Nosagi

They were 3rd in class 4a, they announce top three out of every class. For 4a, it was: 1. The Woodlands 2. CTJ 3. Cedar Ridge. We don't know the placements of any other 4a band.

Initial thoughts: I was convinced CTJ won the class after they took the performance captions, so when CTJ was announced 2nd, I was reasonably shocked. To be honest, I loved CTJ's contortionists, it felt like I was watching Cirque Du Soli (that's misspelled), but I found myself spending 90% of my attention on the 4 performers, causing me to miss a lot of the band action. In my opinion they should tone it down a little because the audience may have a hard time focusing on the band at all. Quick disclaimer: I've never considered myself a traditionalist, and I've always advocated new and creative ideas on the field, and what they are doing is jaw dropping, but it felt like just a bit too much. The Woodlands was way beyond my expectations, the drum break was through the rough and I loved the W at the end. I know the show isn't quite finished yet, but (pardon me) darn, THAT GE! It must've been exceptionally close between 1 and 2. Cedar Park was loud, fast and in your face from the beginning, after the first 30 seconds I was positive they won 3a. Cool ending with jumping off guard members. Reagan has a dark, creepy show again, which is great because I love Reagan's dark shows. A bit disappointed they missed out on 3rd but not surprised, because... Cedar Ridge! Wow! In with the big boys! This band only gets better, and I can't wait to see them at Nats! (They're still going right? Please tell me they are!) Flower Mound, loved the white everything, musical selection is straight off of my iPod, I am convinced this show was made for me. Great use of columns as props, and I'm not usually a fan of columns. That's all I can remember for now.

I do believe I also hear Philip Glass, specifically "Heros"

This is way more likely, and what probably actually happened. They are all from a common area with a common sound that may not have been taken the best by the judges. Same with their marching technique I disagree that money and 'wow' props wins championships. Hard work from student and staff wins these things. Besides, giant props and LED boards are the kind of thing that would be better received at a BOA competition rather than UIL. Cedar Park won 4A State championships last year with no real props or even a theme! Unless you call the music of Gustav Mahler a theme, I don't, I call it the Music of Gustav Mahler xD When you are in this world of 5A, with the largest most affluent bands you do get a large influx of props and 'creativity', just because that is the type of show these bands put on. Most of the top bands also compete in BOA which rewards General Effect, which props can boost greatly. Now are the props free? No. Are they cheap? No. But that's why these bands put on fundraisers for the students to raise their own money for fees that go towards props among other things. With the location of bands like Marcus and LD Bell in large suburban areas there is a larger group of students wanting to participate, more talent, higher quality. Huge bands, which technically speaking does have them in reach of more money, but is that the reason they are constantly successful? Not at all. Another factor is that the middle schools feeding into these high schools do an excellent job of teaching and preparing those kids for this world. Just some things to think about.

Don't think that CORRELATION is CAUSATION. Having 7 out of the 8 from area G as the bottom is more than likely a huge coincidence rather than regional bias. First off your band, O'Connor, wouldn't have made it to 22nd if there was regional bias between ALL 5 different judges. Secondly, I'm pretty sure the judges don't have an opinion to give with where a band comes from, they just show up, judge, and get paid. They aren't active followers of the UIL areas, some are even out of state! Lastly this was a very hard contest from top to bottom, bands that *traditionally* should've been in finals were way off. It's a real accomplishment to have gotten to the State Marching Contest and every one of those kids should be proud they were there. And, like you said, area G hasn't produced a finals caliber band in decades. Yet that area was given the most spots because the most bands qualified, spots that some would argue should've gone to other areas for more 'deserving bands'. This more than anything proves that EVERYONE is given their fair chance, there is no regional bias, every area follows the rules and every band there deserves to be there no matter what! I was at the 3A SMC also and sitting next to me was an older gentleman of no apparent band affiliation there with his friend. Every time a military marching band came onto the field he would loudly say things like 'They don't deserve to be here' 'that warm ups not going to help, they won't win' and 'this band is a waste of my time'. China Springs, a military marching band went on to make finals. Story was a little unrelated to the above post but I wanted to share it. I can assure you regional bias would be unfeasible coming from professionals with no hand in the game. Even if one or two judges did have a bias, there would be 3 other judges to counter them. That's just how this system works. As you hopefully see, the scores given were consistent to those bands.

Mother of God. A perfect storm, the likes of which has never been seen. I will need to fly to Indianapolis next year.

Just think, Marcus, The Woodlands, Avon, Broken Arrow, Carmel, and (Maybe) LD Bell. ALL AT THE SAME COMPETITION! HOW COULD ANYONE POSSIBLY RANK THEM?!? Thats the 3 top bands from Texas, the top band from Oklahoma, and the 2 top bands from Indiana. And every one of them has the possibility of bringing that Eagle home.

I'm already thinking/worrying about next season. I need a life. Or at least one that isn't so seasonal xD

One judge changing one # in the 3-6 range would've changed A LOT.

1 Marcus HS, Flower Mound 1 1 2 1 1 6 2 Hebron HS, Carrollton 6 2 1 6 3 18 3 Bell HS, Hurst 3 9 3 3 6 24 4 Bowie HS, Austin 5 5 8 4 2 24 5 Coppell HS, Coppell 9 3 4 5 4 25 6 The Woodlands HS, The Woodlands 2 4 7 7 5 25 7 Westlake HS, Austin 7 6 5 9 7 34 8 Reagan HS, San Antonio 8 7 10 2 8 35 9 Berkner HS, Richardson 4 10 6 8 9 37 10 Johnson HS, San Antonio 10 8 9 10 10 47

100% agree with you, last night was crazy! Hopefully finals will be a little more in tact.

Preliminaries Results 1 Marcus HS, Flower Mound 1 1 1 2 1 6 2 Bell HS, Hurst 8 7 6 3 3 27 3 Reagan HS, San Antonio 2 17 2 6 6 33 4 Coppell HS, Coppell 3 8 8 1 15 35 5 Hebron HS, Carrollton 4 5 5 11 13 38 6 Bowie HS, Austin 5 4 19 10 4 42 7 Westlake HS, Austin 6 3 11 9 20 49 8 Johnson HS, San Antonio 9 16 15 4 5 49 9 Berkner HS, Richardson 11 2 13 13 10 49 10 The Woodlands HS, The Woodlands 20 11 9 8 2 50 11 Keller H S, Keller 17 22 4 5 11 59 12 Spring HS, Spring 13 10 7 12 17 59 13 Richland H S, N Richland Hills 12 18 12 7 14 63 14 Duncanville HS, Duncanville 19 19 3 15 12 68 15 Lake Travis H S, Austin 21 6 21 16 18 82 16 Rowlett H S, Rowlett 7 13 24 24 16 84 17 Brazoswood HS, Clute 10 9 17 25 26 87 18 Dickinson H S, Dickinson 18 14 14 14 29 89 19 Plano East Sr HS, Plano 24 15 10 32 9 90 20 Cy-Fair H S, Cypress 14 24 23 28 8 97 21 Hendrickson HS, Pflugerville 16 26 32 20 7 101 22 O'Connor HS, Helotes 15 20 18 18 32 103 23 Pearland H S, Pearland 22 21 20 26 25 114 24 Clear Lake HS, Houston 23 12 30 21 33 119 25 Langham Creek H S, Houston 26 36 16 17 31 126 26 Clear Brook HS, Friendswood 28 27 22 22 27 126 27 Fossil Ridge HS, Keller 25 33 27 27 19 131 28 Clements HS, Sugar Land 33 35 26 19 22 135 29 Coronado HS, El Paso 30 23 29 31 24 137 30 Central HS, Fort Worth 27 31 25 23 35 141 31 Seven Lakes H S, Katy 29 34 37 29 21 150 32 Harlingen HS, Harlingen 31 28 34 33 28 154 33 Donna HS, Donna 34 25 28 34 34 155 34 San Benito HS, San Benito 32 29 31 30 37 159 35 Hanna H S, Brownsville 38 32 38 35 23 166 36 Lopez HS, Brownsville 36 30 36 36 30 168 37 Harlingen South HS, Harlingen 35 37 33 37 36 178 38 United HS, Laredo 37 38 35 38 38 186 Last # is composite score from left to right judges are: Beatty, Caneva, Clemmer, Hudson, Wessels Quick comments: Reagan (3) and Coppell (4) are higher than expected Bowie (6), CTJ (8), and The Woodlands (10) are lower than expected Spring (12) and Duncanville (14) nowhere to be found!

Couldn't it also be possible that bands that don't normally do BOA because of the locations would also attend an Austin regional? Obviously probably not many big schools (because if they are big they would probably be able to handle the travel costs and decided against BOA for another reason) but the smaller ones that is

The Woodlands kids are some of the nicest I've ever met! I don't know who told you they were dismissive but I believe heavily they are wrong

Yes, but low band turnout killed it.