Napa - facts & opinions
Posted: Sun Nov 10, 2002 10:30 pm
This post is in response to a thread on the old message board at http://www.worldofpageantry.com/wwwboar ... 13246.html.
I was asked to post it here to fill some people in on some of the controversy surrounding the Napa show. The opinions are mine, but the numbers are right off the official recaps.
_______________________________________
1. Color Guard judge was Tom Wietrich (spelling?) who has a history of bashing Leigh in whatever category he judges. It has been presumed for a long time that Tom, for reasons known only to him, has some sort of personal bias or vendetta against someone on the Leigh staff and unfortunately chooses to take it out on the kids. Not to take anything away from Saratoga (who won the guard caption with a 92 to Leigh's 90) because they do have an excellent guard, but their performance simply did not match up to Leigh's last night in content, design, or execution. There is just no way Leigh came in second.
2. The Vintage PA announcer was truly pathetic. Not only did he announce the wrong winners for the field show marching and showmanship sweepstakes, but when he was confronted with the error before the end of the ceremony, he refused to correct it. For some strange reason, the announcer read off the winners from a hand-written list when computerized lists, very efficiently sorted by caption and placement, were available. The announcer claimed he had been told to hurry up (why?...there was no fire and it was only 9:30pm) and to see the head judge or tabulator with questions or concerns (they were nowhere to be found and it was later learned that they had already gone home!).
Why were the results transcribed by hand when computerized lists were readily available? Why didn't the tabulator or head judge remain for the ceremony? Why wasn't the error corrected when the PA guy clearly had time to do so? These are some serious questions that the NCBA and Vintage organizers need to address!
In the end, Leigh was told that duplicate trophies would be mailed to them to "make it right." Yet in the mean time, Leigh went home without the recognition it rightfully won and Saratoga has two trophies which they did not earn. Granted, the trophies aren't what it's all about and the Leigh kids went home happy and proud of their performance, but the show's organizers screwed up big time and have done little or nothing to admit or correct their mistakes.
___________________________________________________
These aren't the only question marks surrounding the day's events. In typical NCBA fashion, many bands faced the wrath of NCBA judging inconsistencies. Here's just a sampling of the more blatant discrepancies:
1. Differences in scoring between the two judges of a caption:
Parade
a. Half Moon Bay: 42 points in GE
b. Santa Clara: 40 points in music
c. Will C. Wood: 53 points in marching!
d. Ygnacio Valley: 40 in GE
e. Placer: 44 in music
f. Hogan: 32 GE
g. Dublin: 32 GE
h. John Swett: 50 music, 36 GE
Field
a. Leigh & Saratoga: 20 music
b. Homestead & Lynbrook: 22 music
c. Folsom: 23 music
d. Vallejo: 34 music, 23 marching
e. Milpitas: 30 music
f. Del Oro: 37 music, 48 GE, 24 marching
g. Fremont: 33 music, 31 marching
h. McClatchy: 24 music, 31 GE, 39 marching
i. Santa Clara: 43 GE
2. Independence scored 82.05 overall at Foothill (Oct. 26) and 92.65 at Napa. I haven't seen their show so I don't know which score is closer to realistic, but a 10 point jump in 2 weeks is ridiculous.
3. Leigh scored 43 points higher in music than Del Oro at Napa, yet Del Oro (with 30 or so musicians) beat Leigh (120 musicians) in the brass caption.
4. Leigh scored 379.5 in music on the field at Cupertino (2nd place), 390 at Del Oro (1st), 387.5 at Pacific Grove (1st), and 373 at Napa (5th) in what was easily their best performance of the year. (many schools questioned their music scores at Napa ... note the many discrepancies in field music in #1 above)
5. One field marching judge at Napa had 11 of the 15 competing bands within 7 points of each other (on a 300 point scale), and all 15 within 33 points. The other judge had a 59 point spread.
Now I fully admit that I am a Leigh supporter and don't deny that my views are biased towards them, but I think the numbers above speak for themselves about the notoriously controversial NCBA judging. Far too many of it's judges are ancient, old-school ex-teachers who are out of touch with today's marching bands. They are woefully incompetent and unable to adjudicate modern, complex shows. All to often they either try (and fail) to pacify everyone with overboard political correctness, or attempt to make a statement about what they think marching band "should" or "should not" be.
Leigh has remained in the NCBA over the years mainly out of tradition, but also because of an effort to keep its performances reasonably close to its base of fans and supporters. Unless the NCBA wises up and makes some drastic changes, Leigh will likely jump ship to the WBA. The NCBA will lose one of its few remaining stars and its reputation as the "second-rate" circuit will only be enhanced.
To end on a more positive note, I would like to commend all the bands at the Vintage field show, many of which put on their best shows of the season in some pretty nasty weather, but especially Saratoga, Bella Vista (their winds are hella tight!), and Leigh. They were the real shining stars on an otherwise stormy night! (yes, that was meant both literally and figuratively)
I was asked to post it here to fill some people in on some of the controversy surrounding the Napa show. The opinions are mine, but the numbers are right off the official recaps.
_______________________________________
1. Color Guard judge was Tom Wietrich (spelling?) who has a history of bashing Leigh in whatever category he judges. It has been presumed for a long time that Tom, for reasons known only to him, has some sort of personal bias or vendetta against someone on the Leigh staff and unfortunately chooses to take it out on the kids. Not to take anything away from Saratoga (who won the guard caption with a 92 to Leigh's 90) because they do have an excellent guard, but their performance simply did not match up to Leigh's last night in content, design, or execution. There is just no way Leigh came in second.
2. The Vintage PA announcer was truly pathetic. Not only did he announce the wrong winners for the field show marching and showmanship sweepstakes, but when he was confronted with the error before the end of the ceremony, he refused to correct it. For some strange reason, the announcer read off the winners from a hand-written list when computerized lists, very efficiently sorted by caption and placement, were available. The announcer claimed he had been told to hurry up (why?...there was no fire and it was only 9:30pm) and to see the head judge or tabulator with questions or concerns (they were nowhere to be found and it was later learned that they had already gone home!).
Why were the results transcribed by hand when computerized lists were readily available? Why didn't the tabulator or head judge remain for the ceremony? Why wasn't the error corrected when the PA guy clearly had time to do so? These are some serious questions that the NCBA and Vintage organizers need to address!
In the end, Leigh was told that duplicate trophies would be mailed to them to "make it right." Yet in the mean time, Leigh went home without the recognition it rightfully won and Saratoga has two trophies which they did not earn. Granted, the trophies aren't what it's all about and the Leigh kids went home happy and proud of their performance, but the show's organizers screwed up big time and have done little or nothing to admit or correct their mistakes.
___________________________________________________
These aren't the only question marks surrounding the day's events. In typical NCBA fashion, many bands faced the wrath of NCBA judging inconsistencies. Here's just a sampling of the more blatant discrepancies:
1. Differences in scoring between the two judges of a caption:
Parade
a. Half Moon Bay: 42 points in GE
b. Santa Clara: 40 points in music
c. Will C. Wood: 53 points in marching!
d. Ygnacio Valley: 40 in GE
e. Placer: 44 in music
f. Hogan: 32 GE
g. Dublin: 32 GE
h. John Swett: 50 music, 36 GE
Field
a. Leigh & Saratoga: 20 music
b. Homestead & Lynbrook: 22 music
c. Folsom: 23 music
d. Vallejo: 34 music, 23 marching
e. Milpitas: 30 music
f. Del Oro: 37 music, 48 GE, 24 marching
g. Fremont: 33 music, 31 marching
h. McClatchy: 24 music, 31 GE, 39 marching
i. Santa Clara: 43 GE
2. Independence scored 82.05 overall at Foothill (Oct. 26) and 92.65 at Napa. I haven't seen their show so I don't know which score is closer to realistic, but a 10 point jump in 2 weeks is ridiculous.
3. Leigh scored 43 points higher in music than Del Oro at Napa, yet Del Oro (with 30 or so musicians) beat Leigh (120 musicians) in the brass caption.
4. Leigh scored 379.5 in music on the field at Cupertino (2nd place), 390 at Del Oro (1st), 387.5 at Pacific Grove (1st), and 373 at Napa (5th) in what was easily their best performance of the year. (many schools questioned their music scores at Napa ... note the many discrepancies in field music in #1 above)
5. One field marching judge at Napa had 11 of the 15 competing bands within 7 points of each other (on a 300 point scale), and all 15 within 33 points. The other judge had a 59 point spread.
Now I fully admit that I am a Leigh supporter and don't deny that my views are biased towards them, but I think the numbers above speak for themselves about the notoriously controversial NCBA judging. Far too many of it's judges are ancient, old-school ex-teachers who are out of touch with today's marching bands. They are woefully incompetent and unable to adjudicate modern, complex shows. All to often they either try (and fail) to pacify everyone with overboard political correctness, or attempt to make a statement about what they think marching band "should" or "should not" be.
Leigh has remained in the NCBA over the years mainly out of tradition, but also because of an effort to keep its performances reasonably close to its base of fans and supporters. Unless the NCBA wises up and makes some drastic changes, Leigh will likely jump ship to the WBA. The NCBA will lose one of its few remaining stars and its reputation as the "second-rate" circuit will only be enhanced.
To end on a more positive note, I would like to commend all the bands at the Vintage field show, many of which put on their best shows of the season in some pretty nasty weather, but especially Saratoga, Bella Vista (their winds are hella tight!), and Leigh. They were the real shining stars on an otherwise stormy night! (yes, that was meant both literally and figuratively)