ftwdrummer

Memorial would be an interesting choice. As I recall, they held State Championships there before they moved to Floyd Casey. Slightly off-topic: am I the only person who thinks it would be a good idea to merge the Dallas (hosted by Lake Highlands High) and Denton (hosted by Denton Ryan) shows into one show jointly hosted by them...at UTA?

Fail on my part on that one. I should've actually looked at my little spreadsheet to make sure I got the right band. Bourbon County from A.

North Hardin.

Somewhere between 30 and 42...and closer to 30. Semis consists of: -The top 11 scores from each day. -The next eight highest scores -If any of the four classes do not have four bands already in semifinals, the next-highest ranking bands from each of those classes will be added to semifinals so that class championships may be awarded after semifinals. If I were to hazard a guess, I think there'll be 33 finalists...and all three of the extras will be class A.

Speaking as someone who's seen most of the good shows Fort Worth ISD's put out there the past few years (and having performed in a good chunk of them)... I think that's probably the best show a Fort Worth school's ever done.

All I know is, Spicer wasn't at Cedar Park this year. One of the things that happens when you're about as far from the high school marching band world (outside of forums) as you can be in the state of Texas (Rice University): you don't know things.

That idea gets even scarier when you think of individual districts trying it. Can you imagine what would happen if Leander ISD consolidated into one superband? Leander + Cedar Park + Spicer's new school + ...geez, that band would be good. Same thing for Lewisville ISD. Marcus + Hebron + The Colony + ....GEEZ, that band would be good.

I can't really say anything from experience...the closest to that my band ever came was going on at BOA right after Marcus in 2008. Yes, that is how unfocused my old band could be: the closest my band ever came to that focus was standing near it. But just remember who you are. You're THE WOODLANDS. You personally (and each and every other member) embody everything that makes up your band. So go out there and show the world who you are. Remember, you guys BEAT BELL in a year when they were the hands-down favorite to win it all. Granted, y'all did it in semis, but still...y'all BEAT BELL when Bell was the favorite. Go out there, play your show as best as you can, and you'll be epic. And, quite frankly...it sounds trite, but winning really isn't everything. Not as much as, say, conveying the idea that you want to convey, as well as you possibly can. Take a look at Lake Park 2000. It came in 8th at GN finals...and it's probably my favorite marching band show of all time. Why? Because it conveyed the message that it was designed to convey, perfectly. And it connected with the audience. I've watched that show more times than I care to count, and still tear up at the single rose on the tarp at the end.

To be absolutely perfect. Or as absolutely perfect as they can be. To win Nats this year (or pretty much any year, actually), you have to perform your personal best show of the year. And even that won't necessarily win it for you. You've got to be...well, for lack of a better term, you need to be in what I call "the zone." Which leads to the first time I get to present one of my term definitions on here: The Zone n. The aura/frame of mind of the individual performer and band as a whole when they are totally and completely focused on what their goal is and what they have to do to get there. Best definition I've been able to find of "the zone" is LD Bell. It's also a cool study of how the tone of a show affects how the performers perform. Take a look at the finals multi-cam video from LD Bell 2005, and you will see a flautist in the pit during the ballad. Once she gets through the last 16th-note figure of the solo, she gets this huge smile on her face. Not with her mouth (she's still playing), but in her eyes. It's one of my favorite moments in any marching show I've ever seen (right up there with the spearing at the end of "Spartacus" and the end of Lake Park 2000 [the Oklahoma City show]). If you watch the finals multi-cam for Bell 2006, the same girl has a solo, this time vocal (end of the ballad, call-and-response with the backfield horns). After this, her demeanor is entirely different, just staring up at the DM, entirely focused, locked in to the performance, knowing it's not done yet. Most of that can probably be attributed to the differences in the shows themselves: "The Remaining" had a completely different tone from "Ascension." But at least a little bit of it, I feel, is a difference in the situations of the band itself. In 2005, Bell had had a rough year going into Nationals. "Ascension" had one of the most difficult musical books BOA has ever seen, and it never locked itself in (see: 4th at Arlington, behind Reagan, Churchill, and Richland)...until Finals. But even then, Bell was never quite a contender for the eagle in 2005. In 2006, Bell had not placed below second. At any contest. The only three times they had been beaten (going into GN) were prelims and finals at Area B, and State finals. They were undefeated in BOA contests, won pretty handily in the two they went to, and were the odds-on favorite to win Nationals. And you could see it in that Finals performance: that band was just locked-in, entirely focused...the goal was in sight and they were within reach; all they needed was that last, perfect performance. And they came pretty dang close to getting it, too. [/soliloquy]

My theory isn't so much that Carmel's that bad (7th place)...it's that everyone else is just that good. And they're going to tick a little bit higher after next week. Meanwhile, I revised my numbers after Atlanta...and I think Wando could sneak into Finals. It depends a WHOLE lot on what happens in Indy next week, though.

From what I can tell, the Allen band just lets everybody who wants to march, march. It's pretty nice, that a band out there doesn't make half the band alternates. My dad remembers the good old days in Texas when there was a grand total of 600 people in the city of Allen. Then again, that was back in the day before Plano and Richardson maxed out size-wise. Mid-70s Texas ftw!

Westfield 2007? Show was called "One" (based on the song)...made Finals at BOAs Arlington and San Antonio.

Crown 2003 and Cavaliers 2009

Fixed! Guess I missed keying them in here while juggling my spreadsheet with the list of GN attendees. You called it, BTW. My numbers have them 9th, right between Bowie and PCEP.

Being the geek that I am, I've been trying to use the numbers to "rank" the bands against each other. It's nowhere near wholly accurate (or even mostly accurate), especially since some numbers are older than others (Carmel hasn't had a BOA performance in about a month) and some higher BOA bands haven't done a BOA contest yet (Avon). From where my numbers are sitting right now, however (combined with projections on bands we haven't seen yet), Finals are looking something like this: 1) LD Bell 2) Marcus 3) Avon 4) Broken Arrow 5) The Woodlands 6) Lawrence Central 7) Carmel 8) James Bowie 9) Marian Catholic 10) Plymouth-Canton Educational Park 11) Centerville 12) Ben Davis This will change a lot, obviously...we obviously haven't really seen any bands from the Southeast (Wando HS, South Carolina, and Seminole HS, Florida, are both going to GN), or (surprisingly) some of the better Indiana bands (Avon and Center Grove). But that list isn't a terrible read on how things are going so far this year.

I don't follow 4A closely enough state-wide (I only barely paid attention to it in my old area because the majority of bands in my school district were 4A), so I can't give a full finals prediction...but I will say this: I haven't heard Southwest in person; I only know them by what they've done in previous years and what their repertoire this year is. But if Southwest has a solid, solid musical performance (which is pretty likely; they did come in 5th in Honor Band last year, playing a piece that had its premiere about a week before their UIL performance [John Mackey's Asphalt Cocktail]), I could see them being a fairly major spoiler and sneaking into Finals. Which would be good to see, given that they got a 2 at UIL the last 4A state year.

No, Legacy opened as a 4A in 2007. Timberview was 5A until Legacy opened; the opening of Legacy pushed Timberview down to 4A.

I think you're thinking of Mansfield Timberview. Timberview went back down to 4A when Mansfield Legacy opened as a 4A.

So...now that day 1 is over: thoughts? Anyone want to take a shot at ranking the performances?

They came in tenth at Arlington. Unless they've gone through some revamping of the show since then, I wouldn't expect a tenth place band at Arlington to make Finals at SA. Not this year, anyway.

Interesting. I have a whole theory on realigning the state to fix the Metroplex. (Take greater San Antonio out of Area G and add it to D, add the northernmost region of D to B, move Region 25 to C). It would help balance out the 5As, mostly (3 from Area C v. 7 from G?), but might help 4A as well.

To try and avert a massive border war on the forums, I think I'll go ahead and throw my predictions up here, with tiers: The Frontrunners 1) LD Bell 2) Marcus That's how they're going to fall. Now that we're finally seeing them working on the same time-scale, I'm starting to think that Marcus beating Bell in recent years has more to do with Marcus's accelerated peak, compared to Bell's. The Contenders 3) The Woodlands 4) Stephen F. Austin 5) Cedar Park 6) James Bowie 7) Hebron Surprising that these next five were the top five at Houston and third place at Arlington? Not really. Houston was long enough ago that I don't quite have a read on where these bands are now (local contests, etc. not withstanding). And having not seen Hebron against anybody this high other than Bell and Marcus, I'm honestly not sure what else to do with them. Lurking, Not Looming 8) Richland 9) Coppell 10) Clear Brook 11) Brazoswood 12) Colleyville Heritage I think these five are solid finalists, but perhaps not much else. Which is rather sad to say. I could see any of these bands making a major step up since we last saw them (especially Richland), but I don't know whether or not they can crack the layers above them. On the Verge 13) Ronald Reagan 14) Winston Churchill 15) Westlake 16) Haltom Not much to say here, except that it's kinda sad to see how far Churchill and Haltom fallen since last year. Again, though, I wouldn't be surprised if either of these programs made a major step up since we last saw them.

Never before have I seen a band rise up to quell comment-fishing by one of its members like this. Having seen a whole bunch of other schools get misrepresented by comment-fishers, it brings a tear to my eye to see a band whose members are this conscious of their role in the band's image. Hats off to Hendrickson for that.

Thanks, dude!

Comments: 1) this is one of the weaker HEB contests I've seen...ever. Reminds me of the one year my school went (all bands made finals). 2) a 4A is probably going to win this. 3) I'm leaning towards Forney winning, with Keller and Martin also having a chance (and a shot for Timberview and Legacy).