbers from the UIL program Some points of interest and outliers: -Of the Top 10 largest bands, only 6 made finals. -Of the Top 5 largest bands, 4 were in the top half of finals, with the other one (Lake Belton, 4th largest band) missing finals at 13th, making them the largest band outside of finals with 223 members -Cedar Park (5A Champ) was significantly larger than any other band here, ranking as the biggest group with 267, far ahead of Lonestar's 2nd rank with 225 members. -Roma was the smallest band in finals, tying for the 26th largest band (154 members) and placing 12th in the competition. -BC was the second smallest band in finals, ranking as the 25th largest band, squeaking ahead of Roma with 155 members. They placed 9th in the competition. -Argyle was not too much larger, ranking as the 21st largest band with 168 members and placed 7th in the competition. -Glenn placed impressively high (16th in the competition) considering they were the 3rd smallest (36th largest) band here. -The largest size difference between two bands that placed next to each other in competition was a 98 member difference between Lakeview Centennial, who placed 34th in competition and had 198 members, and Lopez ECHS, who placed 35th in competition and had only 100 members. Lopez ECHS was also notably the smallest band at the competition by 20 members (Liberty Hill was 2nd smallest), while LC was the 11th largest band. -Close behind this difference is Glenn and Pieper. Glenn placed 16th in competition, just ahead of Pieper in 17th. Glenn (36th largest), with only 1 member more than Liberty Hill, had only 121 performers. Pieper (Tied 7th largest) had 215, making it a 94-member difference for the two bands. -Other neighboring bands with gaps in member size that are worth noting are Argyle and Lonestar's difference of 57, College Station and Liberty Hill's difference of 70, and Lake Belton and Colleyville Heritage's difference of 63. NUMBERS ARE COOL!

Bands will maybe only get a small amount of extra credit for having their whole show, otherwise the judges just judge what was performed. Not even close enough to warrant a 3 point gap. Point is, and same story with Wakeland and Lone Star's huge gap at BOA Prosper followed by a photo finish at Area finals, is that while competitions can give us hints at placements literally anything can happen in 1-2 weeks between performances.

They were buoyed to 6th in prelims by a Visual judge randomly putting them 2nd.

Top 5 stayed intact.. bottom 5 not so much haha

Woah. Haven't seen them since I drove to their preview over a month ago. This show is looking scary. Some weird mic setups for this recording, sounds like they put the mic right in front of the pit speakers so it's really front ensemble-heavy, the brass is definitely louder than the mic is giving them credit for.

What?

Finals

Prelims

Prelims.pdf Finals.pdf

Did they announce the prelims awards or just the schedule?

Okay that's a good point. Also their props look like they bought them off the Bluecoats in 2019/2021

Interesting. North should do good and again it's cool that they've found an indentity for themselves, however I think they should shoot for a little more variation from year to year. They've even been using these props for three straight years since 2022.

I saw Emerson too now. I could see them as high as 5th or 6th, but that depends on if they can actually clean it because it's got some work to do. It'll probably hurt them early season but hopefully they grow to fill those shoes left by the staff. Show concept is there though and I really like the Wild Nights intro. Also holy god I was able to see a video of Lonestar's opener from some recent football game (I don't know what week or when but it was at the Cowboys Indoor field in Frisco) but they are seriously looking to make a run for 1st this year, it's loud, it's difficult, and it's clean. Musically and visually

I will just send it through the inbox on this site. I don't have Instagram.

I have a video of Lonestar at their community preview performance from August 17th if anyone's interested.

Predictions *=State MBC Qualifier 1st-2nd Bubble 🥇Frisco Wakeland HS*: This is one of the most consistently good programs in the state. I've seen snippets of their show and the brass sounds great. Woodwinds sound like they could take their respective caption at state again. However, I don't think their show is something any more innovative than years past, and they may experience a slight plateau or even dip in their competition season results compared to last year. Other than that there's not much else to say. They're Wakeland. 🥈Frisco Lone Star HS*: Drove to their community preview in Frisco. Certainly a noticeable step forward in design. They sound PHENOMENAL for this early in the year, brass section is cranking more than ever before, and it's already cleaner than most, with a tougher book. I think they will once again be a crowd favorite, just from their opener alone. That said I think these top 2 are pretty locked. Lone Star's had nothing but an upward trajectory since 2020. They won here in 2022, though Wakeland was famously not there because of a UIL disqualification. There is also questions on how valid their win in Area Prelims last year was, what with spread-out performance times. However, I think the fact that Lone Star's had their foot in the door for a while there says that Wakeland is no longer untouchable in Area B. I see Wakeland still a little ahead, but I think they could definitely swap some ordinals with each other this year in finals. Lone Star could maybe even be a poor finals performance by Wakeland away from a more "undisputed" Area Championship. 3rd-5th Bubble 🥉Frisco Lebanon Trail HS*: I haven't seen LT yet, but they are a great program with some 5A state experience under their belt. Their show "Fascinating People" appears to be a step in the right direction this year, with a more "outside the box" show concept. I feel like that has been a consistent hold-back for this program, and it took them several years to escape their trend of safe, classical, albeit clean shows. I see some Chick Corea in their repertoire and that makes me excited. What the band staff does in terms of design with the show they've got, is what will make or break them against bands like Argyle, who are pretty heated up after last year's 4th to 5th place movement in finals. 4 McKinney North*: Not seen them yet. A lot of people talk about how this program gets "underscored" in UIL competitions because of their more BOA-oriented show designs. And while I see why people see it that way, I think North has gotten some pretty justifiable UIL scorings over the last few years, maybe even higher than expected. They've been a pretty consistent program since 2022, placing 3rd the last two years at Area, and making the SMBC last year for the first time in a while. I think they've found a neat identity with their jazzy shows and they remind me a lot of the Mandarins in terms of recent show design. I think they could be anywhere in the 3-5 bubble, but we'll see as the year plays out. 5 Argyle HS: I put this program in 5th because I don't think I'm quite sold on them being fully on par yet with the big 5A bands. What they do have going for them, is lots of historically great state runs and I'm guessing some fired-up students after 2023's Area Finals. While this band IS similar in size to McKinney North, I feel like they still have a bit of 4A blood left in terms of show design, and North uses what they have far more effectively in my opinion. However, I would love for Argyle to prove me dead wrong, because I think they have found the top 5 bubble nice and comfortable these last two years, and are ready to make a swing for a possible top 4 or 3. I think this top 5 is pretty set and will not be disrupted. 6-10 Bubble 6 Frisco Independence HS: I think last year was a fluke. They have a great big sound for a smaller band, and they remind me a lot of Argyle, but a little louder. 7 The Colony HS: To be honest I don't really know where this program's headed. They never seem to attract a lot of attention in competition season leading up to this event (but I think they should get more credit), but always seem to end up in the middle-upper finals bubble. I think they'll stay there for now. I see them literally anywhere 6-10, or they could just randomly give Top 5 a small run for its money. 8 Frisco Emerson HS: They really surprised me last year. I thought early on they'd be a dark horse for finals and ended up right. Lots of talent for a medium-size 5A band, especially being so new. I see them in the 8-12 range. 9 Anna HS: Another 4A band moving up, another with some good state experience. I think they will hover in the 8-14 range. 10 Lucas Lovejoy HS: This band is a lot like The Colony in terms of placement history, but has definitely been more volatile, with some historical 5th, 6ths, then 9ths and non-finals finishes. They consistently do very well in the prior competition season then get snubbed come Area, but I don't think they will break that Top 5 bubble. Anywhere from 6-12 for me. Finals Bubble (In Descending Order): Frisco Memorial HS, Frisco Centennial HS, Frisco Reedy HS, Frisco Liberty HS, Prosper Walnut Grove HS HUGE GRAIN OF SALT FOR THIS POST: It's August. 95% of these are going to be wrong.