longhornsax

Here's a link to a summary of the schools moving up and down for this years UIL realignment. http://www.utexas.edu/uil/alignments/2012/...f_Hist_Data.pdf Quite a bit of shuffling (as usual) in Central Texas. Hendrickson, Lake Travis and Cedar Ridge will get a chance to compete with the big boys in 5A, while Georgetown and Leander are down to 4A. Interesting that all the Leander ISD schools are now 4A. I'm also not quite sure whether this makes 5A or 4A area D stronger or weaker. Seems like a pretty even trade to me.

Seems to be a theme in Area D. Great 4A year ('07/'11) then some of those bands move up to make a great 5A year ('08/'12) Then an iffy year in 4A ('09)...Don't think we'll see a weakness in 4A in 2 years thought. Still plenty of talent left behind.

Lake Travis seems to be expected to move up to 5A every year

Will be interesting to see if anyone moves up to 5A for realignment. I've been told that Cedar Ridge should...If they don't, Area D will be even scarier in 2 years. Not sure if anyone else is on the verge of moving up or down? Either way the talent in Area D is growing exponentially!

"They were who we thought they were" After all the debate and discussion about whether this band was gonna be able to run away with this contest early in the season, Cedar Park takes care of business and wins their second state title. Can we just let them compete at the 5A contest next year?? Congrats to all the bands, finalists and medalists of course! What a night! Amazed we didn't crash the server with all that tension and excitement

Wow! They did get straight 1's...Looks like they timed this show to peak at just the right time!

The finals bands seemed to be pretty predictable. The Area D bands, the Area F bands, Waxahachie and the top Area B bands. What's not so predictable is what's gonna happen in this mess of a finals. Should be the best 4A state finals EVER, hands down. I would be pretty amazed if CP got straight 1's in this thing, but I guess we'll find out soon enough. On a side note, what is with CP and their terrible draws this year? Guess it's not slowing them down much

Haven't been listening, but I'll assume it was the Patterson chorale? Which is yes, A Bach chorale arranged by Patterson.

I meant that more in the sense that there are SOOO many of ya'll now.

You're not alone. I was excited by these results for a few reasons. The first being the success of the bands that will be representing us at GN's. The Woodlands will definitely be in medal contention and it looks like CTJ has finally arrived to the potential we knew they would a couple of years ago. The sky is the limit for these guys. And I definitely wouldn't count out Spring. Cedar Park managed to turn a 9th place SA finish to a 10th place GN's placement last year, so Spring should definitely have a shot. It will be an uphill battle though. The other reason I was excited was the free for all at the top of the standings. For the first time in a while it wasn't Bell and Marcus running away with it, but 4 bands who each had a legitimate shot at winning this thing. We say it all the time, but I think last night TRULY came down to who had the best show THAT night, and not just the best show. I'm just sad that I had to miss such an epic top 4. Really makes me excited for the future of this contest. And of a course a much deserved congrats to all the centex bands, primarily the ones from the Austin area. Bowie almost won this thing, Round Rock surprised everyone, and Anderson was that darkhorse that no one expected! Much deserved success for these bands.

I knew we were missing a debate subject this season! Almost forgot about this one.

Can't a guy express an opinion anymore about HIS predictions without someone jumping down his throat about HIS opinion? Seems to be a theme on these forums these days...

The plot thickens...

When you look at the whole picture here, what happened was really a compromise for both ends. The emotional roller coaster aside (which I'm sure has been rough for Poteet), both sides got something out of this. Look at it this way- Best case scenario for fairness of UIL rules - Poteet's mistake is brought to light after region, they don't compete at area, no one can complain about the rules not being followed/consistent. HOWEVER, Huge bummer for the Poteet kids. Best case scenario for Poteet - Poteet's mistake is brought to light after region, however rules are ignored, and Poteet is allowed to slip into state. HOWEVER, rules aren't fairly applied to similar cases in history. The way it went down - Poteet was allowed to compete at Area, a privilege itself, able to realize they were at least good enough to advance to state, but weren't allowed to move on, keeping consistent with the rules. Both sides (kind of) win, and emotional ride aside, this was the best case scenario for both sides. So even if not on purpose, UIL may have gotten this right.

So many compelling debates in this thread...must...avoid...rant!

Is Homestead the equivalent of Duncanville in Texas?

Finally get a chance to jot down my thoughts from this thing! I'm sure no one reads them but I'll put them out there anyway. First, about the crazy rankings in prelims. We can speculate all we want, but in the end, the UIL system worked out exactly like it should. The right bands (in most's opinion) got into finals, and the right bands advanced. We can analyze the numbers all we want, but after all the chaos of prelims, the announcements of advancing bands saturday night did little to shake the marching band world. Some thoughts - Cedar Ridge is gonna be a force to be reckoned with in the coming years. I knew they were a rising young program, but did not expect a really well designed and really confident sound from them. The show was a little over there heads (for now) but in a few years, they're gonna make a lot of noise. Cedar Park's show is well...Classic Cedar Park. Definitely the most exciting show of the night, and not just in the loud moments! Some beautiful playing in the ballad (that release on the last note of the ballad...wow) and great dynamic contrast throughout. This band can flat out play (but we all know that). I'm curious to see if they'll be able to clean enough to catch DS (yes, catch). Gotta feel for Connally and Hendrickson. These were 2 state finals worthy performances that just got stuck in the wrong area. This was my 3rd time seeing Hendrickson this season and man have they come a long way! I honestly thought they might snag the 4th spot. Connally's show was exactly what you expect from Connally. Great playing through with some amazingly balanced sounds. Really unfortunate for these bands, but they'll be back. Lake Travis just put all the cards on the table this year. Stunning visual and musical package combined with a highly matured band made me believe in all the hype of this band. I wouldn't have had them 2nd, but they definitely earned their spot. Vista, after seeing a few of their other shows, had what I think was a little bit of a shaky performance in finals. But that might be because I know the show that well at this point Dripping Springs - I'll be honest, I've always been hesitant with them. I've always had that doubt that they're gonna top out early. But wow. I seriously couldn't point out a flaw in this show. I have no idea how this band does it, but this show in unbelievably clean. White uniforms expose any flaw, and I honestly couldn't find one. This was DCI finals clean! It's not as flashy as some, but this show will be REALLY hard to beat. Vandegrift - I'll take the heat for this, but this is almost a Cedar Park clone. And I am totally okay with that! And they are definitely establishing their own identity. Probably one of the most challenging shows of the night played really well by such a new band. I don't think this is their year to take it all. But that year's coming. Overall, an amazing contest that I truly think might be as competitive as the state finals. I think the advancing bands have already gotten through the hardest part and should be about as close to state finals locks as possible. It's a question of which of these bands, and how many of them will medal. Area B can state it's case as much as it wants, but I think it'll have a hard time competing with D (bias, maybe?). I think Dripping Springs is the band to beat right now. Cedar Park took a risk by marching a more challenging show, but that's what Cedar Park does. They've got some visual cleaning to do before they top Drip though. I wouldn't count out Vandy or LT either. It's a good week to be a fan of Area D!

As they should. A really noble move by the director to be honest about what ever this malpractice was. That's why I love the band world. Only in band will you see leaders admit to a mistake that no one would notice. Would you see this from a coach? Heck no...and this past year of college sports drama has done a pretty good job of proving that. I'm ecstatic to hear that his honesty was rewarded.

Well...it's not straight from the book. But it's pretty darn close. And CP is at it's best when it's playing corps style shows. I think Vandegrift was the beneficiary of a not yet polished last movement from CP at the Vista Ridge contest. I still think CP has to be the favorite going into this contest and state for that matter.

The schedule - http://www.uilmusicregion26.com/pdf/marching/4A.2011.pdf

Yikes! Some disappointing results from region 12 with only 3 bands advancing from a region that usually has 5-6 1's. A lot of 1-2-2's in there. Any results from region 8 yet? If not, although unlikely, it is POSSIBLE for those 6 bands to get ones, if unlikely. Wouldn't count on it though. Assuming there are 4 bands advancing, i will not deny that the 4 aforementioned bands are the obvious front runners, but they are FAR from locks, if we are to look at this history of this contest. Traditionally, the results of earlier contests in the season have hardly had any correlation to the results of this contest, at least when it comes to the placement of the top bands. Dripping Springs always comes out of the gate strong, but it seems that everyone catches up when it comes to this contest. Even in '09 when they won state they placed 1st at state, they were 3rd in this contest in prelims, and tied with Hendrickson for first in finals after being a solid 8 points ahead of them at Westlake, very similar to this year. I think you can pretty much throw out all previous results for judging this one, because it's gonna be a slugfest. Lets just be real here, UIL judges are rarely consistent as we have seen in the past at this contest, and this year, they probably won't be, and to say something totally blasphemous they probably shouldn't be. These bands are all performing at such a high level, that I would be amazed if these judges could agree on a consistent top 10. There's gonna be some 2-9-4 music scores and 2-8 visual scores. I can guarantee that. And I REALLY hope we can just skip the part where everyone complains about this and just accepts that these bands really are THAT close. With that and mind, again, I agree there are favorites in this contest. I agree with Brandon in that CP is about as close to a lock as you can be at this contest, with Vandy a close second. I don't see a Spicer-directed band choking in this situation, but until you prove yourself at this level of competition, you can't consider them a lock. The next 2 spots I think can go to 5 bands that I think have a legitimate chance of making it out of here. Not that others don't stand a chance, but it's an uphill battle for them. Those being Dripping Springs, Lake Travis, the obvious choices, and then Hendrickson, Connally and Vista Ridge, who I think have the UIL system figured out. Hendrickson hasn't missed state finals since '03 and Connally hasn't missed 4A finals since '01! Vista managed to take the last advancing spots in both of its last 2 trips to area. How can you count these bands out? Really unfortunate that this area will most likely only get 4 spots. Hoping to make it our there for finals. Should be exciting!

Barring something drastic, Area D will take 5 bands (which is more than usual, so you can't really complain about this). Interesting that Dawson is mentioned as a likely state finalist from Area F...4 Area D 4A bands placed ahead of them at Westlake, and another right behind them. And those bands weren't Cedar Park or Vandegrift. Sorry...just can't get over how stacked this area is...I'll shut up now.

Leander's show unexciting? Did you have ear plugs in or something? And I wouldn't declare Marcus the winner just yet. They beat Bell by a point and a half at Conroe. Hardly an insurmountable gap. And I'm gonna keep pushing the Bowie bandwagon and say they have a legitimate shot at this thing. I really think they have the package to do so. Haven't heard much about the Woodlands show, but would love to see them breakout from their 3rd-5th range.

Wouldn't happen to have the results of this, would you?

Maybe it's because bands who are constantly at the top of BOA are constantly pushing the envelope? Do you think that top bands just take a year off of producing great shows and just ride their reputation for a year? Maybe these bands are always at the top because they're always putting out the best shows? Just maybe though