Big Things Come in Small (1A)School Packages

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JLGORMAN
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Big Things Come in Small (1A)School Packages

Post by JLGORMAN » Sun Nov 03, 2013 1:39 pm

At 7:30 AM CT, on Monday, Nov 4, the Sundown HS Band from South of Lubbock, TX will take the field at the Alamodome as the first of 17 class 1A Bands competing in the UIL State Marching Contest. After traveling over 400 miles to San Antonio, Sundown will begin the quest to win again the Class 1A Championship for Marching Bands, prized by the small schools(that means enrollment in school, not size of Band) in TX. To arrive at this point they have had to deal with many challenges.

1. School Size. All 17 schools have less than 199 students enrolled in grades 9 through 12. Sundown HS has 166 students, of which 75 are in the Band.

2. Sharing Time. Unlike large school Bands where most of the Band members are only involved in Band, in 1A schools, the director shares these members with the football Team, cheeerleaders, FFA, Volleyball, Cross Country and Debate Club among others. All schedules have to be worked out by the instructors so that members can take part in competitions. Band Directors who want 100% involvement in Band from their students are not very successful at this level of competition. It is not unusual to see Football players and cheerleaders marching at halftime. You work with what you have. Due to the small size of these schools, many do not march a color guard due to lack of numbers.

3. Distance. Most 1A & 2A schools are located in rural, and unpopulated areas. Thus it is hard to have clinicians come in to help the Band, and unlike the Mega Staffs of 5A schools, a 1A Director not only does the HS Band, but often the Middle School program also .along with teaching at the elementary level. Due to this distance, it is much more difficult to enter pre uil marching contests for practice before Region Marching Contest, even though there are now more small school marching contests out in Rural areas, they still are strongly outnumbered by the Big School Events.

4. The UIL Region Marching Contest. UIL rates bands on a Musical standard and Marching Standard. The same standard applies to Marcus, LD Bell and Sundown. However it would seem obvious that large multi staff schools with private instruction will more often meet the standard than small rural Bands from areas where additional staff and private instruction are not available. This same standard, while important results in far more class 1A & 2A Bands receiving ratings of 2 & 3 and occasionally 4 compared to the much greater numbers of 1st Division Ratings given to 5A school Bands. The 1A Bands who have advanced to State have meet the standard.

The UIL State Marching Championships will take place on Monday the 4th of Nov with prelims during the day and Finals at night for Class 1A &2A.
The Class 4A Championships will take place on Tuesday the 5th of November.
These contests will be streamed live by Http://www.mrvideoonlince.com/
There is no charge for viewing these fine Bands who have worked through many difficulties to get to San Antonio.
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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