5A State Marching Band Contest!

Yesterday was 3A Contest, so that can mean only one thing: it was the 5A's turn!

Getting to make this trip with both a first year teacher and a person new to the state has been a lot of fun. Certainly, there are FAR more qualified people to show him "the ropes," but he isn't from around here. Therefore, I have the monopoly of being pretty much the only person he knows...

Anyhow, all of that to say this: We were discussing how many of the 3A bands played very well and marched at a very high rate of skill. But for the ones that played and marched well, there would be another that just didn't do either one particularly well. That would not be the case with the 5A's. We didn't see a poor performance all day. Now, granted, that doesn't mean that you couldn't discern between which ones were better than others, but it must be similar to judging at the Olympics. With everyone performing so well, the difference between places is minute.

I could get easily carried away with lengthy commentary on my opinion of the state of marching band, but I won't. Instead, let's just see the pictures I took today that DID turn out!

Disclaimer (again): I think I finally found a camera setting that worked well with marching band, but there are still some rough photos. I also didn't have strong enough batteries to operate my camera for the early portion of the contest. Eventually, Wurtz came up and had some kickin' duracells. Noticable photographic ommissions? Hebron, Cedar Park, Haltom, The Woodlands, Langham Creek, LD Bell, Richland, Klein, Spring. Not all because of camera problems -- some because I simply forgot that I had a camera with me.


Here's Bowie. They made finals and had a very interesting show called "A Little Night Music." We stood behind some Bowie band parents waiting to get in for Finals and they were some very nice, down to earth folks. You might think that down to earth pretty well describes all band parents, but the parents from another band who were standing next to us, were pretty obnoxious and came off arrogant. I hope that was just those parents and is in no way indicative of all parents from that particular school.



Brazoswood. "Out of the Blue." Yes, there were many blue colors integrated into the show, but these mats in green, pink and yellow (introduced at the end of the show), were very effective against what had been a mostly blue and green backdrop.







Churchill. Great guard. The show came off like a really excellent winterguard show with band in the way, but that's only from a design perspective. The band played really well and, of course, marched well.










Churchill again.














Coppell. Finalist. Good band.












I believe this is Duncanville. The best thing about Duncanville? Incredible sound and there wasn't a single microphone, amp, synth or sound system present. They did it all the orinigal way.











The next four are from Marcus - State Champions! What a super-cool show that was executed SO well. It was an underwater theme. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves (mostly).









Clams (and not the band kind... trumpets...). Reef.

Each little formation of students is actually a fish. Not the best vantage point, but hopefully you can make out the left, underside fin.









Crabs! Or are they lobsters? Anyhow, very clever and way-entertaining!














And the seahorses who were part of a horserace using the music from William Tell.














Regan HS. Finalist.












And here's the first picture of the blog one more time: Austin HS. My favorite drumline of the day! Too band they didn't make finals, I DEFINITELY would have liked to have seen that drumline again!




Well. I'm very tired -- it's been a really eventful couple of days.