24 marching bands from across the southwest converged on Roosevelt High School on Saturday, November 14th, 2009 under beautiful fall skies, seeking a coveted spot in the prestigious MBOS Top 12. In what can only be described as a true “battle of the bands”, the Marching Band Open Series proudly crowned the Poway High School Emerald Brigade as the 2009 MBOS Champion! Additionally, Vista Murrieta High School was named the Best Booster Club winner, selling more pre-sale championship tickets than the competition. Directors Don Wade and Ralph Ewell also received a gift as their prize, and of course, bragging rights went to the winning booster club for their efforts.

After a morning and afternoon of intense competition, the MBOS Top 12 was named:

El Toro High School Royal Blue Regiment
Moorpark High School Marching Musketeers
Patriot High School Marching Band
Ramona High School Royal Alliance Marching Band
Green Valley High School Marching Band
South Hills High School Marching Band
Valencia High School Tiger Regiment
West Ranch High School Marching Band
Vista Murrieta High School Golden Alliance
William S. Hart High School Hart Regiment
Thousand Oaks High School Lancer Marching Band
Poway High School Emerald Brigade

The MBOS Top 12 lit up the stadium with electricity as finals began, bringing an incredible mix of music, marching, and pageantry, with some of the best productions ever put together in one competition. The crowd was thrilled by these performances, hardly believing the talent level of these great young performers. The judges had their work cut out for them as the Top 12 truly were the “cream of the cream of the crop”.

71.35 Ramona—Using a format of a video game to introduce their “Real Rock Band” production, Ramona wowed the audience with a controlled sound and unique African-style drumming to compliment parts of their Kansas rock group music book.
73.80 El Toro—From the opening fanfare of their “Champion” show to the final chord, El Toro brought to the audiences exciting movement, a guard in “gladiator”-type costuming using unique props, and one of the most unique headpieces of the evening for the band.
76.40 Moorpark—Fielding a guard with the most orange of orange costumes and playing some very unique music featuring a talented soloists through the show and the most rippin’est marching French Horn feature, the Marching Musketeers came to play and have some fun along the way with their “The Creation and Destruction of Harmonic Tension” show.
76.45 Patriot—Performing Key Poulan’s “Medusa” show, Patriot HS presented a show of driving tempos and a very talented to drum line to fuel the engine of the band, complete with the drum major at the end of the showing taking care of Medusa as only one can.
83.00 Green Valley—With an exciting score of music provided by composer Joseph Curiale, Green Valley performed with great control and poise with a very challenging music book. A full pit section took a unique approach to their staging, taking up a sizable area on the field which provided an interesting stage unto itself for their “Passages” show.
83.80 West Ranch—The deck of the ill-fated Titanic provided the stage and backdrop for West Ranch’s wonderful “Triumph and Tragedy” production. Color guard provided some period-type costuming, and the band played as masterfully as ever under the direction of a superb drum major.
84.15 South Hills—They brought their “Heat” show complete with a talented guard of “escapees”, a drum line of considerable talent, a very exposed music book, and some very advanced marching to handle a very exciting drill design.
85.30 Valencia—Noted composer Richard Saucedo’s “Minimally Speaking” provided the music score for the Tiger Regiment’s “Once Upon A Time” production. Their color guard was as flawless as ever, and they were staged well within a very exciting drill design.
90.30 Vista Murrieta—As the Nile River comes to life with Vista Murrieta’s production, featuring colorfully costumed guard members and music befitting a pharaoh, the audience was whisked away for a ride of epic proportions. Their performance at finals had a certain shine to it, and audience responded in kind with rapturous applause. Huge sounds from a group that filled the field, goal line to goal line.
90.50 Thousand Oaks—“For, Four, Fore”, the title of T.O.’s beautifully crafted and designed visual and musical presentation, never left you in doubt what they were portraying. From the music to the intricate and creative visual design to the characterizations by their members, T.O. was a “for”ce to be reckoned with on finals night. A professional, confident, and precise marching organization to be sure, T.O. was a tough act to follow.
91.60 Hart –Snow-capped mountains and snow bunnies abounded this in this wintery show. A technical feast for the eyes and ears, the Hart Regiment never once made it look difficult. Effortless, exciting, and just flat out great was what they were all about finals night.
92.30 Poway—Perennial San Diego County powerhouse Poway High School Emerald Brigade brought to bear a formidable color guard, a drill design with amazing effectiveness, a wind book of uniqueness and impact, and a rocking drum line. These are ingredients for their “Clockworks” production, a show that was enthusiastically supported by the audience.

The Marching Band Open Series salutes all of the performers, staff members, directors, parents, boosters and fans, and would like to especially thank their show sponsors this year for providing the very best in on-site show management and wonderful performance venues:

Brian Gallagher and the Norco High School Blue Diamond Brigade
Cory Olariu and the Downey High School Viking Marching Band
Jeff McNurlan and the Mission Hills High School Cardinal Alliance
Michael Fleischman and the Roosevelt High School Marching Band

MBOS maintains the highest quality judging found anywhere, relying on some of the very best talents in the marching arts and music education field. For providing their very best and for their dedication to the MBOS mission this year, the MBOS would like to thank the following adjudicators:

W L Whaley—Denver, Colorado
Ken Giese—Nashville, Tennessee
Gordon Henderson—UCLA
Greg Flores—California State University, Long Beach
Albert Do—Houston, Texas
Frank and Shirley Dorritte—Knightsen, California
Lorne Reid—Las Vegas, Nevada
Lee Carlson—Palm Springs, California
Bill Barbour—Clovis, California
John Carnahan— California State University, Long Beach
Robert Solomon—Pasadena, California
Tammy Hollowell—Pasadena, California
Diane Koutsulis—Las Vegas, Nevada
Sam Henderson—Phoenix, Arizona
Greg Llacer—Boston, Massachusetts
John Philips—Toronto, Canada
Jeff Harper—Georgia
Bill Braden—Tupelo, Mississippi

Special thanks as always to the MBOS staff that made everything happen behind the scenes, including:

Michael Stone, MBOS Coordinator
Carl W. Nelson, MBOS Contest Director
Susie Matyk, Tabulation Services
Ryan H. Turner, Show Announcer

2010 promises to be even better as the MBOS expands with new and exciting show sites and the same high quality educational objectives, superior adjudication, new member bands, and what we all like about marching band the most….FUN!

Thank you everyone…congratulations one more time to the Poway High School Emerald Brigade, and we’ll see you next year for….

Season V—The Marching Band Open Series

Wow...
that is ridiculous

Top four bands were so close to each other


.2 between 3rd and 4th place

.7 between 1st and 2nd.

Got to say that im proud of all 4 of these bands.
With added "proud-ness" in Hart. Such a small band w/ great talent. Truly one of the "big" dogs.

Must of been a great and exciting show.

Bummed i missed it.

Congrats to poway and Hart and Thousand Oaks!!!! Have a good rest of your season!!!! Vista finishes this coming Wednesday at MV!!!!

Congrats to all of the bands who performed yesterday!
I had so much fun watching all of you and you all were amazing.

Congrats to Poway, Hart, and Thousand Oaks, you were all incredible and I'm so glad I got to spend my senior year competing with you. It was truly an honor. I'm definitely going to come back next year to see how things go...

It was a great competition, but, wow, I am fatigued. Friday night football game, then the competition all day Saturday. Good thing we have Sunday to rest.

I definitely agree, Garen.
@VM: enjoyed our awesome group band hug after breaking ranks. you guys are the best

Looks like it was a great show! Just curious - how did they select bands for finals? (it doesn't look like the top 12 scores, or top 3 from each division, or?)

For picking the top 12 it is the 1st place winner of each division (4 divisions), then the next 8 highest scores of the day regardless of division.

There are a few other interesting things that I heard on the street about Champs or any Finals for MBOS:

Computer program is used to determine the order of Finalists
The judge panel switches captions from prelims to Finals
The judges do not see a recap from the prelims nor do they know the classifications for the groups when they do go on in prelims

Maybe MBOS CD or Ryan H. Turner can confirm this?

And yes, dbg is correct about how they determine Finalists

As a matter of fact, yesterday, not being completely versed on the rules, I started to show the scores to one of the judges from prelims--and it really was just an honest "Hey how'd the scores end up?" thing and me being polite and all--and I was promptly "corrected". LOL!! NO SCORES. There's a reason for it. Gee, I thought it was for the drama, but nooooo. It's to KEEP IT CLEAN. Now it all makes sense. My boss, the MBOS CD will confirm it better than I, but we don't want any preconceived notions about who was what where between prelims and finals--EVEN FOR THE JUDGES. I think that's actually pretty dang cool.

And yes, there is a random order generator that I have seen, and the order is totally random.

Anyway....I'm exhausted. MBOS hasn't figured out how to get my voice back yet.

Also, the finals lineup is blocked in groups of 4 by score. Top 4 scoring from prelims take the last 4 slots [in random order], then the next 4 scoring, and so on.

First, CONGRATULATIONS to all the bands this weekend, it was an amazing show. As a "Band Dad" for the Emerald Brigade, I want to send a huge compliment to everyone who competed but particularly to all of those from Vista Murrieta, Thousand Oaks, Hart, and Green Valley Ranch. Your sportsmanship, love of the music and marching, and enthusiasm were amazing. I have never heard so many wishes of "Good Luck" or compliments of "Amazing Show." I wish you all the best in your coming competitions and the best of luck in all your future endeavors!

I almost hate to ask

Does anyone have any videos?


Ive een craving a peek of one of the top shows.

Vista Murrieta's Prelims performance

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaUFHKJ1KFg