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Top Marching Band State


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9 hours ago, hostrauser said:

Are we looking at skill level or just participation? It seems like almost every school in Iowa has a marching band, though only a few would even have a remote chance at BOA GN Semifinals. I also disagree with the person that says California has hardly any marching bands. At last count, California had over 500 active competitive marching bands, which is absolutely AMAZING considering the level of support California music programs receive from school districts (virtually nil).

Most states are carried by a small handful of powerhouse bands: Rosemount and Eden Prairie in Minnesota, Tarpon Springs (and Park Vista, Timber Creek, Stoneman Douglas) in Florida, William Mason (and Centerville and the Lakotas) in Ohio. Oklahoma used to be like that: it was Broken Arrow, Union, and everybody else for a long time. It's only "recently" (last 10-20 years) that bands like Owasso, Jenks, Mustang, etc. have elevated themselves to at or near that level. Blue Springs has had a similar effect on western Missouri: Blue Springs South, Camdenton, Grain Valley, and Nixa have all be steadily climbing the charts in recent years.

I think Texas is by far #1. Indiana is very good, but if you look at their Top 5 (Avon, Carmel, Castle, Fishers, and Homestead) Texas has about 20 bands of that caliber.

This is a very subjective question, but I have a lot of spreadsheets. I took the top 10 bands for each state/circuit, and tried my best to adjust them all to the same scale (I used BOA scoring as the baseline, since that's the place where most top bands from multiple states go head-to-head). So, in my opinion if you took the Top 10 bands from each state and had a big, open-class competition, the overall "team" results would look something like:

1. Texas (93.99)
2. Indiana (88.20)
3. California (84.57)
4. Ohio (83.97)
5. Illinois (83.79)
6. Oklahoma (83.18)
7. Florida (83.15)
8. Georgia (82.34)
9. South Carolina (82.67)
10. Missouri (82.26)
11. Kentucky (81.71)
12. Michigan (81.21)

I like the stats, but it may not be a good idea to talk about the top 10 bands from each state, as population varies so widely between the states. You say Texas has 20 to Indiana’s five, but if Indiana has less than a quarter of the population of Texas (which it does)....

That being said, I like to think Texas has the deepest pool of top tier bands, even proportionally. If you’re looking at the number of bands that are competing for a medal at nationals, Indiana’s numbers are an outlier. Carmel and Avon are consistently at the top of the pack and would be even if you brought the whole lot of Texas.

Now, if I had to choose one competition to go to each year, it wouldn’t be Grand Nationals anymore. Texas schools only keep getting better (somehow) and I’m thankful for them!

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10 hours ago, greg_orangecounty said:

I agree with your disagreement.  I can't think of a high school in our greater area that doesn't have a marching band.  They're certainly not funded like they were b.i.t.d. but marching band counts towards the state mandated P.E. requirement and that alone is an incentive to participate.   

With Indiana having some the top bands in the country why so hard to field a competitive DC?  I miss STAR!!!

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49 minutes ago, gregory11 said:

With Indiana having some the top bands in the country why so hard to field a competitive DC?  I miss STAR!!!

I see what you are saying.......but if we go off location of drum corps........Crossmen should have Texas talent pool on lock. 

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1 hour ago, soccerguy315 said:

I would be interested in what percentage of the membership for each corps flies in for camps (vs driving).

Agreed.

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On 10/16/2020 at 10:02 PM, MidWAmericanArts said:

I like the stats, but it may not be a good idea to talk about the top 10 bands from each state, as population varies so widely between the states. You say Texas has 20 to Indiana’s five, but if Indiana has less than a quarter of the population of Texas (which it does)....

That being said, I like to think Texas has the deepest pool of top tier bands, even proportionally. If you’re looking at the number of bands that are competing for a medal at nationals, Indiana’s numbers are an outlier. Carmel and Avon are consistently at the top of the pack and would be even if you brought the whole lot of Texas.

Now, if I had to choose one competition to go to each year, it wouldn’t be Grand Nationals anymore. Texas schools only keep getting better (somehow) and I’m thankful for them!

Let's break Texas down by metro area and see how they fair. There are some very good bands that haven't gone up to Grand Nats yet, so I've only included those that have made the trip within the last 10 years or so and made finals. I'll put an asterisk by the programs that have won it all.

 

Austin

Vandegrift*, Leander, Round Rock, Cedar Park, Cedar Ridge, Bowie


Dallas/Fort Worth

Hebron, Marcus, Flower Mound, LD Bell*, Prosper, Keller

 

Houston

The Woodlands*, Stephen F. Austin



San Antonio

Reagan,  CTJ
 

Edited by MGCpimpOtimp
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On 10/17/2020 at 12:25 AM, gregory11 said:

With Indiana having some the top bands in the country why so hard to field a competitive DC?  I miss STAR!!!

I don't think corps location matters anymore.  In some cases, that's simply where their office/operations reside. You can slap any home location you want on a corps, but if a corps holds all their camps, move-ins, etc in another state, let's call it what it is.

If I remember correctly, aren't the Blue Stars really basing most of their activity in Indiana, even though they're technically from Wisconsin? The same can be said about a corps like Boston, which made the move down to Florida in the late 90s while their offices remained in Boston. I'd be willing to bet there are very few New Englanders in that corps, though I do admit they do a fantastic job to stick to their Boston roots with performances/outreach in the community.

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On 10/15/2020 at 10:23 AM, seinphan said:

Just a thought to consider.  Texas has what's called the "8 hour rule" which limits the amount of rehearsals you can have outside of the school to 8hrs for the calendar week.  Monday-Sunday, 8 hours TOTAL rehearsal time allowed outside of the school day.  

Groups like Marcus, LD Bell, Duncanville, Westfield, Spring, Vandegrift, Reagan, Leander, Cedar Park, Johnson, Churchill (I'm just trying to think of the groups that have attended and placed well at BOA Grand Nationals in the past).  These groups have done what they've done in significantly less time than the groups they are competing against nationwide.

IMO, if BOA ever decided to move Grand Nationals to Dallas, San Antonio or Houston, we would see a SIGNIFICANTLY different finals line up and several groups that are perennial finalists would be done on Friday.  The actual Grand Nationals takes place in San Antonio the week before.It's an amazing line up of bands.

Add The Woodlands, Flower Mound, and Round Rock to your list. 6A State Finals are every other year (rotation for state finals here), but if Texas could come every year... BOA Finals would look very different. The programs here are wildly efficient and the kids here are trained and compete at a high level from MS through HS. UIL gets grief from time to time, but the system does create wonderful programs.

My opinion based on... well... my opinion.

1. Texas

2. Indiana/OK

3. California

3. Florida

4. IL/MI/OH/KY

DCI actually has a member survey that maps all of this our every year, along with out great info for them.

Edited by njthundrrd
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On 10/17/2020 at 12:25 AM, gregory11 said:

With Indiana having some the top bands in the country why so hard to field a competitive DC?  I miss STAR!!!

well, someone with money to run it is a good starting place

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Just my opinion, but is the marching band programs in Texas, is their primary goal to compete, or to provide entertainment at half time.  No high school in Texas is providing a 25 million budget for their music programs like many of the stadiums that are being built so that a bunch of 18 year olds pituiraries (sic) can entertain Daddy.  If I was 18 again, and I'm not, I'm 66, I would refuse to do half time shows just on principal.  I think I'm going to take some flak but it is my opinion.  Hehehehe so flame away.

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