Donezo

I think all the SA schools were in Area E in the last alignment, but I'm not completely sure. Area D will always be problematic because of how deep the Austin area is. However, there aren't enough regions over there to spread out across areas the way that Houston and DFW can do with their schools. It doesn't help that with either alignment, you either throw Reagan/Johnson or The Woodlands/Spring into the mix along with the other strong programs their regions bring with them.

If we went back to that alignment, Area B would be LD Bell/Haltom/Richland/Duncanville/Coppell/Keller, etc. Area C would be Marcus/Hebron/Berkner/Rowlett/Plano East, etc. Also, the Ft. Bend schools would be out of E and into F with Brazoswood/Pearland/Clear Lake, etc. San Antonio schools would be out of G and into E with the NEISD schools.

I still wouldn't be surprised if we saw another realignment soon. I think the 2001-2005 region/area alignment was ideal, but apparently no one agrees with me!

Still a solid program, but they haven't been top tier since Scott McAdow left. They've been in the mix for the past couple of State cycles, but they haven't made State Finals since 2006. There's still a lot of talent there, so who knows. The early performance time doesn't help.

Oh wow. You must be new, because this is very much not the case.

If you figure out a way to create a marching contest format that doesn't make anybody angry, I think you will deserve a Nobel Peace Prize!

3/5 of the judges had them out of finals. Nobody had them in the top 6. It's hard to argue that they were egregiously robbed.

It's not a matter of what I think. 3/5 of the judges had Round Rock out of the top 10. The two who had them in had them in 10th. You complain about the inconsistency of it all, but I see five judges consistently agreeing that it was not a top tier performance. I'm sorry things didn't work out on Saturday. Complaining about the system isn't going to help anything. Honestly, it seems like you're upset that you didn't get the results that you wanted. It's a tough pill to swallow, but you still have BOA SA. I only commented because the hyperbole over the "broken" UIL system that comes around every October irritates me to no end and is usually unfounded. If that 22 vote was all that kept Round Rock out of State Marching Contest, then I'd agree that there was a problem.

For all the wacky inconsistencies, we still wound up with a 7 point gap between 10th and 11th, which ultimately means that the judges did their jobs and there was a rough consensus on who the top 10 bands were that day. Yes, somebody had Round Rock 22nd and that might have been too low. At the same time, nobody had them higher than 10th. It's hard to make a case that anyone was screwed over in prelims. The only band who really has a right to complain about scoring is probably Westwood, who only missed out on State advancement by one rank point.

Berkner also barely missed State Finals in 2008. I would have had them in!

Scott Coulson and Fred Velez were the finals marching judges, so they weren't involved in the prelims mess. However, they were very off from each other even though both are incredibly respected and qualified. It was a deep field with a lot of different styles represented. Coulson rewarded the very clean (Lake Travis 2nd) over the very flashy (Johnson 7th.) If you look at each individual judge's finals ranks, there is clear internal logic and consistency. You can tell what they were looking for. Prelims.....I'm not sure if that's true. Granted, I wasn't there and haven't seen everything yet. I watched Anderson's prelims performance and I can see where the disagreements come from. There are just large chunks of the show where they aren't moving very much. That can be irritating to a marching judge. Musically, they generally execute tough material well, but there are intonation and precision issues that a judge could latch on to if they were really nitpicking. In most areas, that was a top 10 performance, but in this very deep field, I'm not sure where I would have had them. I could imagine ten bands from that list playing and marching better. I'm hoping for more Area D videos to pop up soon.

It's interesting to note that in the past, some unpredicted finalists typically come from the last block of prelims: Bowie and Clements in 2004, Akins in 2006, Westlake in 2008, Westlake again in 2010. With such a marathon of great performances, it does make sense that bands who do well at the end of the day could get a slight advantage over bands of similar quality earlier on. Looking at the schedule, Lake Travis and/or Rowlett could upset with a strong enough performance. Exciting!

Their best performance is almost always at Area, so unfortunately I have to agree.

Rowlett has always frustrated me because they are always up there with Berkner/Coppell/Duncanville at area, but they can never seem to keep the momentum going all the way to State. Let's not forget that they actually won Area C in 2010, but were the only advancing program to miss State Finals. Maybe the Alamodome just isn't kind to them. I would love for this year to be the year that changes that, but I'm skeptical.

The reason I didn't list TW as an absolute lock is that they tend to be a bit hit or miss at State (2006 comes to mind.) They're also a group that tends to split panels at State. Regardless, I think they're in and probably top 5. Bell and Duncanville are probably in too, but again, I hesitate to call many groups locks. Johnson is an odd case to me. They're very good, but I think they're going to be divisive. I can see some more conservative types lowballing them big time in prelims.

I've been trying to think through predictions, but it's HARD. If you had told me going into Saturday that Duncanville and LD Bell would both finish 4th at Area, I would probably have laughed at you. I think we're due for a fairly crazy State Marching Contest. Here is how I see the finals picture. Locked barring catastrophe: Marcus Bowie I think they're in?? But I don't know.... The Woodlands Hebron LD Bell Duncanville Coppell Throw darts at a board and pick three of these: Johnson Reagan Plano East Berkner Westlake Spring Rowlett Richland Pearland Keller Long shots, but stranger things have happened: Harlingen Lake Travis Hendrickson Langham Creek Clear Lake Brazoswood Clements

I'm trying to strain my eyes and make out the individual ordinals, but it is sadly not happening. Hopefully the Region 3 website will post them tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I can't make out the individual marks on this phone scan I have, but the ranking was: 1. Berkner 2. Rowlett 3. Coppell 4. Duncanville 5. North Mesquite 6. Midlothian 7. J. J. Pearce 8. Sachse 9. Lakeview Centennial 10. John Horn Looks like Berkner and Rowlett tied for 1st with 11 rank points each and Coppell was only one rank point away. Big gap between Duncanville and North Mesquite - looks like 16 and 27 rank points respectively, but again, I don't have the best scan. For kicks and grins, here's how prelims went down: 1. Duncanville 2. Berkner 3. Rowlett 4. Coppell 5. North Mesquite 6. J. J. Pearce 7. Midlothian 8. Sachse 9. John Horn 10. Lakeview Centennial 11. Richardson 12. Garland 13. Mesquite 14. Lake Highlands 15. Robert E. Lee 16. Naaman Forest 17. South Grand Prairie 18. Rockwall Heath 19. Cedar Hill 20. MacArthur 21. DeSoto 22. Sunset

I'm fairly certain he's marching judge one in prelims. If you look at the results, it doesn't look like his scores overwhelmingly favored SA bands. If we ruled out any judge who had any kind of affiliation with any program at a UIL contest, we'd have to bring in out-of-staters who are unfamiliar with the system. It's just not a reasonable expectation.

I vaguely even remember when Leander was 2nd at 4A state! At least I can firmly say that I'm not old enough to remember 4A powerhouse Georgetown.

Hmm......I'll have to ask around on that one. Although I'm guessing most of the old fogies who were high up in the system back then don't remember exactly what happened either.

Really? I could have sworn it went on longer than that, but I'm not sure. What do you see from the prelims rankings that shows you that? I'm also nerdy and therefore curious because I have no idea what went down at 1990 state besides the finalists and the fact that Poteet was 10th in 4A prelims.

It's also worth noting that state advancement used to work very differently. Region was a ranked contest for a while on top of just a ratings contest. Top two from region advanced to area. Top two from area advanced to state. 14 bands at state. 5 finalists. You had bands like Klein who were good enough to make state finals, but couldn't get out of region because of Westfield/Spring. Don't quote me on this, but I think 1996 was the year the current system was put into place. Still only 7 finalists though. Back in ye olden days when it was only 14 bands at state, it was at the UT stadium, which is basically the best marching band venue in the world. It was a logistical nightmare, as you can imagine if you've ever tried to park on or near the UT campus.

So is SFA back to competing at the area level? I know they sat out the last couple of times.

Yes, but this is DMI, where results tend to favor the state bound 5A bands in even numbered years. I think it would take a lot for Coppell to lose. Coppell's sound is also a stronger advantage where they are the lone 5A behemoth in a sea of 4A bands, which is not the case at most contests they attend. That doesn't necessarily mean they're infinitely better than the other bands at this contest, but it puts them more in line with what usually succeeds at this contest. And to be clear, I was talking about quality and not just quantity in regard to Coppell's sound.