[Major Event] UIL State Contest

[CPFrntEns]

  Xenon said:

Actually, the programs from State have Coppell listed at 315 and Duncanville at 350.

 

 

And for historical purposes, here is the whole list from the State program (performance order):

 

Harlingen - 175

Akins - 153

Richland - 210

PSJA North - 149

Westfield - 150

Vista Ridge - 148

Marcus - 290

Keller - 300

Clements - 225

Berkner - 240

O'Connor - 225

The Woodlands - 260

Churchill - 240

Hebron - 250

Langham Creek - 192

Duncanville - 350

Fossil Ridge - 150

Harlingen South - 143

LD Bell - 300

Spring - 200

Bowie (Austin) - 250

Donna - 150

Hanks - 155

Cypress Falls - 176

Coppell - 315

Lopez - 135

Brazoswood - 286

Cedar Park - 238

Haltom - 178

Hanna - 210

Westlake - 227

 

Whoops, looks like my source was wrong about us being second smallest in finals. But man, some of those bands are really big.

[drummerjake]

  BigBari said:

I totally disagree. When our band director (from Coppell) talks to us about how judges critique other bands he says, "They look to see if you do what you are doing clean, very rarely do UIL judges discredit a band for props or no props. As long as you do what you do clean the judges will love you." I understand our drill was easy but we played and marched the entire time. Now grant it we stopped for dramatic affect on the power notes but we marched and played the rest of the time. If a band can play running 16th notes at 180+ with 10to5 steps and clean yes, they should be HIGHLY HIGHLY rewarded. But if its really dirty at 180+ then i think they shouldnt be as highly rewarded as marching clean at 140+.

 

Actually, I'd rather see a faster "edgy" show thats a little dirty than a boring show thats really clean.

[connorjewell]

As a trumpet player, I don't claim to be any kind of a colorguard expert, but does colorguard have absolutely no effect on the overall score of a group in UIL? As a band person, I actually found my eyes watching the Churchill colorguard the entire show for prelims and finals! They are phenomenal. But it seems as though they were not rewarded at all. In finals, both visual judges gave Churchill a tenth place score.

 

So my question is, in UIL does colorguard really effect the overall score of the group at all?

[eatmyshorts5]

  BigBari said:

I totally disagree. When our band director (from Coppell) talks to us about how judges critique other bands he says, "They look to see if you do what you are doing clean, very rarely do UIL judges discredit a band for props or no props. As long as you do what you do clean the judges will love you." I understand our drill was easy but we played and marched the entire time. Now grant it we stopped for dramatic affect on the power notes but we marched and played the rest of the time. If a band can play running 16th notes at 180+ with 10to5 steps and clean yes, they should be HIGHLY HIGHLY rewarded. But if its really dirty at 180+ then i think they shouldnt be as highly rewarded as marching clean at 140+.

 

I love how you put OH SO SO SO SO MUCH emphasis on the work rewarded.

 

Sound kinda desperate jk.

 

Actually i really want to so the Coppell show and if i'm correct it's an arrangement of "The Planets" Is it possible if somebody could hook me up with it?

[Xenon]

  connorjewell said:

So my question is, in UIL does colorguard really effect the overall score of the group at all?

 

Here are the UIL rubrics for Area/State:

 

Music: http://www.uil.utexas.edu/music/pdf/04_area_music_dec.pdf

Marching: http://www.uil.utexas.edu/music/pdf/05_area_march_dec.pdf

 

Colorguard is never specifically mentioned, but the reality is that they most likely do play at least a partial role in a judge's score.

[connorjewell]

Wow, Cedar Park kids are getting annoying...

 

And we all know that the UIL judging system is purely based on execution does not take into account the difficulty of the show. BOA does. We know this. Let's move on please.

[Xenon]

  connorjewell said:

And we all know that the UIL judging system is purely based on execution does not take into account the difficulty of the show. BOA does. We know this. Let's move on please.

 

Actually, the UIL sheets do take into account difficulty. This is from the Drill portion of the Marching descriptors linked above:

 

* The visual program demonstrates the highest degree of technical demand and exposure to error.

[connorjewell]

  Xenon said:

Here are the UIL rubrics for Area/State:

 

Music: http://www.uil.utexas.edu/music/pdf/04_area_music_dec.pdf

Marching: http://www.uil.utexas.edu/music/pdf/05_area_march_dec.pdf

 

Colorguard is never specifically mentioned, but the reality is that they most likely do play at least a partial role in a judge's score.

Yeah, it doesn't say anything about colorguard. So technically, there could be a band without a colorguard and they could still get a high score? Doesn't make much sense to me..

[connorjewell]

  Xenon said:

Actually, the UIL sheets do take into account difficulty. This is from the Drill portion of the Marching descriptors linked above:

 

* The visual program demonstrates the highest degree of technical demand and exposure to error.

Yeah, the rubric says it, but that doesn't mean it usually happens. Especially since UIL likes to hire judges who aren't marching band people.

[Xenon]

  connorjewell said:

Yeah, it doesn't say anything about colorguard. So technically, there could be a band without a colorguard and they could still get a high score? Doesn't make much sense to me..

 

Actually it makes a ton of sense when you consider that UIL is designed to do its best to not discriminate against small bands that can't support a colorguard, military bands, show bands, etc.

[connorjewell]

  Xenon said:

Actually it makes a ton of sense when you consider that UIL is designed to do its best to not discriminate against small bands that can't support a colorguard, military bands, show bands, etc.

So bands who don't do BOA, like Duncanville, shouldn't even bother having a guard?

I just don't understand the judging system, I'm not trying to challenge you or anything..

[treblemaker]

  drummerjake said:

whatever.

our show was better anyways.

roflcptr.

 

Real mature.

 

  drummerjake said:

Actually, I'd rather see a faster "edgy" show thats a little dirty than a boring show thats really clean.

 

A bit biased maybe?

Edited November 8, 2008 by treblemaker

[takigan]

Well keep in mind Colorguard is still a tradition. If a school suddenly did away with it, there'd be a lot of kids and parents who'd be extremely disappointed. I'm sure Duncanville has come to terms with the idea that they don't exactly NEED a Guard to be competitive in State, but that doesn't mean that they don't 'need a colorguard' per say.

[Rebecca]

  Steeldrum said:

What qualifies as a hard drill? Does difficult drill require abstract forms with really fast tempos, plum shaking, crawling, leap frogging, or running from one set to another while another section plays music? Or is it more difficult to keep defined formations, large rotations and straight lines while constantly playing music? Perhaps Coppell, Duncanville and others made their drill look easy because they executed it so cleanly.

 

As most of you participating band members didn't get the chance to see all of the other bands are you really qualified to say who had easy drill and who didn't? Wait and watch the high view tapes, then you can comment about drill diificulty.

 

 

I totally agree. Coppell was moving almost the entire show and Duncanville had great diagonals.

[DVILLEc-netpimp]

  Rebecca said:

I totally agree. Coppell was moving almost the entire show and Duncanville had great diagonals.

 

 

as for the people above i too agree with how people should'nt critique others on how difficult the drill is unless you're really sure that it's something you think you can do better...... it may not seem like its hard but its not our job to make it seem hard... its too take a hard drill and execute it and make it seem like that were good enough to do something so complex which in my opinion i believe alot of the bands that i got to see did very well at doing that

[euphownz]

  melissa94583 said:

Just some quick points.. At BOA our show was about 75% complete and the color guard didn't have flag work for the last 2 movements. Those factors could have attribute to your band 'smoking' us at that show. Our area show was the first time our show came together and we finished first in that. All I add is keep striving to reach the level of Marcus. Once your school is there then the 'judging' digression will not be a factor.

Here's another quick point...Marcus' show wasn't complete either. Just because it wasn't complete doesn't mean it was worse, in fact it could have been better, considering you had more time to clean the "incomplete" amount of drill you had on the field.

[treblemaker]

  euphownz said:

Here's another quick point...Marcus' show wasn't complete either. Just because it wasn't complete doesn't mean it was worse, in fact it could have been better, considering you had more time to clean the "incomplete" amount of drill you had on the field.

 

I think Marcus puts out an incomplete show on purpose wanting to save the reveal of their ending until their final competition. So they could have had Zeus out and in the process of cleaning they just chose not to perform it.

[euphownz]

  borchnork said:

I don't remember who it was then... I just remember hearing about it. I'm pretty sure it was a band that I had placed in Finals on my predictions...

 

any ideas?

Cedar Park

[euphownz]

  BigBari said:

I totally disagree. When our band director (from Coppell) talks to us about how judges critique other bands he says, "They look to see if you do what you are doing clean, very rarely do UIL judges discredit a band for props or no props. As long as you do what you do clean the judges will love you." I understand our drill was easy but we played and marched the entire time. Now grant it we stopped for dramatic affect on the power notes but we marched and played the rest of the time. If a band can play running 16th notes at 180+ with 10to5 steps and clean yes, they should be HIGHLY HIGHLY rewarded. But if its really dirty at 180+ then i think they shouldnt be as highly rewarded as marching clean at 140+.

Honestly...was anybody in state finals "really dirty"..you make it sound like the bands that perform at higher tempos can't handle it and flop around the field on one leg...

[superduper_o8]

  treblemaker said:

I think Marcus puts out an incomplete show on purpose wanting to save the reveal of their ending until their final competition. So they could have had Zeus out and in the process of cleaning they just chose not to perform it.

 

 

I know for a fact that the Marcus band usually does not complete their show until the week of or before State.

[treblemaker]

  euphownz said:

Honestly...was anybody in state finals "really dirty"..you make it sound like the bands that perform at higher tempos can't handle it and flop around the field on one leg...

 

 

Not quite but when you can see 3 or 4 different tempos within the feet because people are struggling to keep time it's pretty obvious. Even if it is only slight.

[euphownz]

  treblemaker said:

I think Marcus puts out an incomplete show on purpose wanting to save the reveal of their ending until their final competition. So they could have had Zeus out and in the process of cleaning they just chose not to perform it.

Still, the point is Coppell spent more time working on the smaller amount of drill which should have been cleaner than if they had the whole show complete.

Edited November 9, 2008 by euphownz

[treblemaker]

  euphownz said:

Still, the point is Coppell spent more time working on the smaller amount of drill which should have been cleaner than if they had the whole show complete.

 

With that kind of thinking you are almost saying why can't everyone be perfectly clean? I think we should be past the coulda shoulda woulda stage of this game.

[claribeatlegirl]

Honestly, guys...arguing your points may make you feel better, but it's not going to change anything. Can't we all just get along? All of the bands I saw this season were great, and I wish I could have seen Coppell.

[JediSaxSolis]

Looks like the heated discussion has finally calmed down a bit. Here are my thoughts:

 

- CP's sound had me blown away... incredibly, incredibly loud and energizing! Oh, and the DMs were really nice, too. By the way, congrats to Cedar Park for placing 1st in the Drumline Competition at PASIC this past weekend.

 

- Bell's show this year is, in my opinion, the best high school marching show I've ever seen. What really sells it to me is the music arrangement for the show. The show is incredibly emotional and entertaining. LD Bell is #1 in my book.

 

- Marcus impressed me with their tone. I thought they performed with the most musicality. I thought I was watching a drama production the whole time, though.

 

- I also really liked Bowie's drill. Their drill has always been one of my favorites. The pendulum-bell effect was fresh, too.

 

 

All-in-all, UIL State 5A 2008 is no doubt the most competitive marching contest I've been a part of. Congratulations to all of the bands that competed.