US Bands National Championship, Western Region, AT &T Stadium

[Jeffrey L. Gorman]

US Bands today announced they will host the US Bands National Championships Western Region on 10 Nov 2018 at AT&T stadium.   US Bands also plans to host a contest on 20 Oct 2018 at the Star in Frisco for Bands in that part of the State. While I am sure they will get Bands to fill the numbers (they are looking for 50 Bands at AT&T stadium), I have to believe they will find that the number of (Big Name) Schools that attend will be much smaller than they might like. 

[Danpod]

All I can say is that I hope theyl decide to sell food and water during Finals.  

[CTJBandPops]

I would bet there will be a number of DFW bands that will attend - it is another show in their back yard during a 6A state year when many will not go to GNats

[Majellan]

I have to say, I hope at least a couple of the premier bands in DFW go.  Don't want Lafayette to come up here feel like they cleaned up like last year.  Southlake was the only regular boa attendee of note last year, they are a good band but haven't yet cracked the top tier by any stretch.  Frisco Centennial, Arlington Martin or Wylie would be enough to represent well and probably take home a championship at Cowboys stadium, I'm pretty sure LD Bell, Hebron and the Flower Mound schools don't have any interest in that contest.

 

I would think the Frisco schools, Prosper and maybe Hebron may be interested in the Frisco Western Regional with it being inside the Ford Center.  I've seen the Frisco ISD bands perform there and I was curious as to why BOA hasn't yet considered that venue.  It had pretty good acoustics for the big four Frisco bands of Wakeland, Lone Star, Centennial and Liberty.

 

US bands is interesting in that they have a lot of coverage in the northeast, wonder what kind of surprise bands that I haven't heard of before may be up there.  BOA only has no competitions in New England.  The contests in Ohio, North Carolina or the lightly attended Delaware contests are the closest BOA regionals in that area.

[Gogogo]

It would be great to see some top TX BOA bands show off at a US Bands contest! Unfortunately I think the October 20th date will most likely be the same as UIL Area. And not that the Nov 10th wouldn’t be doable, especially for DFW bands, it’s still really exhausting to travel Friday and compete Friday and Saturday until midnight for Boa SA, recoup Sunday and compete in UIL State In SA Monday and Tuesday until midnight, travel home, possible playoff football Friday and compete Saturday at Jerry World! Tired thinking about it..that said, I still think any of the top bands would still easily win.

[Majellan]

That's true, but we've got plenty of great 5A bands including the several of the Frisco schools.  I agree I don't see the 6A bands double dipping and stressing out to try and get to a US Bands competition.  But if history is indicative of the attendees, Frisco bands, Wakeland, Centennial, Lone Star and perhaps a Richland addition would have a great chance to win even over Lafayette if they return.  Now I doubt this would happen, but if Vandegrift or Leander decided to make the trip north that would really make it interesting.

[Gogogo]

Of course the 5As could do Nov 10 but don’t they still have UIL? Leander is 6A so I don’t see them heading up and I think Vandy is 6A too. I watched the top three US Bands shows from last year and thought they were okay but not finalist caliber BOA. But I don’t know how our bands would do in an outdoor stadium with temps in the 40s.. and I think there were periods of drizzle.

[dukeoftrumpet]

I’ve performed at the ford center. It’s nice acoustically but the seating situation there is not able to support a marching contest. You have to remember it is a practice field, not designed for events like that.

[Majellan]

I agree Gogogo, I thought I was missing something in searching for US Bands national finalist last year on youtube.  I'm always glad to see bands perform no matter the talent level and certainly it's great for lower level bands to get the spotlight, but last years US Bands national champion would not make most of the boa regional finals...certainly not one of the Texas boa regionals.  Lafayette should've gone to New Jersey and grabbed a US Bands national championship last year rather than coming to Dallas.

[Jeffrey L. Gorman]

  On 4/2/2018 at 7:17 PM, Majellan said:

I agree Gogogo, I thought I was missing something in searching for US Bands national finalist last year on youtube.  I'm always glad to see bands perform no matter the talent level and certainly it's great for lower level bands to get the spotlight, but last years US Bands national champion would not make most of the boa regional finals...certainly not one of the Texas boa regionals.  Lafayette should've gone to New Jersey and grabbed a US Bands national championship last year rather than coming to Dallas.

I lived for several years in New England and by and large, most of the Bands in the New York and New England Areas would not place well in BOA contests. Most of the Bands are smaller in size and have much shorter marching seasons due to the weather. Look on the World of Pageantry Web Page for the New York Field Band Conference Web Site which covers the Best Bands in NY. You can also find out about New England by looking up the New England Scholastic Band Conference Web Site. There are no Bands in that part of the country that are going to make the finals of Grand Nationals or any other BOA regional for that matter.

[northtexasbandfan]

  On 4/3/2018 at 4:11 AM, Jeffrey L. Gorman said:

I lived for several years in New England and by and large, most of the Bands in the New York and New England Areas would not place well in BOA contests. Most of the Bands are smaller in size and have much shorter marching seasons due to the weather. Look on the World of Pageantry Web Page for the New York Field Band Conference Web Site which covers the Best Bands in NY. You can also find out about New England by looking up the New England Scholastic Band Conference Web Site. There are no Bands in that part of the country that are going to make the finals of Grand Nationals or any other BOA regional for that matter.

One exception is Trumbull, CT. Top three at the Newark, DE regional the past three years (including winning in 2016).

[digadigadot]

... I can't see a competition at The Star in Frisco possibly working unless like 3 bands show up. I've performed there multiple times and it's always a mess with parking, warm up areas, etc. It's a great facility but it does NOT work for marching band.

[Majellan]

There is a field on the north side of the star at frisco for warm ups, not just the football field in front of the stadium, not sure if that is a Cowboys only field or not.  Since the stadium is surrounded by development it isn't a great setup for marching band.  However, Frisco ISD does an all Frisco ISD marching exhibition for all 10 high schools there and that seems to go fairly well.  Haven't heard any of the better bands such as Frisco Lone Star, Centennial or Wakeland complain about it, but I'm not exactly in the know except for Centennial.  All 10 of the bands have between 200-300 kids with full pits so they're organizing it somehow.

[FriscoParent]

I don't think there were ever any plans for Frisco schools to attend, but UIL Region is October 20th so they definitely won't be attending.

 

I haven't worked on the field so I don't have any first hand knowledge, but I have heard from others that The Star is terrible for marching band setup, getting on and off the field, warming up, etc. Of course the rain last year during the Frisco ISD Marching Exhibition made everything worse. Wet uniforms, plumes, props, etc.

[Majellan]

Bump for this, Birdville is attending the Frisco us bands competition but no higher tier Texas bands are attending the western national championship at Cowboys stadium.. No big deal right, it’s us bands after all, but Bossier City Louisiana Parkway( #4 marching band st Louisiana state competition last year) is attending and likely to win unless one of the top 20 dfw bands attends. Just hurts my Texas pride even if it isn’t a boa event.

[Danpod]

  On 9/1/2018 at 1:43 AM, Majellan said:

Bump for this, Birdville is attending the Frisco us bands competition but no higher tier Texas bands are attending the western national championship at Cowboys stadium.. No big deal right, it’s us bands after all, but Bossier City Louisiana Parkway( #4 marching band st Louisiana state competition last year) is attending and likely to win unless one of the top 20 dfw bands attends. Just hurts my Texas pride even if it isn’t a boa event.

 

Haha!  I like the way you think.

 

This event didn't get anywhere near the attendance that organizers were anticipating.  My only hope is that this event is better run than last year's USBands event at AT&T Stadium (No parking signage, no concession sales, no social media presence).