32nd Annual Wisconsin State Championship

Topics and polls that cover the overall marching band activity

Moderators: Trumpet Man 05, malletphreak, Hostrauser, instrumental director

Post Reply
User avatar
Hostrauser
Support Staff
Support Staff
Posts: 7984
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 6:46 am
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Contact:

32nd Annual Wisconsin State Championship

Post by Hostrauser » Fri Oct 14, 2016 8:27 am

A largely rural state, Wisconsin schools tend to be small and spread far apart. Even in metro areas the schools trend small so as to limit travel distances for students during the often brutal winters. A school with 9-12 enrollment of 2,000 students is commonplace in California; Wisconsin has only seven in the entire state, none over 2,300.

Deep in Big Ten country, marching band in Wisconsin has long been solely for parades and football team support. Most schools still follow this course, eschewing competition (or even, to be honest, quality musical instruction for their marching bands) for low-effort "stadium rock" field shows designed for crowd entertainment. Competitive field shows were historically taken care of by the once-numerous drum and bugle corps and the now-almost-extinct summer marching band programs in the state. The first FALL high school field show competition didn't occur in the state of Wisconsin until 1985. All that said, participation in band tends to be very high in Wisconsin. It's not at all uncommon for a school of 500 or fewer students to have 70, 80, or even 100-piece marching band, and one of the largest bands in the state comes from a school with under 1,000 students.

Every year on the third Saturday in October, bands from around the state gather in Perkins Stadium at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater for the WSMA (Wisconsin School Music Association) State Marching Band Championships. Schools are divided into four classes based on 9-12 school enrollment (classifications are announced at the start of the season) and perform in a rotating class order: 2016's order is AAA-A-AAAA-AA, 2017's order will be AAAA-AA-AAA-A, then A-AAA-AA-AAAA in 2018, etc. Order of performance within classes is a random draw, with non-competitive "comments only" bands going first in class.

Judging and scoring is as follows (2016 judges listed):
MUSIC - 45 POINTS
* Musical Performance (20 pts) - Steven Page
* Musical General Effect #1 (25 pts/averaged) - Dan Farris
* Musical General Effect #2 (25 pts/averaged) - Christian Carichner
VISUAL - 45 POINTS
* Visual Performance (20 pts) - Blake Daughtrey
* Visual General Effect #1 (25 pts/averaged) - J.R. Carlisle
* Visual General Effect #2 (25 pts/averaged) - Jim Brooks
SECTIONAL - 10 POINTS
* Percussion (5 pts - 100 pts/20) - Rob Ferguson
* Color Guard (5 pts - 100 pts/20) - Sal Salas

2016 WSMA STATE MARCHING BAND CHAMPIONSHIPS
Saturday, October 15th, 2016
Perkins Stadium, Whitewater, WI


FESTIVAL CLASS (Exhibition)
12:00PM - Marathon H.S., Marathon, WI

CLASS AAA (1,001 to 1,300 enrollment)
12:15PM - Waukesha South H.S., Waukesha, WI
12:30PM - Wauwatosa East H.S., Wauwatosa, WI
12:45PM - South Milwaukee H.S., South Milwaukee, WI
1:00PM - Waukesha North H.S., Waukesha, WI
1:15PM - Cedarburg H.S., Cedarburg, WI
1:30PM - Milton H.S., Milton, WI
1:45PM - River Falls H.S., River Falls, WI

CLASS AAA COMMENTS:
Waukesha North is a 14-time state champion, including nine in a row (the first seven in Class AAAA and the last two in Class AAA). However, both the school and the band are losing enrollment, and their scores this season have been uncharacteristically low. River Falls is a 20-time state champion, eight in Class AA and twelve in Class AAA. Waukesha North has edged out River Falls each of the past two years in Class AAA; is this the year the positions switch?

2:00PM - Badger Brass (exhibition)
2:15PM - Break

CLASS A (1 to 800 enrollment)
2:30PM - Whitewater H.S., Whitewater, WI
2:45PM - Cudahy H.S., Cudahy, WI
3:00PM - Wisconsin Lutheran H.S., Milwaukee, WI
3:15PM - Antigo H.S., Antigo, WI
3:30PM - Cumberland H.S., Cumberland, WI
3:45PM - Columbus H.S., Columbus, WI
4:00PM - Baldwin-Woodville H.S., Baldwin, WI

CLASS A COMMENTS:
Cumberland and Baldwin-Woodville, two schools from the northwest portion of the state, have dominated this class, combining to win nine straight and 14 out of 19. Three of those have gone to B-W, a 100-member ensemble from a school of 470. But the real juggernaut is Cumberland, winner of thirteen state titles (two in Class AA) and six of the past seven Class A titles. Cumberland is a quality 70-piece group from a school of only 280 kids.

4:15PM - University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (exhibition)
4:30PM - CLASS A & AAA AWARDS CEREMONY
4:45PM -
5:00PM - Badger Brass (exhibition)

CLASS AAAA (1,301 or greater enrollment)
5:15PM - Hudson H.S., Hudson, WI (comments only)
5:30PM - Chippewa Falls H.S., Chippewa Falls, WI
5:45PM - Greenfield H.S., Greenfield, WI
6:00PM - Franklin H.S., Franklin, WI
6:15PM - Mukwonago H.S., Mukwonago, WI
6:30PM - Germantown H.S., Germantown, WI
6:45PM - Waukesha West H.S., Waukesha West, WI
7:00PM - Hamilton H.S., Sussex, WI
7:15PM - Oak Creek H.S., Oak Creek, WI

CLASS AAAA COMMENTS:
Waukesha West is the perennial bridesmaid. They've won seven state titles, but it's been ten years since their last one, having finished second to Waukesha North (before they dropped to AAA) and Oak Creek multiple times. Oak Creek has won the past two AAAA titles and is again the favorite. Oak Creek is one of the larger bands (180~200 marching members) from one of the largest schools (2,040 enrollment) in the state. Also worth noting is Mukwonago, a smaller ensemble of 50-60 with a killer drumline that has taken several high percussion awards.

7:30PM - CLASS AAA CHAMPION EXHIBITION

CLASS AA (801 to 1,000 enrollment)
7:45PM - Whitnall H.S., Greenfield, WI (exhibition)
8:00PM - Portage H.S., Portage, WI
8:15PM - Merrill H.S., Merrill, WI
8:30PM - New Berlin West H.S., New Berlin, WI
8:45PM - Greendale H.S., Greendale, WI
9:00PM - Sauk Prairie H.S., Sauk Prairie, WI
9:15PM - Fort Atkinson H.S., Fort Atkinson, WI
9:30PM - New Berlin Eisenhower H.S., New Berlin, WI

CLASS AA COMMENTS:
Greendale usually rivals Waukesha North for title of best band in the state of Wisconsin. IMO, they are clearly #1 (and prior BOA Grand Nationals scoring backs me up). Greendale has won eleven consecutive Class AA titles and shows absolutely no signs of slowing down (indeed, they keep getting better). An upper-middle class suburb of Milwaukee, Greendale has incredible participation: they march 230 kids out of a total school enrollment of only 940. Greendale and Waukesha North both usually attend BOA Grand Nationals in Indianapolis every year; Greendale is skipping Indy this year to participate in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade in New York. See them on TV in November!

9:45PM - CLASS A CHAMPION EXHIBITION
10:00PM - University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (exhibition)
10:15PM - CLASS AA & AAAA AWARDS CEREMONY

User avatar
Hostrauser
Support Staff
Support Staff
Posts: 7984
Joined: Tue Oct 29, 2002 6:46 am
Location: Milwaukee, WI
Contact:

Re: 32nd Annual Wisconsin State Championship

Post by Hostrauser » Sat Oct 15, 2016 8:35 pm

2016 Wisconsin State Champions
A: Baldwin-Woodville
AA: Greendale
AAA: River Falls
AAAA: Oak Creek & Waukesha West (tie)

JLGORMAN
Section Leader
Section Leader
Posts: 757
Joined: Sat Jun 28, 2003 7:35 pm
Location: Killeen, TX

Re: 32nd Annual Wisconsin State Championship

Post by JLGORMAN » Sat Oct 22, 2016 1:24 pm

I appreciate the information about the Band Programs in WI. As a person who follows the Bands of Nebraska(NE), the similarities are striking.
1. NE has 424 High Schools

2. Class D Schools are those with under 74 students enrollments
Class C Schools are those with 75-150 students
Class B Schools are those with 150-300 students
Class A Schools are those with 300-600 students
Class AA Schools are those with 601 students and above.

Class AA numbers 38 Schools. Only ten have over 1,000 enrollment
Like WI, and other Midwest States, many small schools have Bands with 80 to 100 kids in schools with 300 students or less.

Contest in NE are judged by the Nebraska State Bandmasters Association.
Today, the 22nd of Oct, NE will hold their state Marching Band Championships
24 Schools will perform for Ratings in Lincoln
24 Schools will perform for Ratings in Kearney, across the state from
Lincoln
14 Bands will compete in a Ranked Contest in Omaha. Of the 14 Bands, 10 of them are in Class AA. There are 4 Bands from Class A. Some of the more well known Class AA Bands are Bellevue East, Millard West , Millard North and Elkhorn.

Following the Midwest Bands and their dealings with small enrollments and low growth populations makes me appreciate being in a big state that can support Bands with far less difficulty than our friends in NE.
(The NE Results will be in the Rocky Mountain Scores Section)
Deep in the Heart of Texas. Home of the III Mobile Armored Corps and the 1st Cavalry Division, serving America in Iraq

Post Reply