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.

So then the question becomes 'Where would they hold it?' Looking at finals recaps I see Round Rock had a .1 penalty for something which ACTUALLY made the difference between their 8th place (87.15) and Hebrons 7th (87.25). Round Rock had a higher GE score so they would've won that tie. Anyone know what the infraction was? Richland also had a .1 penalty but there wasn't any place movement because of it

If they add a semifinals, what makes this any different than grand nationals? Besides bands that attend, not much

Couldn't agree more with this. Though I love Pflugerville's program, I'm worried it's not quite enough to make finals. Performance and program wise it was very nice, fairly clean musically and visually but are they on that level this year? Time will tell. So I guess I actually COULD agree more xD

I'm sure you're not the only one, but you have to realize that this competition is as stacked as it gets. People are blindly going for the results they have seen in the past (Myself included). We look at bands like Marcus and Bowie and The Woodlands and think that there is a possibility these bands won't make top 5. Everyone is grabbing onto what makes them comfortable, and to be honest Berkner hasn't been up there long enough to be a sure bet for a gambling man. Don't act surprised that no one thinks that they will be in the top 5. Does the fact that no one predicts them in the top 5 mean they are actually not going to get top 5? NO. Anything can happen. Absolutely anything. But the best feeling in the world is when you're in an underdog band that no one expects to win and then you do. Greatest feeling in the world. Worst feeling, when everyone wants you to win and you don't get anywhere near. Now I haven't seen Berkner this year so I can't comment on how I actually feel about them, but I wish them the best of luck, I remember standing next to them a few years back in San Antonio and they were great people.

I have been listening to The Woodlands High School band for years now and I can honestly say that this year's music is by far the best I've ever heard them. They fixed the high trumpets sticking out in the end of the first act which was my biggest problem, the soloists are excellent (though at area the brass soloists did stumble but I'm willing to chalk that up to the cold). The end of the ballad is SO POWERFUL they've gotten standing ovations before the show was near done. I think musically they are just way more exciting than I've ever seen them before. Plus the GE this year is very high! Clean it up visually and this may be The Woodlands best season to date! (Too bad it's not a GN year). Yet, they are still The Woodlands and they do have that TW curse... Hopefully this year will be the end of that! Marcus is THE classy band, both on the field and off (anyone who has ever stood next to them before retreat knows exactly what I'm talking about). Their shows tend to be high brow, if that makes sense. They just seem to not be as exciting and interesting to the common person as opposed to someone who is ALL about the music. I do love Bach and they perform it well, but they lack that edge that bands like Hebron, TW, and CTJ are made of. Now the judges of all people will appreciate their sound, but don't look to them for a fan favorite. Nevertheless they will be in the hierarchy for a little bit longer. LD Bell. Where do I start... I don't think that Bell has lost their touch. They have lost Wes Cartwright and every contest this season (I think) but I don't see this as the end of their dynasty. Their show is confusing to me, but so was the Blue Devils show this year and look how that turned out for them. Their drill this year is insane which would work to their advantage if they could clean it up. I guess time will tell how this past week went for them. Claudia Taylor Johnson is one of my personal favorite programs, I love their show this year and I think that they could be the 'Bowie 2011' this year. That being said, what I saw was from Denton, so they have added and cleaned and all that, I am most excited to see them this weekend. I only hear good things about them! I can't make any predictions cause if I tried my head would explode. This Super Regional is The Grand Nationals of Texas.

This is a tough time for those trying to predict results for both the Super Regional and UIL State. Mainly because we have to remember results from the area contests are almost inadmissible to THIS contest. Judging variances, show styles, performing in the cold, all these factors mean that EVERYTHING could change on saturday. Sorry for this little reminder, but this a forum for all, and not everyone are aware of these facts. The bands in top 3 on Saturday could be in switched places Tuesday, even with the same performances just because of different judges and a different system.

Ah thank you! It was hard to enlarge on my computer in word so 8's look like 9's etc... The thing I'm most glad for is that there isn't a huge uproar and argument going on in this area about scoring inconstancies, these things just happen.

Yes but I think he's speaking in the majority sense. The Woodlands, Spring, and Westfield have been the historical powerhouses in area F with The Woodlands being the most recent. There may have been other area F bands in state finals but I'm afraid I'm not knowledgeable enough on the subject of UIL state to know for certain.

Without looking again, I believe The Woodlands received a 998 from one music judge! I don't remember if others were close or not but to be 2 points out of 1000 is either impressive or suspicious! I chose to think impressive, because they really DID sound that good.

I think that might grow to be the term of the season! Shame about TWCP, I didn't see so I can't comment. But yeah, I was looking at the scores for finals, couple of things I noticed, Pearland was VERY close to overtaking Spring, one point difference. Marching judge 2 (J5) Seems to have boxed himself in. 20 points (out of 1000) separate 7 bands. That Spring 1 in music was 2 points (Out of 1000) away from being a Woodlands 1, that could mean anything from a tuning issue to one wrong note could've had a different outcome. In all fairness that was the best I've heard Spring all year. Marginally better. The judging tends to be pretty consistent at this contest, save for marching judge 2 (J5). But I agree with the overall results, afterall, area tends to be a stepping stone for a lot of these bands. We could see amazingly different results at state. Good luck, see you next Tuesday!