The UIL has spoken.

Topics and polls that cover the overall marching band activity

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JLGORMAN
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The UIL has spoken.

Post by JLGORMAN » Fri Dec 18, 2020 9:57 am

The UIL has announced to day that effective next year all UIL Classes of Bands will advance to a State Championship contest. Class 1A, 3A, 5A Bands will compete at the Alamodome on Nov 1, 2 and 3rd. Class 2A, 4A and 6A Bands will compete at he Alamodome on Nov 8th, 9th and 10th. This is what many directors have looked forward to and this also puts a real crimp into the BOA and US Bands contests scheduled for next year. The UIL 6A contest will be held on the week between the BOA Super Regional and Grand Nationals. I doubt many schools will be willing to support overnight trips to BOA events when they have to fund UIL Contests. Also due to the difference in Rules and Judging between BOA and UIL many Bands will not want to change their performance style for BOA Judging. It is highly doubtful that many Bands will compete at the UIL Regional Contests and then go on to BOA. Since UIL is a SCHOOL sponsored event, BOA has no cards to play against it. Since effective next year the Bands will compete ANNUALLY for State Championships in all probability few Texas Bands will no be going out of state next year.
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Hostrauser
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Re: The UIL has spoken.

Post by Hostrauser » Sat Dec 19, 2020 10:41 am

UIL has benefitted in many ways over the years by being "the only game in town." And I know that many schools have UIL requirements in their contracts with music teachers. But I also know that several of the top-tier BOA bands in Texas only do UIL "because they have to," and I know there were at least a couple of Texas directors negotiating with their schools/districts to opt out of UIL marching band competitions because they felt BOA offered more creative liberty. Now, I don't know if any of those discussions have or ever will come to fruition. But I know BOA's decision to keep expanding and adding shows in Texas was the result of years of surveys and feedback from band directors.

Interesting tug of war shaping up.

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Re: The UIL has spoken.

Post by JLGORMAN » Fri Dec 25, 2020 10:12 am

Interesting reply concerning some directors trying to get in their contracts the clause allowing the Band Director to take their Band to BOA instead of UIL. Interesting but it will not happen anytime in the near future. The power of the UIL will not allow this to happen. Due to COV19, the UIL class 5A & 6A Schools could not start practice in Band or Football until the 7th of Sep and school could not start in these schools until the 25th of Sep. Thus you can see why the State Marching Contest took place on 15 Dec 2020. Now a little bit more about the UIL. Prior to this fall, the schools in TX were prohibited from having activities between the 22nd of Dec and the 26th of Dec. Since this primarily involved Basketball, most folks did not complain. However since football ran late this year the UIL decided to play games on Dec 24 th and Dec 26. Yesterday 12 UIL Football playoff games were held on the 24th of Dec with two games being held on Christmas eve evening at 7:30(do not ask my opinion of this). On Saturday the 26th 20 games will take place with 16 games taking place on the New Years weekend. I thought that they could hold up on this, however let me tell one thing. UIL is made up of EDUCATORS and they run the operations. In fact Arkansas ASBOA and Oklahoma OSSAA both have copied their programs after UIL as has MHSBA and MHSAA in Mississippi. You might find interesting that Texas HS Football plays under the rules of the NCAA and not the National Federation of HS like CA and 48 other states. Only TX and Masssachusetts play under different rules(explain to me how the most liberal and most conservative state both thumb their noses at the rest of the Nation Texas schools are happy to play out of state teams in TX but will not play under NFHS rules in an game played out of state. Several years, DeLa Salle came down to play Cedar Hill in the Dallas Area and were throughly whipped by the differences in NCAA and NFHS rules. Just thought I would give you some things to think about on tthis Merry Christmas Day.
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Re: The UIL has spoken.

Post by Hostrauser » Thu Dec 31, 2020 9:14 am

Do you know why 6A participation in UIL was so down this year? Was it just the pandemic? I know there were several 6A bands (like Vandegrift) who did field a marching band this past fall but just did football games/activities and not UIL.

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Re: The UIL has spoken.

Post by JLGORMAN » Thu Dec 31, 2020 1:12 pm

That is a good question about the 6A Schools. Only 79 of 241 6A schools even entered the Regional Marching Contest. The Leander ISD which is where Va De Grift is had not one Band enter UIL Region Contest. In the Northeast ISD in San Antonio, home of Winston Churchill, Reagan and Claudia Taylor Johnson, only Johnson advanced to the State Finals and won UIL this year. Reagan entered the Regional Contest but did not go to the Area Event. Churchill did not do anything this fall. No one said anything about why this happened. In comparison the Lewisville Farmers Branch ISD sent all 4 Bands to Region and all Advanced to Area. Three advanced to state, Flower Mound, Marcus and Hebron and placed in the top 4 places. I live in Region 8 and all 8 Bands went to the Regional contest. The 4 Schools from Killeen ISD, my home district and Belton HS advanced to Area with Harker Heights finishing 3rd, the highest ranking they have ever had. I think the situation belonged to each School system and how COV19 hit the schools. It is a shame that schools like LD Bell and Duncanville did not participate this year and no one has said why.

In Oklahoma the OSSAA which divides Oklahoma HS Schools knew that there would be not OBA contest. The put together a Region Contest for the 5A & 6A Bands. Now Oklahoma only has 17 6A Bands and 16 5A Bands. At the Region contest 13 of the 17 Bands in 6A performed for Ratings, those Bands that did not show up were Union, Broken Arrow, Owasso and Jenks, the 4 biggest and most powerful Bands in Class 6A. If you can figure out why they did not show up, you have me.

I think that some of the 6A Bands felt they could not meet their normal standards given the situation this year. Not ssurprisingly the Class 1A, 2A, 3A and 4A Bands had no sympathy for them. Next fall lord willing we will have all 6 classes competing for state. I do not want to guess how that will work out.
Deep in the Heart of Texas. Home of the III Mobile Armored Corps and the 1st Cavalry Division, serving America in Iraq

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