buzz

Actually, if the scheduling follows the same pattern it has been, 4A state will be Nov. 1st... so BEFORE the Super Regional. Definately different, that's for sure!

Bowie High School.... from Austin? or Arlington?

Finals (No particular order): Reagan Pflugerville Round Rock Bowie Akins Anderson Churchill Leander Westlake McNeil State Qualifiers (in score order): Bowie Round Rock Anderson Churchill Pflugerville Reagan 7. McNeil 8. Leander 9. Akins 10. Westlake

I was at the Westlake contest, so maybe I can provide some more info about the finals placements... 10th Vista Ridge~ I honestly don't know why they didn't place higher up (I had put them in the middle of the bunch). However, their visual (marching) was not really good, so that was a factor. Also, they had these two GIANT purple drape things, but they were constantly in the way... I think they had just added those, so the band just wasn't use to them. 9th Westwood~ Talk about Avon copiers! But besides that, it was an alright show. The concept wasn't really clear, and there were some issues with marching and music, so I don't disagree with their placement. 8th O'Connor~ I had placed this band last.... The music was played well, but the marching needed some work. Also, there was A TON of stuff on the field (ladders, spiders, scary stuff, etc.), which cluttered the band. I think if they had more room to move and march, it would be an awesome show. 7th Connally~ The concept was there-different music from around the world, all that jazz. However, the music wasn't up to the quality that the other bands had, which was dissapointing. I honestly think that they just need to do more run throughs since they seemed tired at the end of the show. 6th Pflugerville~ It was p-fantastic! I thought that they would place a little higher (around 4th or 5th). The music is really pretty, and the colorguard/percussion are amazing. If they spent an hour or two doing basics again, I think this show could be a state finalist. 5th Akins~ I want to find good stuff to say about this show, but its challenging. It was a rough musical run for them, but their marching is fantastic... each step is straight legged and every person is doing it, which is nice. The percussion could def. use one or two sectionals... An overall okay show, but they will have to work really hard if they want to got to state. 4th Anderson~ Talk about BEAUTIFUL! They were my favorite band of the night, and yet I had them third... The visual design of the show is absolutely fantastic (53 colorguard girls helps ). Musically, they have a really nice low brass sound. They need to clean up their marching just a tad, but I really think that they'll be a finalist at State. 3rd Dripping Springs~ If Anderson had the precision of Dripping, then they would have won. Dripping (the only band in white, btw) is basically telling everyone that they are ready for another state title, and I'd bet money that this show could win 4A state. Musically, it was a little rougher than 2 weeks previously, but I believe thats because they added another 30 seconds to the end and just didn't work the runs as much as they had. I was surprised that they got best colorguard.... Anderson was def. stronger person to person, but they didn't have the whole show learned yet. I can't wait to see them on Tuesday at UIL. And now comes the "upset" of the night. 2nd Bowie~ It had been 3 weeks since I had seen Bowie perform.... Not only did they learn the rest of the show, they added a GIANT circular screen that rolled across the field from the back of side 1 to the front of side 2. This added a literal point to the title (Revolutionary)... Musically, it was a fantastic performance. And now comes the problem~ by UIL standards, they were the better band. Their colorguard, however, lost them the gold at Westlake. All though they weren't "bad", they def. were not up to the level of performance that the rest of the band was at. I had them 1st. 1st Round Rock~ I'm going to give it to them, they had almost won me over. My only issue with them is that the marching isn't as technically difficult as Anderson's or Bowie's (or Vista Ridges, for that matter). However, their percussion is absolutely fantastic (I believe that they will win Lonestar this year) which was a def. boost in points. What was interesting is that the week before, they had the exact same show, which leads me to believe that they are not adding anything else, which means they have peaked and will have to work really hard to keep up the level of excellence that they've had. Another state finalist, though, if they can keep this up! What is interesting is that we can expect all of these 5A schools to be in the Area D Finals (except O'Connor, imo). I would predict that Bowie, Round Rock, Anderson, Pflugerville, and possibly Akins will all move on to state and that Bowie, Round Rock, and Anderson will make finals. It will take a lot from these guys to have a chance at the title. Just my two cents ! Thanks for reading!

You need to realize that UIL judges on what the students put on... GE is created in the minds of the director, and then the students perform. By including GE into the UIL rubrics, we'd start judging the band directors, not the students and their performance. On another note, UIL Region is probably the fairest contest around. Bands don't have any competition with each other, and there are no scores given out. I live in Austin, and the bands here don't have the same amount of funds that Marcus and LD Bell have. Bowie is outstanding because of the quality of marching the put on and the musical ability (James Bowie 2008, anyone?). Furthermore, we have Akins (an outstanding visual band) and Dripping Springs, whose GE is quite high, but I personally saw their finals performance, and it was perfect, so I doubt GE was a factor. UIL has an odd judging system, but it is fair. At the end of the day, 5 judges have an equal say on who was the best and who was the worst.

Marcus also played Feste Romane...

Ya! Go Anderson!!!!!!!!! Woooo Hoooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Out of Area E, I think it'll be Anderson and Jersey Village... Anderson because Strange Humors has a huge English Horn solo and the English Horn player at Anderson 1) made state and 2) is a great musician. Jersey Village because their program is really strong and very difficult! Just my two cents.

McCallum High School in Austin is also getting new uni's! We have a base jacket (top) and then a "breast plate" with two more looks (bottom two)! 2018 BOA Gaffney, Orland, & Waco Combined Schedule.pdf