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Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2003 8:32 pm
by clumsy
I say that sm, lp and saugas are mostly close so i can't decide but all three are good :lol:

Posted: Fri Nov 14, 2003 9:58 pm
by Gallagher
royalbraz wrote:
you have to play the percentages..

LP to date (this year)
2 sweeps
5 1st places
2 seconds

we still have 5 tournaments left.
Well, no offense, but it sounds to me like your judging success based on Trophies and Placing this year. Don't be upset, thats just the impression that I got after reading your post. Doesn't it mean more to help educate your students in music, and teach them how to work together as a team, as opposed to showing success based on placing. I know down at Tustin we base our success on how we feel about our program, if we didn't have a good show we know, if we can improve something we know, placing and trophies mean nothing to us. Don't get me wrong its nice to do well and bring a sweeps or two home, but is that what its all about?

-Brian Gallagher

Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2003 8:18 pm
by saugusbandgeek
Amen Brian!

Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2003 11:57 pm
by royalbraz
Boy are you way off. My post was a reply to Saugus Bands post regarding the fact that LP was defeated by Saugus and that Saugus and SM were undefeated. I was trying to show our current progress to help educate Mr Band Geek were LP is currently at. You have no idea what values are being taught, and I take offense to your comments. You can't possible have the success we have had if you don't have a quality program with hard working kid working as a team!. The Fact is Saugus Band Geek is the who has the competitive issues. I'm just providing people with information about LP. You can take it however you want.


Today. Temecula 83.0 sweeps

Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2003 12:56 am
by justme
Mr. Gallagher,
I'm very distrubed that you would say that trophies don't matter to your group. If this is the case, why bother spending all your time and energy, as well as you kid's, to create a show and try to perfect it if trophies don't matter?? It's quite puzzling to me why you would even show up to a tournament if your not interested in winning. LP has a GREAT program that teaches leadership, musical skills and team work. How do you think that have made so many acheivements this season? It sure wasn't because trophies don't matter. Maybe if you teach your kids that trophies are a wonderful thing to bring home, you would win some...of the big ones. Not trying to bash, but hey, you want to slam a GREAT group of kids for their accomplishments...then call it what you will. I think that LP has a great opportunity to take first at championships, but if they don't, they are still going to be winners. Just making it to championships is an honor and LP kids know that. LP competes in as many tournaments as possible so they know exactly where they stand. As far as these other schools possibly taking first...how could that be judged on one or two scores....IT CAN'T.

Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2003 8:16 am
by saugusbandgeek
I think that it's great that some bands don't care about the trophies and are more worried about the education. On a note to royalbraz, it's all fine and well to name off your trophies, but then again who were you competing against? Yeah we won sweepstakes at Granada (well tied with royal) but it's not something we're proud of because the performance was terrible. You need to consider what's more important to you, how well you performed, or how well you scored. To me it's all about the performance, the comment about beating LP once this season was just to reinforce that you shouldn't count us out just as we don't count you or anyone else out.

And THIS is why "competition" sucks...

Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2003 8:45 am
by Ryan H. Turner
I'm going to have to jump in here--AGAIN--and make sure we keep some perspective.

First off, Royal Braz is correct in his "playing the percentages". From a strictly "mathematical" standpoint, you can't argue with that. Also, you can't argue with facts. LP, a FANTASTIC band (that I had the pleasure of seeing at the Los Altos Wednesday night tournament), again proves to me that they are marching machines. So much so that they opt to wear those white shoes with black pants. You'd never see a top 12 drum corps doing that!! Too risky!! :)

However...and this is a BIG however...I'm really concerned about the focus I guess of what competition is all about. Perhaps Mr. Gallagher doesn't fully realize the "values" taught at LP, but his point DOES have merit. Because quite frankly, "JustMe" sort of summed what I hate most about the incorrect focus about high school marching bands. If indeed the focus of the group is in, as Royal Braz puts, knowing that they have to be the best they can be and are honored simply for making it into championships, than GREAT! I love that. However, if I'm understanding "JustMe" correctly, the focus should be ALSO on making sure you win. :? REALLY? If you're teaching kids in a marching band to go outside in the most uncontrollable environment known to the entertainment medium (a FOOTBALL field outdoors--puhleeze) to put on a 8-11minute music and theatrical presentation and get an opinion from a complete stranger that may have never seen nor heard of your group and expect to have CONTROL over the outcome--BAAAAAAA!! Wrong answer...

You see, the focus for kids should ALWAYS be on bettering their performance every day, for teaching kids to PERFORM at rehearsals, to making sure kids learn how to be honest with themselves and self-disciplined enough to make the necessary corrections to be better than the day before, to set goals and meet them, etc, etc...and the REWARDS will follow. THAT is the reason why we go to shows. IMHO, if the MOTIVATION or FOCUS of a group is to "win" a show, well, all you get to do is explain to a bunch of disappointed kids why this or that judge "just didn't get it" or "how it's all political" and blah blah blah. The focus for the kids should have NOTHING to do with winning...but the focus for the staff and directors COULD be on winning. The focus of the kids SHOULD be on being the absolute best they can be. PERIOD.

And after I wrote this and read it through, this may be a question of semantics between the parties. But in any case, my opinion doesn't change about what "focus" should be with these talented kids...

Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2003 10:27 am
by LosAl_tuba
I agree fully. I get my thrill on the field because I love playing in front of people, and showing them how good of a musican I am. Some guy can judge us, yay, we won, thats just an added bonus to playing your instrument. Music is what I love doing, its fun to win, but if you were in a bad band, would you hate playing? If you are a true musican you would play no matter what.

Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2003 12:45 pm
by TMR Quint Kid
justme wrote:Mr. Gallagher,
I'm very distrubed that you would say that trophies don't matter to your group. If this is the case, why bother spending all your time and energy, as well as you kid's, to create a show and try to perfect it if trophies don't matter?? It's quite puzzling to me why you would even show up to a tournament if your not interested in winning.
Why bother you ask? (From my eyes this is how I would answer the question, this is my opinion and may or may not represent our band)

We do this because we have a true love for band and would be happy with just having our field show, with same amount of work we put in, and not compete. We compete to see how well we compared to other bands, to receive constructive critisism from unbiased strangers that know what they are talking about, to make us better, and to see what other marching bands look like and how they differ (good and bad) from each other.

To reply the last part of the quote above, it's not that we aren't interested in winning, it's just it will not affect us as much as what the actual scores show. I mean we can all understand bringing home a nice big trophy is always a good feeling, but if that's all you are really there for, then why compete? i'll go buy you one, sure it's to show how well your band has done, but some people may work equally as hard (if not harder) and not get the same credit you do. I dont know, it just doesnt seem as meaningful and satifying as knowing you did your best at all your shows and that you put your all into it.

Oh yeah, one more thing, GUYS! GUYS! GUYS!

Can't we all just get along? :wink: :P And have a good day!

Posted: Sun Nov 16, 2003 7:40 pm
by saugusbandgeek
Okay so with the final weekend over before championships are there any final predictions? I think it's still a toss up in a lot of areas but here are mine:

Santa Margarita
Alta Loma/Saugus/La Puente/Los Angeles
ditto
ditto
ditto
Eastlake/Charter Oak
Charter Oak/Eastlake
Capo Valley/Los Alamitos
Los Alamitos/Capo Valley
Bloomington

Yeah, those are great predictions huh? :)