Open Class Contest and State Military Pilot

[cpb161]

Recently UIL has updated their state marching website to list information about the State Military Marching Contest Pilot, as well as listing an “Open Class” contest scheduled for November 2nd-4th in the Alamodome, the same days as normal UIL state.

 

The Military contest will be held next year for a combined 1A/2A and 4A on October 31st. 3A and a combined 5A/6A will be on odd numbered years.

 

I have a few questions about these contests:

What is the Open Class contest anyway? No info is out on it

Will military bands that opt to go to the military contest still be able to go to normal area and state? (since off year area is on the same weekend as the military pilot, no conflicts will happen except for with 6A) and if they aren’t able to do normal area/state, will they still count towards the number of bands in an area who get 1s? If not, that could reduce the number of state spots in many areas, including dropping 5A C back down below 20 bands.

[Samuel Culper]

As to your question about military bands being allowed to go to normal area and state... The info on the Military pilot includes this language: "Any high school varsity marching band who declares the military track when entering the region contest may enter the State Military Marching Band Contest, provided the band receives an overall division 1 rating at the region contest."

 

That suggests to me that it is a choice to go EITHER military track or "normal" track, meaning those bands that choose the military track are not included in the counts for advancement from Area to State for the "normal" contest.

[cpb161]

  On 1/2/2020 at 8:50 PM, Samuel Culper said:

As to your question about military bands being allowed to go to normal area and state... The info on the Military pilot includes this language: "Any high school varsity marching band who declares the military track when entering the region contest may enter the State Military Marching Band Contest, provided the band receives an overall division 1 rating at the region contest."

 

That suggests to me that it is a choice to go EITHER military track or "normal" track, meaning those bands that choose the military track are not include in the counts for advancement from Area to State for the "normal" contest.

It’s still a pilot though, so perhaps they’ll allow both for the time being. I hope so at least because Areas C 2A through 5A have a lot of these bands and it’d reduce state spots significantly, as a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure Area C 2A last state had their entire set of state spots taken by military bands, with maybe 3 corps bands at most making area. That would leave that area with 3 bands advancing to state by default if all military bands opted for the pilot contest. In the cases of 3A, 4A, and 5A who all typically get 5 state spots, the reduction in bands could drop them down to as low as 3 state spots.

[Samuel Culper]

  On 1/2/2020 at 8:53 PM, cpb161 said:

It’s still a pilot though, so perhaps they’ll allow both for the time being. I hope so at least because Areas C 2A through 5A have a lot of these bands and it’d reduce state spots significantly, as a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure Area C 2A last state had their entire set of state spots taken by military bands, with maybe 3 corps bands at most making area. That would leave that area with 3 bands advancing to state by default if all military bands opted for the pilot contest.

 

Maybe so.  There are certainly a lot of questions to be answered.

 

The Open Class contest is really interesting to me, given that it's slated for the Alamodome the same days as the current 2A/4A/6A SMC, with very little room in the schedule to add on.  Is this somehow going to tie-in with the new "every year" Area contests?  Is it an attempt to get the 5A/6A "BOA" bands into a separate track and open up the traditional state contest/titles to the bands that don't compete in BOA?

 

Inquiring minds want to know!  @danpod - Where are you????

[cpb161]

  On 1/2/2020 at 8:58 PM, Samuel Culper said:

Maybe so. There are certainly a lot of questions to be answered.

 

The Open Class contest is really interesting to me, given that it's slated for the Alamodome the same days as the current 2A/4A/6A SMC, with very little room in the schedule to add on. Is this somehow going to tie-in with the new "every year" Area contests? Is it an attempt to get the 5A/6A "BOA" bands into a separate track and open up the traditional state contest/titles to the bands that don't compete in BOA?

 

Inquiring minds want to know! @danpod - Where are you????

Update, it was just a vague thing on UIL’s part. Open Class is simply the name for the typical state circuit.

[Samuel Culper]

  On 1/2/2020 at 9:54 PM, cpb161 said:

Update, it was just a vague thing on UIL’s part. Open Class is simply the name for the typical state circuit.

 

Ok, that makes sense.  Yeah, that wasn't clear.

[daldhowe]

Makes me wonder if any of the 'standard' marching bands will decide to convert to military in the near future.

[bxOxAxUIL]

Can we get a list going of schools that are Military at the moment?

[Guest]

Here are some notable military bands:

Longview

Kingwood

Huntsville

Atascocita

Crosby

Vidor

Spring Hill

China Spring

Montgomery

Whitehouse

[LostChoirGuy]

  On 1/3/2020 at 7:48 PM, daldhowe said:

Makes me wonder if any of the 'standard' marching bands will decide to convert to military in the near future.

Perhaps some of the small schools in East Texas that historically were military style but recently switched to Corps style will switch back.

[cpb161]

  On 1/3/2020 at 9:24 PM, bxOxAxUIL said:

Can we get a list going of schools that are Military at the moment?

http://www.nammb.org/uploads/9/4/0/9/94093633/nammb_roster_2017_v4.pdf

 

This list is as of 2017, but I question the accuracy of it because there's a couple of show bands on there such as Dallas Carter, not sure why. Other than that the only inaccuracy is Pine Tree due to them recently switching.

 

Brownsboro and China Springs are both successful 4A military bands that have competed on the area finals and state levels recently, but used amplification and/or props in their 2018 productions with a "milicorps" style, so they'll have choices to make when it comes to next year about going Open Class or Military Class.

 

As of now we don't know if Military Class bands getting 1s at region will count towards Open Class area to state advancement, hopefully it will so the number of bands at the open class state contests isn't potentially reduced by this.

[cpb161]

  On 1/3/2020 at 7:48 PM, daldhowe said:

Makes me wonder if any of the 'standard' marching bands will decide to convert to military in the near future.

Perhaps with struggling smaller programs, doubt anyone who is doing well in the open class circuit would want to.

[SpartanBandAlum]

  On 1/3/2020 at 9:53 PM, Cityscapes said:

Here are some notable military bands:

Longview

Kingwood

Huntsville

Atascocita

Crosby

Vidor

Spring Hill

China Spring

Montgomery

Whitehouse

Nederland as well

[Danpod]

Podcast is up explaining stuff