Area G Marching Contest 2023

[riverdrums]

Thank you so much for this! Outstanding commentary!

[charlespercussion]

48 minutes ago, southtexasneedsmorerecogni said:

I will not be able to do this after alexander if any one can take over.

I just left otherwise I would’ve

[southtexasneedsmorerecogni]

1. PSJA (Adv)

2. Alexander (Adv)

3. United (Adv)

4. Weslaco

5. Edinburg

6. Brownsville Hanna

7. Los Fresnos

[southtexasneedsmorerecogni]

Biggest takeaways, Harlingen ends their state streak after a very long time, as well as Hanna.  PSJA comeback story is legendary. Alexander's Dynasty may be over.  United's consistency is a key to their future. Do y'all have any other takeaways?

[SpudMuffin]

Crazy results!!!! There’s no way this is an accurate reflection of what occurred. All the people “in the know” that were sitting by me were in shock. Wait to you see the recap sheet. It’s all over the place! 
 

 

 

[DeadMascot]

51 minutes ago, southtexasneedsmorerecogni said:

Biggest takeaways, Harlingen ends their state streak after a very long time, as well as Hanna.  PSJA comeback story is legendary. Alexander's Dynasty may be over.  United's consistency is a key to their future. Do y'all have any other takeaways?

UIL Judging is so weird, Hanna (personally) deserved much better, Rivera had a fantastic show, and this area is extremely underrated!

[SpudMuffin]

25 minutes ago, DeadMascot said:

UIL Judging is so weird, Hanna (personally) deserved much better, Rivera had a fantastic show, and this area is extremely underrated!

I heard a lot of people say the same thing. 
One band that scored well had drill with the battery mainly stationary on the 50. 
A few had extended sections of the show where a majority of the band didn’t play. 
Hanna sounded amazing!  If you look at the music scores alone, they were in 1st place. Was the visual package really bad? 
Can’t figure out the crazy skewed results. Who judged?

[LeanderMomma]

22 hours ago, SpudMuffin said:

PSJA and San Benito might surprise today. 

You weren’t kidding about PSJA!

[SoundOff]

6 hours ago, southtexasneedsmorerecogni said:

Biggest takeaways, Harlingen ends their state streak after a very long time, as well as Hanna.  PSJA comeback story is legendary. Alexander's Dynasty may be over.  United's consistency is a key to their future. Do y'all have any other takeaways?

PSJA definitely surprised tonight! Amazing job to them. I think considering all of Alexander’s staff changes within the past 2 years they haven’t changed too much. They have been pretty consistent in terms of how they’re placing this year as well and their music is much harder than previous years. Hopefully next year they’ll surprise us again. As for United, jeez. United hasn’t been at state for a couple of years now and I am so excited that they are returning! It’ll be a great performance from all Area G bands but we all know how state goes and unfortunately they’ll all place in a surprisingly low spot.   Your username says it all!!! 

[BandFan95]

I think many folks from PSJA are shocked by these results. Didn’t they finish 6th in prelims? They are my Alma Mater and I’m super happy for them. Just wondering what happened here!

[southtexasneedsmorerecogni]

2 hours ago, BandFan95 said:

I think many folks from PSJA are shocked by these results. Didn’t they finish 6th in prelims? They are my Alma Mater and I’m super happy for them. Just wondering what happened here!

they were two different bands from prelims to finals, PSJA had that perfect run in finals which got them the area g champion.

[Diego]

One last shout out to those underdogs from Los Fresnos. They got a 2nd and 3rd place from their musical judges. But a 7, 7, 5 from their visuals. Pretty impressive from a small town of 9k people.

[WellThatsTubad]

Hanna getting 6th twice still baffles me I had them in my 1/2 spot and a lot of people around me thought the same.....

[riverdrums]

5 hours ago, Diego said:

One last shout out to those underdogs from Los Fresnos. They got a 2nd and 3rd place from their musical judges. But a 7, 7, 5 from their visuals. Pretty impressive from a small town of 9k people.

2,3,7 in music, 7, 5 in visual. 3 music judges and 2 visual 

[riverdrums]

1 hour ago, WellThatsTubad said:

Hanna getting 6th twice still baffles me I had them in my 1/2 spot and a lot of people around me thought the same.....

Music scores were strong, unfortunately visual score kept them out from what I heard

[SpudMuffin]

9 hours ago, riverdrums said:

Music scores were strong, unfortunately visual score kept them out from what I heard

Final's Music Scores:

Hanna 1, 5, 3 = 9

PSJA 3, 1, 6 =10

Weslaco 7, 2, 1 = 10  (One judge thinks they were the best playing band, one judge thought they were the worst)

Los Fresnos 2, 3, 7 = 12

Edinburg 4, 4, 5 = 13

Alexander 5, 6, 4= 15

United 6, 7, 2 =15

 

So the best playing band comes in at the bottom, and the two lowest ranked in music make it to State?????

 

Final's Visual Scores:

Alexander 1, 2 = 3

United 3, 1 =4

PSJA 2, 4 =6

Edinburg 5, 3 =8

Weslaco 4, 6 =10

Los Fresnos 7, 5 = 12

Hanna 6, 7 = 13

I didn't think Hanna's visual effort was weak. They moved a lot - cleanly, at fast tempos.  They also played AND marched at the same time, unlike some of the others.  United did move well. Alexander's feet were DIRTY when they actually marched.  Did anyone notice that Weslaco's drumline barely moved away from the 50 for a good chunk of their show? 

MANY of the people I was sitting by were shocked at the outcome.  Hanna was 1 or 2 in most people's opinion - except for the esteemed judges. 

Opinions?

 

[riverdrums]

3 hours ago, SpudMuffin said:

Final's Music Scores:

Hanna 1, 5, 3 = 9

PSJA 3, 1, 6 =10

Weslaco 7, 2, 1 = 10  (One judge thinks they were the best playing band, one judge thought they were the worst)

Los Fresnos 2, 3, 7 = 12

Edinburg 4, 4, 5 = 13

Alexander 5, 6, 4= 15

United 6, 7, 2 =15

 

So the best playing band comes in at the bottom, and the two lowest ranked in music make it to State?????

 

Final's Visual Scores:

Alexander 1, 2 = 3

United 3, 1 =4

PSJA 2, 4 =6

Edinburg 5, 3 =8

Weslaco 4, 6 =10

Los Fresnos 7, 5 = 12

Hanna 6, 7 = 13

I didn't think Hanna's visual effort was weak. They moved a lot - cleanly, at fast tempos.  They also played AND marched at the same time, unlike some of the others.  United did move well. Alexander's feet were DIRTY when they actually marched.  Did anyone notice that Weslaco's drumline barely moved away from the 50 for a good chunk of their show? 

MANY of the people I was sitting by were shocked at the outcome.  Hanna was 1 or 2 in most people's opinion - except for the esteemed judges. 

Opinions?

 

After seeing the recap…..🤯

[DeadMascot]

7 hours ago, SpudMuffin said:

Final's Music Scores:

Hanna 1, 5, 3 = 9

PSJA 3, 1, 6 =10

Weslaco 7, 2, 1 = 10  (One judge thinks they were the best playing band, one judge thought they were the worst)

Los Fresnos 2, 3, 7 = 12

Edinburg 4, 4, 5 = 13

Alexander 5, 6, 4= 15

United 6, 7, 2 =15

 

So the best playing band comes in at the bottom, and the two lowest ranked in music make it to State?????

 

Final's Visual Scores:

Alexander 1, 2 = 3

United 3, 1 =4

PSJA 2, 4 =6

Edinburg 5, 3 =8

Weslaco 4, 6 =10

Los Fresnos 7, 5 = 12

Hanna 6, 7 = 13

I didn't think Hanna's visual effort was weak. They moved a lot - cleanly, at fast tempos.  They also played AND marched at the same time, unlike some of the others.  United did move well. Alexander's feet were DIRTY when they actually marched.  Did anyone notice that Weslaco's drumline barely moved away from the 50 for a good chunk of their show? 

MANY of the people I was sitting by were shocked at the outcome.  Hanna was 1 or 2 in most people's opinion - except for the esteemed judges. 

Opinions?

 

I thought that Alexander and United did much better musically than their scores say… if you look at the scores, it’s obvious that each judge had their own opinion. And Hanna did exceptionally well at music and visual, but I will say that they did have a couple of hiccups visually. I personally believe that they should have gotten a much higher placement, but I think that the breakdown of the scores was pretty abysmal and I’m not a judge so who knows?

[southtexasneedsmorerecogni]

Story of Area G, said it last year, will say it again this year.  Recaps come out, everyone is confused to all heck.  

[SpudMuffin]

11 hours ago, southtexasneedsmorerecogni said:

Story of Area G, said it last year, will say it again this year.  Recaps come out, everyone is confused to all heck.  

Agreed!  Always really weird results.  Last year United got screwed over, this year it was Hanna's turn. If you're from the RGV, everyone knows which band is the strongest.  I feel bad for those guys.  But...nothing will change. Nobody cares about Area G.  If this would have happened in any of the metro-plex areas, there would be a huge uproar. UIL doesn't care about South Texas.

[Josegjr]

28 minutes ago, SpudMuffin said:

Agreed!  Always really weird results.  Last year United got screwed over, this year it was Hanna's turn. If you're from the RGV, everyone knows which band is the strongest.  I feel bad for those guys.  But...nothing will change. Nobody cares about Area G.  If this would have happened in any of the metro-plex areas, there would be a huge uproar. UIL doesn't care about South Texas.

I disagree. It did happen in Area D this year. 
One thing I will say is we at Area G we are competitive but not as competitive as some of the other major schools. It’s not about individual funding to the schools. It is money though, when students take weekly lessons(on their own dime or parents dime) and they continue to improve as players. Ex(Hebron 23 All state players last year) It is a huge benefit to the entire ensemble. How many schools in South Texas really do that? Not many that I’ve heard of. 

The biggest problem that we have in Area G is pride.(I’m just as guilty of this back when I marched and Harlingen would destroy everyone)We always want our Alma mater or current school to win but that’s not always the case. We have to respect the decisions by the judges whether we agree with them or not. Music judging is completely subjective it’s not like everyone plays the exact same thing like in region contest.

They are as fair as possible.

 

[southtexasneedsmorerecogni]

16 hours ago, Josegjr said:

I disagree. It did happen in Area D this year. 
One thing I will say is we at Area G we are competitive but not as competitive as some of the other major schools. It’s not about individual funding to the schools. It is money though, when students take weekly lessons(on their own dime or parents dime) and they continue to improve as players. Ex(Hebron 23 All state players last year) It is a huge benefit to the entire ensemble. How many schools in South Texas really do that? Not many that I’ve heard of. 

The biggest problem that we have in Area G is pride.(I’m just as guilty of this back when I marched and Harlingen would destroy everyone)We always want our Alma mater or current school to win but that’s not always the case. We have to respect the decisions by the judges whether we agree with them or not. Music judging is completely subjective it’s not like everyone plays the exact same thing like in region contest.

They are as fair as possible.

 

In Laredo, there was a saxophone professor from Texas A&M International who would hold lessons and sessions for the high school saxophonists for free, which helped them become great saxophonists.  you can tell from a lot of the schools there by the high number of participants in the TMEA area competition and how good the saxophone soloists are from the Laredo schools (in my opinion).

[SpudMuffin]

On 10/25/2023 at 10:20 AM, Josegjr said:

The biggest problem that we have in Area G is pride.(I’m just as guilty of this back when I marched and Harlingen would destroy everyone)We always want our Alma mater or current school to win but that’s not always the case. We have to respect the decisions by the judges whether we agree with them or not. Music judging is completely subjective it’s not like everyone plays the exact same thing like in region contest.

They are as fair as possible.

These schools aren't my alma mater, but I do follow what's happening in the RGV. I don't think this is a case of a school complaining because they felt they should have won but in reality the judges were correct ---NO , the judges really did get this wrong at Area G.  The best band didn't advance.  (I haven't heard anyone from that school actually complain).  That school does have multiple all state/all region players and dominates the audition process.

Watch the videos!!!  You decide.  But all I can say is there's a bunch of people that watched this contest and DON'T AGREE wit the outcome.  

[riverdrums]

I think we are in a transition point currently with the newer judging system happening at the Area level that’s been utilized at State Marching Contest the past few years. The five judge system at Area I feel is a little tough currently. Judges are being asked to keep track of the different captions throughout each show, so the demand is really high for them. At state with the seven judge system allows for each person to solely focus on their specific caption. 
 

I think this final was a great one from years prior and definitely showcased the bar being raised for the 6As in our area. Iron sharpens iron so I foresee this trend continuing for them. Doing a deep dive into the numbers does raise eyebrows but definitely does not take away the great quality of product by the schools. At the end of the day the activity is subjective but I think Area G is moving that needle in the right direction. 👍🏼

[BandFan95]

1 hour ago, SpudMuffin said:

These schools aren't my alma mater, but I do follow what's happening in the RGV. I don't think this is a case of a school complaining because they felt they should have won but in reality the judges were correct ---NO , the judges really did get this wrong at Area G.  The best band didn't advance.  (I haven't heard anyone from that school actually complain).  That school does have multiple all state/all region players and dominates the audition process.

Watch the videos!!!  You decide.  But all I can say is there's a bunch of people that watched this contest and DON'T AGREE wit the outcome.  

So this is why we aren't the judges. We don't have all the years of education/training/learning that these judges have. We are just spectators. I learned that the hard way when my girl first got into band.  You mention THAT school. We all know who that school is. You referring to them as THAT school doesn't make them look good even though you say they aren't your alma mater. 

I went ahead and spent my lunch hour looking at PSJA, Alexander, United and Hanna videos from Area on YouTube. Honestly? A couple of quick observations.

• If you are an OLD from the RGV like me (I haven't live there in 24 years) you remember what PSJA was like. We were the last ones to do ANYTHING new or innovative. We didn't get a color guard until 1991. Our drill designs were blah for years and didn't really change until 1990. So seeing how much has changed is GREAT!
• I honestly love seeing how innovative the shows are in the Valley. I was with my cousins this week at my aunt's funeral. Her daughter marched for PSJA the first year they made it to State and she and I started exchanging stories. She was shocked at the idea that I paid $1600 a year in band fees every year for my daughter while she paid nothing at all at PSJA. She said they would have the restaurant fundraiser here and there, and I said, "so did we!" She said she was willing to pay so that they could have a drill designer, choreographers and the like so that they could compete with the upstate bands, but she knew that she would be one of the few parents that could afford it. The fact that these bands are able to put on the quality of shows that they do with the limited budgets that they do is amazing. Keep up the great work.
• As far as the shows go, I agree with the judges evaluations with those 4 bands. I also agree with the posters above in that the bands from this area are improving drastically. I mean, compare these shows to shows form 2019! Holy smokes they are phenomenal! It sucks that they can only take 3 bands to state from this area.

For the kids that read this forum, don't listen to the adult fans. We are just fans and don't know crap. You keep loving your craft and work hard.