2018 BOA San Antonio?

[Guest]

If you say Westlake made finals because they were lucked into panel one, then you must not have seen their show. They were a legitimate finalist.

[Drum major]

Another result of growing up is to realize that others have opinions that you may not agree with, but that they do have a have a right to express them. People who care express it in different ways - some with tough love and others with encouragement. Just because you disagree with someone doesn't make you right and them wrong. You both have great concern for the same thing. Remember that.

Another result of BEING an adult is to realize when someone HAS been blatantly been disrespectful toward a group of kids that do not need to be disrespected.  So sorry... don't agree with you - people who CARE do NOT kick someone when they are already down.  Opinions are usually backed up with substance and comments - Others have given those types of opinions and that's ok.  What is not ok - is the one liners  that he has to throw out there knowing that band kids read this    

  Not caring what you say or how you say it or who it may hurt .. Is NEVER ok.   Remember that.  

[Danpod]

Good morning.

[Samuel Culper]

Good morning.

He says at 2pm...

[Danpod]

He says at 2pm...

 

It's been a long weekend and I am not done yet

[BandWatcher]

In a perfect world, we'd have the exact same judges for all the bands, true. Saying that LD Bell and Westlake made it to finals on luck rather than earning those spots is incredibly disappointing to hear from someone in the band community. Every kid that performed over the past two days works hard. 

 

Congratulations to every single member of Westlake and LD Bell for making finals, they earned it! 

 

Sour grapes will only give you a sucky-face. Get over it please. Thanks. 

If it’s possible to see around your over-inflated sense of self-satisfaction, go back and re-read my post. I didn’t say Bell and Westlake advanced *only* on luck. They obviously performed well and have worked hard. But it is disingenuous to say that the good fortune of being in panel 1 didn’t help provide the fractions needed to secure one of the wild card spots. It is possible to question the judging method without impugning any of the bands and their students. Grow up, please.

[CTJBandPops]

It's been a long weekend and I am not done yet

did the house burn down while you slept???

[CTJBandPops]

If it’s possible to see around your over-inflated sense of self-satisfaction, go back and re-read my post. I didn’t say Bell and Westlake advanced *only* on luck. They obviously performed well and have worked hard. But it is disingenuous to say that the good fortune of being in panel 1 didn’t help provide the fractions needed to secure one of the wild card spots. It is possible to question the judging method without impugning any of the bands and their students. Grow up, please.

If it’s possible to see around your over-inflated sense of self-satisfaction, go back and re-read my post. I didn’t say Bell and Westlake advanced *only* on luck. They obviously performed well and have worked hard. But it is disingenuous to say that the good fortune of being in panel 1 didn’t help provide the fractions needed to secure one of the wild card spots. It is possible to question the judging method without impugning any of the bands and their students. Grow up, please. 

 

 

​darn - usually I am the only one that pisses every one off - no dog in this hunt - but welcome to the party

[BandWatcher]

While I do think Bowie should’ve been in finals and the current system with the different panels heavily affected that, they would’ve made finals if it weren’t for for those two captions. Individual music was 18th and individual marching 26th. Can’t have that happen if you want to be a finals band. I loved their show and think they should’ve made finals, but we can’t blame it all on BOA, Bowie is rising but still has work to do.

Yet Bowie tied Hendrickson for musical performance overall and had a higher musical performance overall than Cedar Ridge, Westlake, and LD Bell (Cedar Park’s musical average was better than all of them, Bowie included) ... and a higher visual average than Cedar Ridge. I’m sure Bowie can and will be better but if I’m one of those families I’m at a loss as to how yesterday played out.

[Hard Core Band Fan]

Another result of BEING an adult is to realize when someone HAS been blatantly been disrespectful toward a group of kids that do not need to be disrespected.  So sorry... don't agree with you - people who CARE do NOT kick someone when they are already down.  Opinions are usually backed up with substance and comments - Others have given those types of opinions and that's ok.  What is not ok - is the one liners  that he has to throw out there knowing that band kids read this    

  Not caring what you say or how you say it or who it may hurt .. Is NEVER ok.   Remember that.  

 

Hard to take this one seriously. I guess you threw the biggest tantrum, used the meanest words, and used more caps. You win...

[ctex1994]

Yet Bowie tied Hendrickson for musical performance overall and had a higher musical performance overall than Cedar Ridge, Westlake, and LD Bell (Cedar Park’s musical average was better than all of them, Bowie included) ... and a higher visual average than Cedar Ridge. I’m sure Bowie can and will be better but if I’m one of those families I’m at a loss as to how yesterday played out.

I

feel your pain, but if you are at a loss - check the GE scores - CP was consistently in the 20s from every judge. GE carries the most weight in BOA. IF this were UIL - perhaps CP would have been a finalist. 

 

Bowie had ordinals all over the place in prelims, as high as 6th and as low as 26th - so they have a stronger case to make in the "got robbed" category. 

 

At the end of the day - it is what it is and nobody died. 

[Danpod]

did the house burn down while you slept???

 

I don't think so, but someone clogged the toilet.

[david19c]

I’m still in absolute shock of how much Vista Ridge has improved in a year. From being in the bottom half of Leander ISD and 16th to being the best performing band from their district and 4th place. How does that even happen in a year??

[BandWatcher]

I

feel your pain, but if you are at a loss - check the GE scores - CP was consistently in the 20s from every judge. GE carries the most weight in BOA. IF this were UIL - perhaps CP would have been a finalist. 

 

Bowie had ordinals all over the place in prelims, as high as 6th and as low as 26th - so they have a stronger case to make in the "got robbed" category. 

 

At the end of the day - it is what it is and nobody died. 

Ok. Appreciate the additional context.

[CTJBandPops]

 

I don't think so, but someone clogged the toilet.

did you get evicted from the press box ? - did not see you there last night 

[Danpod]

did you get evicted from the press box ? - did not see you there last night 

 

Oh no!  I went downstairs for most of Finals and we came back up for awards.  We were on the Side 1 of the Press Box area.

[CTJBandPops]

Oh no!  I went downstairs for most of Finals and we came back up for awards.  We were on the Side 1 of the Press Box area.

we were on the 50 - right on the glass 

[Omega]

Interesting note on the CP GE score: the music score went up by about .2 from Dallas. None of those scores were box 5 or even close. It seems like three people just didn't like the show Friday night. Yet I think that you can make a strong case that BOA needs to look at changing GE to being 40% of score and performance captions to being 60%. (I've been saying that for several months now for the record. And I also still think UIL needs an effect judge as well as field judges but that's another conversation) After all, it's about moving and playing well because it marching band.

 

Just to note that still would not have gotten CP in finals but that's not what this is about in my mind. It's much more about what we value in the marching arts.

[Samuel Culper]

 

I’m still in absolute shock of how much Vista Ridge has improved in a year. From being in the bottom half of Leander ISD and 16th to being the best performing band from their district and 4th place. How does that even happen in a year??

Vista had to hire two new directors this year to replace departures and both hires were fantastic. One in particular- they went out of state to hire the head director from Grain Valley, MO and put him in charge of the marching program. The dude has been killing it and the kids love him.

[Nny14]

Vista had to hire two new directors this year to replace departures and both hires were fantastic. One in particular- they went out of state to hire the head director from Grain Valley, MO and put him in charge of the marching program. The dude has been killing it and the kids love him.

It's awesome that Zach is doing so well there. He was the best trumpet player at Round Rock when I was there and he seems to be an even better teacher!

[Samuel Culper]

It's awesome that Zach is doing so well there. He was the best trumpet player at Round Rock when I was there and he seems to be an even better teacher!

He is a fantastic teacher and the kids respond really well to him. He has a bright future ahead of him.

[BandKid4Lyfe]

If it’s possible to see around your over-inflated sense of self-satisfaction, go back and re-read my post. I didn’t say Bell and Westlake advanced *only* on luck. They obviously performed well and have worked hard. But it is disingenuous to say that the good fortune of being in panel 1 didn’t help provide the fractions needed to secure one of the wild card spots. It is possible to question the judging method without impugning any of the bands and their students. Grow up, please.

 

Grow up? From someone saying that BOA owes an apology to a couple of bands that didn't make the cut, that's rich!!     

 

[BandWatcher]

 

Grow up? From someone saying that BOA owes an apology to a couple of bands that didn't make the cut, that's rich!!     

 

Nope. You didn’t get it.

[meursault]

@BandWatcher:

I think you missed the point as well. CP was in panel 1. Bowie was ONE SPOT out of finals, by a small margin. Both bands should be proud of their achievements over the year. To not only imply, but blatantly say, that Bell and Westlake somehow didn’t deserve to be in finals in favor of the other two bands, is absurd.

Your point about questioning the judging methods without impugning the quality of the students is 100% valid, but your tone, objections, patronizing tone, and general lack of respect completely invalidates your point. Please be more aware of the general tone your posts have been giving off.

 

EDIT:

I just went back and reread your original post and I thought it might be worthwhile to break down why some of your other points are problematic.

 

>Nothing against LD Bell and Westlake, but they were in finals because of lucking into panel 1. Finals scores back that up.

Again, CP was also in Panel 1. Bell went from 14 in prelims to 14 in finals. Westlake went from 11-13. Neither of those are suspect at all.

 

>Either BOA needs to get their judging panels to be more consistent (not sure how you do that since they’re people and prone to subjective differences)

Seems like you answered your own question there.

 

>you cap the contest at 60 bands and go back to one panel over two days. 

Sorry, who does this help? The opportunity for so many bands to attend such an elite super regional is an absolute privilege. Marching band and MFA are about one thing - music education. Competition is secondary. To impose a cap now would be ridiculous.

 

 

 >What’s been communicated today is that luck is every bit as important as show design and skill. 

  I mean, yes, that's correct. Show time is a huge factor in how well bands do - it makes and breaks bands every year, and that's that. There's no way around it, we participate in a subjective competition of the pageantry arts. It's an unfortunate reality. 

 

>Cedar Park not getting to perform at Waco might have factored but Bowie’s trajectory all season has been higher than Bell, Westlake, even Cedar Ridge and Hendrickson.

Not sure what your point here is. I didn't get to watch SA, but perhaps the judges saw things differently than you did? Perhaps the other bands simply had better performances? Bowie is a phenomenal band and has faced extreme adversity with a brutal staff change in 2016. They've bounced back. They'll bounce again.

 

>Both CP’s and Bowie’s prelims runs were plenty good enough.

I'm sure they were! They're phenomenal bands. But that's your opinion. The reality is, the judges saw something different in Bell and Westlake, also phenomenal bands. One performance, one contest, will not ruin a band. Keep in mind Bowie has another huge competition they're gearing up for, which I'm sure they're going into with an added intensity.

[A Testing Trumpet]

Wowie. Lots of heated arguments today. I just want to remind everyone that we all just want to our kids to succeed first and foremost, even if our ideas differ on what was or should be done; nobody is saying these things to purposely bring others down. We are all imperfect people, and we will make mistakes. Just remember that the only way to really influence another's opinion is by considering where they come from, and if you don't understand it and it bothers you, ask them why they think that. We need to help each other out, because just like a marching show we each have different voices that must listen down to the other voices to balance our own sounds and create a product bigger than ourselves. I know that sounds a bit cheesy, but I think we need to be reminded of this.