JTApex

IMO, the recaps never tell the full story. To truly understand, you'd need access to the full judging sheets that show their reasoning. In any activity that is judged subjectively, each judge has his/her own perspective and that will be reflected in how they rank each group. Note that I'm not saying they are slanted to one band over another, just that each may value each of the criteria they are responsible for a little differently. With a field as good as the 14 finalists this year are, the judges may well have to focus on fairly minor, to us, things in order to create some real distinctions between several phenomenal groups.

If it was just the pre-show, it shouldn't impact at all.

A quick look at MFA’s site shows that the DFW regional record was a 92 by LD Bell in 2001 contest. Incidentally, that was the earliest DFW regional I found. Hebron’s 89.6 is the second highest on record at this regional.

As a parent of two former Hebron band members, I can’t even begin to express the appreciation I have for Mr. Sealy. He expects a high level of commitment, musicianship, and personal responsibility from his students all while making band an enjoyable experience. He is always teaching, teaching music, teaching professionalism, teaching sportsmanship, teaching work ethic, etc. My kids were better prepared than many of their friends to move on to college and beyond because of their association with the Hebron band and Andy Sealy.

Is UIL finals still top 5 bottom 5?

Long term storage not as accurate as it once was.

Check your 2014 list, I think it should be: 1. Marcus 2. Hebron 3. FloMo

BTW, what record was broken?

I'm not sure that argument works. There are 17 bands on Horn Rank's Top 30 going to SA fighting for 14 (usually) spots in finals and 16 going to Nats fighting for 12 spots. Either way, you're looking at several really good bands not making finals. Also, distance matters. There are several bands here in Texas that could make Grand Nat's finals "regularly", except they can't attend regularly. Marcus, Hebron, Flower Mound, CTJ, The Woodlands, Round Rock, Vandegrift, and others would all be contenders for GN finals. If they all went in a single year, what would Nats look like. If they all went every year, what would that top 15-20 band list fighting for finals be?

The competition in San Antonio is objectively on par with (if not above) Grand Nats in terms of the depth of the competitive field. SA this year has more Top 30 and Top 10 bands (according to Horn Rank) than Nats. I think the only thing that makes Nats harder to win is the third round of competition. To win Nats, a band must have 3 (relatively) consistently good runs in a very short period of time.

Interesting note. FloMo's and Hebron's main campuses are identical (not that school design makes any difference in Band quality).

Prediction threads already exist over in the upcoming contests section.

Highly unlikely Lewisville ISD would allow both those schools to go in the same year.

I think you left out one very important word "AGAIN" at the end of this statement.

The cost per student/chaperone is derived by taking the total cost of the trip(travel, hotels, meals, tips, etc.) and dividing it by the number of PAYING participants. Realize that there may be twenty or more non-paying travelers (directors, student teachers, techs, etc.) so what it would cost you as an individual or small family does not scale properly to a group the size of a large high school band. Also, if you want the best rehearsal spaces and closest hotels, you have to go through a particular travel agent which likely raises the rates some due to lack of competition.