For those that are interested, here are the BOA finalist:

Avon
Lawrence Central
Woodlands
Marcus
Carmel
L.D. Bell
Marian Catholic
William Mason
Round Rock
Harrison
Ayala
Cedar Ridge

Can we just talk about how Blue Springs was screwed out of a finals appearance? The crowd reaction was amazing for that show in semis.

Favorite finalist show? William Mason.

Was Blue Springs the one from Missouri?

nice win for Woodlands

Yeah, a good friend of mine marched there when she was in high school. She was thrilled that they won.

Couple quick thoughts.

I can understand why Blue Springs was out. Boxy, uninspired drill. Still, a fun very good show.

Round Rock. Holy Hell! YES! Also, have the best marching uniforms imo too.

Woodlands. Yes your show is pretty clean. But good lord do you have to play the whole show at a Fortissimo level? Could we also play something other than whole notes and half notes? You definitely went all Blue Devils on that front. If you don't want people to think your show is about Trains, then don't make it like a train show too! One final thing, you're supposed to play an encore if you win. Ummm...so why no encore?

Mason...continually getting better and fantastic fun show!

Ayala probably would have won percussion if they had that caption. Either them or Avon. Speaking of them....

Avon's show was probably the most demanding and exposed and they nailed it!

My finalist placings:
1. Carmel (Visual, GE)
2. Woodlands
3. Avon
4. Round Rock (Music)
5. Mason
6. Marcus
7. Marian Catholic
8. Lawrence Central
9. LD Bell
10. Harrison
11. Cedar Ridge
12. Ayala

Bands I would have had swapped in and out:
Out - Marian Catholic (bad bad semi's run) and Cedar Ridge
In - Lake Central and Blue Springs

Josh, I'm having trouble keeping up with Round Rock and Cedar Ridge, is Round Rock the ones that had the dragons on the uniform?

I was fairly disappointed that there wasn't an encore, but when you win your first championship, I'm sure that an encore is the last thing on your mind.

You do have to keep in mind that Cedar Ridge (my school) got 5th place in semis, so your opinion to keep them out of finals is definitely not what the judges were thinking. Besides, Texas wouldn't have made history without us in the finals! ;)

Yes, the Round Rock Dragon Band has a dragon on their uniform ;)

There will always be surprise and disappointment in such a challenging competition, especially when there are 15-18 finals worthy bands. I would have loved for Blue Springs to be in finals! I saw their show at BOA SA and I thought it was finals worthy even then. Their students and parents are also extremely nice and supportive of every other band.

Congrats on making finals! By no means take my comment on having you out of finals as a knock to your bands ability to play very well, because you all do! I have my reasons as to why I didn't have you all making finals which I won't really go into because I don't want to hurt feelings lol. I wasn't surprised when you all did make finals either. I had you right on the bubble at about 11-14 which is still nothing to sneeze at either.

I can think of plenty of programs that won their first championship and still performed a full show of it afterwards cough* Bell cough* I'm definitely wanting to see Round Rock back again soon though if they can keep performing at that high level.

Oh, and how about this being the year for Disney music too! Definitely integrated very well and loved the arrangements by both Marcus and Round Rock.

Based on the conversations I've had with several friends I have that go to Round Rock, they're just getting started. I know they're going to keep it up, and although I have some bias towards Cedar Ridge, they'll be up with Round Rock as well.