World of Pageantry

This will be somewhat of a "combination" post. First off, I wish everyone who is competing at the WBA Championships the best. For many of you, this will be your last field show tournament of the year, and for some of you this will be your last field show tournament ever. But no matter what happens, perform to the best of your ability. In the end, scores, how you rank, and what so-and-so thought of you WILL NOT MATTER. You have put hours upon hours of hard work into what will soon be the "culmination." Have fun out there. (You deserve it). And when all is said and done, try to remember the good times you had more than the bad times. I guarentee you most of the good times you had will not be the results, but the friendships you formed, the discipline you developed, the thrills/excitement/fun you had, and the life skills you took away from it all.

Let this sink in...

Good.

Now, about the WBA Championships this year. I do not know why, but it is always the most exciting championships every year because you have the powerhouse bands from the south butting heads with the powerhouse bands from the north. What happens is anyone's guess. But I thought I would have fun and take a stab at what may go down. Remember, these are guesses. I have a good feeling much of what I think will happen will come true, though. But who knows? Most of the bands I have seen have been from southern California.

Here is my top 5 from each class (in random order), plus 2 "underdogs" (which may or may not be in the top 5), and an asterix next to the band I think will win it.

Class A
Gilroy H.S., CA
Newbury Park H.S., CA *
Clayton Valley H.S., CA
Redlands H.S., CA
Grace M. Davis H.S., CA

Underdogs: Hanford H.S., CA and Torrance H.S., CA

Class AA
Saddleback H.S., CA
Live Oak H.S., CA
Aliso Niguel H.S., CA
Pacifica H.S., CA
Valley Christian H.S., CA *

Underdogs: Fallbrook H.S., CA and Arroyo Grande H.S., CA

Class AAA

El Toro H.S., CA *
Valley View H.S., CA
Trabuco Hills H.S., CA
Clovis H.S., CA
Oak Grove H.S., CA

Underdogs: Buchanan H.S., CA and Nogales H.S., CA

Class AAAA

Fred C. Beyer H.S., CA
Ruben S. Ayala H.S., CA
Mission Viejo H.S., CA
Upland H.S., CA
Clovis West H.S., CA *

Underdogs: Thousand Oaks H.S., Amador Valley H.S.

My Reasoning:

Class A

Newbury Park has been dominating all year in southern California in Class A...but what some people do not realize is that they have also been dominating all year in southern California in Class AA. Expect Newbury Park to make a gigantic impression at the WBA Championships. If they do not win, they will be very, very close to the top.

Class AA

Valley Christian could ne called "The New Live Oak," with one of their directors being the former director of Live Oak. They have been, for the most part, invincible this year in both northern and southern California. The only show they fell down was at the James Logan show, where William S. Hart won. (Too bad Hart is not going to be at the WBA Championships!) Valley Christian will continue their success, and I have a feeling will "up" their performance a little considering what happen to them last week, and considering this is their last big performance.

Class AAA

El Toro...what can I write about this band that has not already been written? I overheard someone at the WBA Trabuco Hills show say that they should be in Class AAAA. I agree. This band took second at the Bands of America Regional Championships over Upland, and had it not been for a few holes in their drill, may have taken down more Class AAAA bands than they did at the WBA Trabuco Hills show. El Toro, I think, will be the band to beat (and it will take a mighty, mighty performance to beat them).

Class AAAA

The bands of southern California have been fighting all year long over the top spot. But in northern California, Clovis West and Fred C. Beyer have been steady on the heels of James Logan all year long, and though they have been "out of action" the past few weeks in competition, they have not been "out of action" the past few weeks in practice. I think Clovis West will come out on top, and I expect that Fred C. Beyer will not be far behind them. But who knows? Perhaps Mission Viejo or Ruben S. Ayala will surprise them.

Whatever happens, happens. But lets give EVERY band the BIGGEST applause they have EVER received. This will be one exciting show for all. OKAY! It's off to Fresno I go...

Alan Irons
Fountain Valley High School Marching Band 1993-1996
Pacific Crest of Diamond Bar 1997
Nashua Spartans 1998-1999
UCSB Class of 2002

Alan:

It was a pleasure finally meeting you in Fresno yesterday. I assume your WBA Championships' review will be forthcoming? Again wonderful to meet you and I hope to see you at the Festival in the Hills guard competition at Ayala High School in the spring.

Well, on to the drumline season.

Wildbill

Believe it or not MV beat Clovis who beat ayala. Upland came in 4th and TO came in 9th actually dropping 3 places from prelims with a better preformance.

one thing about weather it was cold for everyone equally. From those of you who performed, how does the cold weather affect playing an instrument, rifle toss etc. How much was it a factor on Sat?

DLTb56 wrote:Believe it or not MV beat Clovis who beat ayala. Upland came in 4th and TO came in 9th actually dropping 3 places from prelims with a better preformance.

I agree completly regarding Thousand Oaks. After they performed I commented to a couple of people around me that there was no chance that they would fall and that they might even gain a spot or 2. Shows you what I know.

jacjar1 wrote:one thing about weather it was cold for everyone equally. From those of you who performed, how does the cold weather affect playing an instrument, rifle toss etc. How much was it a factor on Sat?

I play saxophone and was getting an extremely slow response time from the instrument which in turn affected the initial intonation of anything I played (or if playing a moving line or a run, just turned the whole line into a mess). The last time I recall it playing that poorly was in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade three years ago (and it was only slightly above 0 deg. F, if I remember correctly).

On another note, Buchanan Stadium is a shared stadium between Buchanan and Clovis West--it is our home field and I have marched on it many many times. It was slipperier last night than I've ever felt it in the last four years of band. I'm not sure of how much of the Visual caption ended up being an ice skating competition, but I was very thankful not to see anybody fall.[/i]

jacjar1 wrote:one thing about weather it was cold for everyone equally. From those of you who performed, how does the cold weather affect playing an instrument, rifle toss etc. How much was it a factor on Sat?

I play saxophone and was getting an extremely slow response time from the instrument which in turn affected the initial intonation of anything I played (or if playing a moving line or a run, just turned the whole line into a mess). The last time I recall it playing that poorly was in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade three years ago (and it was only slightly above 0 deg. F, if I remember correctly).

On another note, Buchanan Stadium is a shared stadium between Buchanan and Clovis West--it is our home field and I have marched on it many many times. It was slipperier last night than I've ever felt it in the last four years of band. I'm not sure of how much of the Visual caption ended up being an ice skating competition, but I was very thankful not to see anybody fall.[/i]

jacjar1 wrote:one thing about weather it was cold for everyone equally. From those of you who performed, how does the cold weather affect playing an instrument, rifle toss etc. How much was it a factor on Sat?

You know what? That was almost the coldest I have ever been in my life. Someone told me it was a freezing 27 degrees on Saturday night. Listening back to our show from video cassettes, there was some issue with pitch, but then again, alomst everyone performing had that problem. Doing some visuals with frozen feet really hurt too...lol. The one thing, though, that was really funny was, after we put our horns down to watch awards, we came back to ice-covered drums, frozen valve oil, spit, and cork grease...some brass instruments couldn't move their valves down if they wanted to!

smd89 wrote:what do you mean by underdogs...
you make it sound like we didnt even stand a chance....
out concept was original which is a big deal cause ya know there arent taht many original ideas now a days...
we got 3rd in music so yah we did have a chance its just cause of the judges opinion that they just didnt get it and we cant help that but most shows we did pretty well... so i wouldnt so bluntly say that we are the underdogs...

- THDGh0st

there are varied opinions, but the concept of the 'underdogs' is a positive one. in this case, more like the bands that people should not forget to consider because they may sneak up behind the other bands as far as scores and the progress of the developing shows. maybe you should have just left your reply at asking what is meant by an underdog before you went crazy on all that other stuff

and in my opinion, there are in fact a lot of original ideas in shows recently. besides, everything in the marching band world is borrowed from someone from somewhere from some group etc. basically, not much has not been seen already in the field. noticing from your signature the class of '07, you are still young and new to the field show world. you have much to see still

jacjar1 wrote:one thing about weather it was cold for everyone equally. From those of you who performed, how does the cold weather affect playing an instrument, rifle toss etc. How much was it a factor on Sat?

Actually, I didn't think the cold weather affected me that much personally. I play piccolo, and you would think that tuning would be an even bigger issue in cold weather than it already is. However, it didn't turn out too bad. The coldness didn't defect our music... it only made us push harder!

The weather was terrible! It was so hard so practice w/ the weather so cold and then while performing i guess i sorta forgot about the weather but practice was the worst. It only affected me a lil during performance though.

what do you mean by underdogs...
you make it sound like we didnt even stand a chance....
out concept was original which is a big deal cause ya know there arent taht many original ideas now a days...
we got 3rd in music so yah we did have a chance its just cause of the judges opinion that they just didnt get it and we cant help that but most shows we did pretty well... so i wouldnt so bluntly say that we are the underdogs...

- THDGh0st

Hey THS Students, please remember that I read this Forum quite a bit.
You really don't want to break Rule 2 do you.

Personally, I think the fact that we were considered underdogs was quite a priviledge. While we had the GEVisual judge that didn't get what we were trying to convey in our show, the other 7 judges got it. Yes, if the GEVisual judge hadn't put us in 12th according to his #'s, we had a better chance of making it to finals and placing in the top 4 of A.
Remember the way you all felt, when you got off the field, back to the bus, and even at the Senior Performance back at the housing.

Thom Willett
Horns, Torrance Marching Alliance.

Hahaha.....HI THOM!!!!! and i yeah i agree, we did have a great performance and even though we didn't make finals we have to look back at the season and think that it was the best one we ever had and we became such a good band and got many things accomplished throughout the season.

What is rule #2 again?