2012 Area D 5A Marching Contest

[Donezo]

  Drum major said:

Did any one find it odd that one judge was from San antoino judging San Antonio bands... Oddly enough all San Antoino bands made finals. Does UIL not have a "conflict of interest" rule.... Not being snarky ...just serious wondering.

 

I'm fairly certain he's marching judge one in prelims. If you look at the results, it doesn't look like his scores overwhelmingly favored SA bands. If we ruled out any judge who had any kind of affiliation with any program at a UIL contest, we'd have to bring in out-of-staters who are unfamiliar with the system. It's just not a reasonable expectation.

[FoobYen]

  OCPantherSnare said:

  Quote

I really think this just showcases the disparity in judging between the Westlake Marching Festival and UIL.

  Quote

 

There are always changes from contest to contest due to differences in judges, weather, band improvements, program additions, etc. The assertion that there is a particular, ongoing disparity between the Westlake Marching Festival and UIL cannot be made based upon only one year's results. I think the Area D results this year (and in 2011) just highlight how tight the competition is among the bands from this area. That being said, I was shocked to see that Anderson and Round Rock did not at least advance to area finals.

 

Compare the 2011 Westlake Marching Festival results and the placement order at Area D:

 

(Due to Rain only prelim scores were

counted and no finals were conducted.

Scores are for the AAAA & AAAAA)

 

Finals

95.025 Bowie, Austin

93.250 Round Rock

88.525 Anderson, Austin

87.125 Dripping Springs

86.925 Lake Travis

86.750 Sanda Day O'Connor, SA

86.125 Hendrickson,Pflugerville

85.450 Connally, Pflugerville

84.000 Leander

80.675 Dawson

80.176 Vista Ridge

78.325 New Braunfels

75.675 Georgetown

71.65 Akins, Austin

71.525 Clark, SA

67.550 Temple

57.725 Shoemaker, Killeen

 

In Area D 4A competition 3 weeks later, these were the final results:

1. Dripping Springs

2. Lake Travis

3. Cedar Park

4. Vandegrift

5. Hendrickson

6. Connally

7. Vista Ridge

8. Hays

9. Cedar Ridge

10. Canyon

[BOAfanatic]

  OCPantherSnare said:

Here's the direct links to the results:

 

Prelims

 

Finals

 

It's pretty insane how close it was between Johnson, Reagan, and Westlake in finals. Same thing with Hendrickson and Westwood. I think that's just the result of having so many high quality bands in this area.

 

No kidding. It's pretty weird though how inconsistent the visual judging was not just in prelims but in finals. Music judging was for the most part pretty consistent and pretty accurate. However, there were only 2 bands in finals that the visual judges agreed on, the best and the worst. And everywhere in between was quite frankly chaos. 2nd and 7th, 3rd and 9th, 9th and 5th, all over the place. This sort of shuffling of the deck may have allowed the higher placement of some bands. When we look at the music scores, it was 1. Bowie (3), 2. Reagan (8), 3. Johnson (10) and 4. Westlake (12). Looking at this, if one visual judge would have placed a certain band one place differently and Reagan and Johnson were to tie, Reagan would have won that music based tie-breaker. I was there at the area D contest and personally watched all of the finals bands. Bowie far and away deserved first, but I have to say if I was a judge I would have put Reagan second. Their finals performance was head and shoulders above their prelims performance, very polished, powerful, and effective. Johnson didn't give me the cleanliness in marching or the power in brass sound that I would have expected from them. All and all, it was very close, and it should be interesting to see what happens at state. I think we could see multiple bands from area D make state finals.

Edited October 28, 2012 by BOAfanatic

[Bandaid1]

Someone please explain to me how RR get a 10 and 22 in Marching? That's a big gap. 10 and 22? Are they watching the same show. UIL needs to look at this and prevent this from happening again. This competition is a joke.

[rcb05]

  Bandaid1 said:

Someone please explain to me how RR get a 10 and 22 in Marching? That's a big gap. 10 and 22? Are they watching the same show. UIL needs to look at this and prevent this from happening again. This competition is a joke.

 

Bandaid, the music scores were all over the map for most schools, not just RR. Plus, even if that judge that put RR 22nd had ranked them third, they still would have missed finals.

I know it can be frustrating, but overall it doesn't seem like any one school got the short end of the stick.

[TxRaider13]

I was curious how long it would take for people to cry foul about the scores or their band

[Drum major]

  TxRaider13 said:

I was curious how long it would take for people to cry foul about the scores or their band

 

I wondered how long it would take for someone to make a comment like this to kids who are just trying to find a reason why their band didn't make finals..... Nice job

They are disappointed... Let them talk it out without making them feel bad about it.... this was what forums are used for.

[the terminator]

I remember when I was a frustrated high school student who missed out on finals. This is a subjective event, and you have to accept the fact that sometimes you might feel you get "robbed" but the people judging are there for a reason. Plus, it can always be a blessing in disguise for the competition two years from now.

[geebee1022]

  TxRaider13 said:

I was curious how long it would take for people to cry foul about the scores or their band

I don't have a dog in this fight, and while I'm thrilled for all the bands that made finals and the 6 bands going to state to represent Area D, I'm still floored that Round Rock isn't one of them. They had that early performance time and they must have had a very rough prelim show (because if they marched as they typically do, they would have made finals). How often do we hear, "Anything can happen." when it comes to marching competition and judging? This really proves it. I hope Round Rock does great at BOA! Those students have earned the right to be the leader of the pack. I also hope our six Area D bands march as well next Tuesday at the Alamodome as they did on Saturday.

Edited October 29, 2012 by geebee1022

[Chuck]

i get a chuckle how everyone is so surprised and appalled by the mass differences in ordinals like it hasn't happened before or doesn't happen ever....

 

Wait til State when the likes of Duncanville, LDBell, Marcus, Bowie, Coppell, and the Woodlands are put together and we see the differences between these groups alone, not to mention what it's gonna look like in finals....again!

 

It's gonna be vicious this year.

[wikimancz]

I'm in the Round Rock battery, and our entire band was in complete shock. We were speechless. We stayed to watch every band in finals perform. Thankfully we are turning this defeat into motivation for BOA. But this competition was just....devastating.

[OCPantherSnare]

  Quote

There are always changes from contest to contest due to differences in judges, weather, band improvements, program additions, etc. The assertion that there is a particular, ongoing disparity between the Westlake Marching Festival and UIL cannot be made based upon only one year's results. I think the Area D results this year (and in 2011) just highlight how tight the competition is among the bands from this area. That being said, I was shocked to see that Anderson and Round Rock did not at least advance to area finals.

 

Compare the 2011 Westlake Marching Festival results and the placement order at Area D:

 

(Due to Rain only prelim scores were

counted and no finals were conducted.

Scores are for the AAAA & AAAAA)

 

Finals

95.025 Bowie, Austin

93.250 Round Rock

88.525 Anderson, Austin

87.125 Dripping Springs

86.925 Lake Travis

86.750 Sanda Day O'Connor, SA

86.125 Hendrickson,Pflugerville

85.450 Connally, Pflugerville

84.000 Leander

80.675 Dawson

80.176 Vista Ridge

78.325 New Braunfels

75.675 Georgetown

71.65 Akins, Austin

71.525 Clark, SA

67.550 Temple

57.725 Shoemaker, Killeen

 

In Area D 4A competition 3 weeks later, these were the final results:

1. Dripping Springs

2. Lake Travis

3. Cedar Park

4. Vandegrift

5. Hendrickson

6. Connally

7. Vista Ridge

8. Hays

9. Cedar Ridge

10. Canyon

 

Hmm well I guess I should have clarified that the scores between the two seem to not match up this year. The scores between Westlake and UIL are usually very consistent with each other, like you have shown, but this year they just don't match up.

[Bandaid1]

Anderson marching score: 7 and 24???? 7 and 24? Really?

[Sebastian C]

  Quote

I was curious how long it would take for people to cry foul about the scores or their band

 

I was wondering the exact same thing lol. I know round rock had the weather and 1st band disadvantage but that no excuse for a band that should make state easily. This disadvantage might be enough to drop a good band below the top 6 in prelims but they should still make finals, where they will raise their score. If you have one bad performance at area, even if ur the best band ever created, u wont make state, fair and square

[wikimancz]

  Sebastian C said:

I was wondering the exact same thing lol. I know round rock had the weather and 1st band disadvantage but that no excuse for a band that should make state easily. This disadvantage might be enough to drop a good band below the top 6 in prelims but they should still make finals, where they will raise their score. If you have one bad performance at area, even if ur the best band ever created, u wont make state, fair and square

We (Round Rock) didn't have a bad run. It was fantastic considering the weather conditions.

[tred]

  Sebastian C said:

I was wondering the exact same thing lol. I know round rock had the weather and 1st band disadvantage but that no excuse for a band that should make state easily. This disadvantage might be enough to drop a good band below the top 6 in prelims but they should still make finals, where they will raise their score. If you have one bad performance at area, even if ur the best band ever created, u wont make state, fair and square

 

Round Rock's prelims performance was the best one of the season. Sure there were a few issues with intonation, but visually it was an incredibly strong run. In absolutely no way was it a "bad performance".

 

See Anderson and Round Rock in prelims at BOA for incredibly emotional performances. That's all I'm going to say.

[Drum major]

  Sebastian C said:

I was wondering the exact same thing lol. I know round rock had the weather and 1st band disadvantage but that no excuse for a band that should make state easily. This disadvantage might be enough to drop a good band below the top 6 in prelims but they should still make finals, where they will raise their score. If you have one bad performance at area, even if ur the best band ever created, u wont make state, fair and square

 

I think before You pass judgement you might want to mention if you actually saw the show Saturday otherwise I think we are perfectly aware of the "one bad performance" senerio......just saying.

[drummerjoe]

  Bandaid1 said:

Someone please explain to me how RR get a 10 and 22 in Marching? That's a big gap. 10 and 22? Are they watching the same show. UIL needs to look at this and prevent this from happening again. This competition is a joke.

 

Don't quote me on this, but I think the judges examine different aspects of marching. For example, one judge may look for excellence in group formations and another may look for excellence in individual marching technique. So Round Rock may make very clean formations, but individually the marchers have poor carriage or are lazy in their step-offs, stuff like that.

[wikimancz]

^ We got best marching caption at Westlake.

[Szuzzah]

  wikimancz said:

^ We got best marching caption at Westlake.

And deservedly so. And I'm sorry that you feel like you got screwed. But using past competitions as reasons for why you SHOULD have had a few people in the stands say you're a good band on a different day is a poor reason to cry foul, and it isn't going to help the reality that this isn't what they said.

 

It really does suck that you missed the finals and the ability to contend at state. But there's no sense in being upset over an event you have no control over. Don't let others dictate YOUR satisfaction. In the end, you're not performing for the judges. You're performing for yourselves and the audience. Did the audience love your show? Great. Bring it at BOA SA. I personally believe y'all will do fantastic. Your season isn't over yet.

[ch1k3n123]

and apparently a clarinet fell in half during Round Rock's performance

[Drummantx]

  Szuzzah said:

And deservedly so. And I'm sorry that you feel like you got screwed. But using past competitions as reasons for why you SHOULD have had a few people in the stands say you're a good band on a different day is a poor reason to cry foul, and it isn't going to help the reality that this isn't what they said.

 

It really does suck that you missed the finals and the ability to contend at state. But there's no sense in being upset over an event you have no control over. Don't let others dictate YOUR satisfaction. In the end, you're not performing for the judges. You're performing for yourselves and the audience. Did the audience love your show? Great. Bring it at BOA SA. I personally believe y'all will do fantastic. Your season isn't over yet.

 

THIS. And I know some people will disagree, but going first probably put the nail in the coffin, in a day of bands that good and with them being so spread out, the judges had NO comparison. I still think RR will go knock down the doors of the Alamodome for BOA SA. DON'T STOP!!! The show is the best Round Rock one EVER in my opinion.

[MarktheTrumpet]

  wikimancz said:

I'm in the Round Rock battery, and our entire band was in complete shock. We were speechless. We stayed to watch every band in finals perform. Thankfully we are turning this defeat into motivation for BOA. But this competition was just....devastating.

 

I was at finals and you guys left before Westlake. Just sayin.

[Drummantx]

  MarktheTrumpet said:

I was at finals and you guys left before Westlake. Just sayin.

 

And?

[wikimancz]

  MarktheTrumpet said:

I was at finals and you guys left before Westlake. Just sayin.

 

No, I'm fairly certain we stayed through finals bud.