BOA Midland Preview

BOA is returning to West Texas for the fifth consecutive season for the Midland Regional held at the Grande Communications Stadium. This regional has become a mainstay for the early to midseason BOA season, pulling programs from states as far away as Nebraska or Colorado.

This year’s participants come from across Texas, with guest appearances from some out-of-state groups, including Oklahoma’s first band to attend this regional. The Texas programs that will be here aren’t generally in the BOA spotlight, but given the depth of quality in Texas, this contest is not any less entertaining or drama-filled than the rest. Here is the full schedule (all times in CT):

7:30 am - Odessa (TX)*

7:45 - Stanton (TX)*

8:00 - Tulia (TX)

8:15 - TLCA San Angelo (TX)

8:30 - San Angelo Central (TX)*

8:45 - Lake Ridge (TX)

9:00 - Sachse (TX)

9:15 - Permian (TX)**

BREAK

10:00 - Andrews (TX)

10:15 - Braswell (TX)**

10:30 - Abilene (TX)*

10:45 - Azle (TX)**

11:00 - Frenship (TX)*

11:15 - Midland (TX)*

BREAK

12:30 pm - Piedmont (OK)

12:45 - Randall (TX)*

1:00 - Plainview (TX)

1:15 - Clovis (NM)

1:30 - Pecos (TX)*

1:45 - Midland Legacy (TX)*

BREAK

2:30 - Fossil Ridge (TX)

2:45 - Lubbock Coronado (TX)*

3:00 - Summit (TX)**

3:15 - Lubbock-Cooper (TX)*

3:30 - Sharyland (TX)

3:45 - Del Rio (TX)**

4:00 - Moe and Gene Johnson (TX)**

4:15 - West Texas A&M University (Exh.)

* Denotes returning group

** Denotes returning finalist

Forecast Courtesy of Weather Underground

Starting in Class A, we have four groups which means this is one of the few contests in Texas where the Class A awards feature all three and then some. These groups are Stanton (TX), Tulia (TX), TLCA San Angelo (TX), and Pecos (TX). Pecos and Stanton are returning Class A medalists, while Tulia and TLCA are going to their first BOA competition ever. Pecos is the favorite to take home the title, but what happens after that is difficult to predict. Class AA has five programs competing for the title in Andrews (TX), Piedmont (OK), Randall (TX), Plainview (TX), and Sharyland (TX). Andrews was at the BOA Las Cruces Regional on September 17th, where they were the first band out of finals. This season, Piedmont won the Yukon Invitational on September 24th and then finished in 7th at the very competitive Mustang Invitational ahead of groups like Union (OK) and Coweta (OK). Randall won the High Plains Marching Festival in Amarillo last weekend over some of the best bands in the area, such as Amarillo (TX) and Canyon (TX). Also, last weekend, Plainview was a finalist at the Tumbleweed Marching Festival in Denver City. Finally, Sharyland finished 6th place in finals and was the Class AA Champions at the BOA McAllen Regional on September 17th, scoring particularly high in Visual Performance. As you can see, there are many things to look forward to in the smaller competition classes.

BOA Bedford Preview

The small classes here are just the beginning of the fun for BOA Midland, so let’s look at the rest of the competing bands. Let’s start by taking a look at the bands from the DFW area who will be traveling here: Lake Ridge (TX), Sachse (TX), Braswell (TX), Azle (TX), Fossil Ridge (TX), and Summit (TX). Starting with the three returning finalists, Braswell started their season off with a bang, winning the USBands Saginaw Regional by almost 1.5 points over Burleson Centennial (TX), then placed 3rd last weekend at the Plano East Marching Invitational. Azle started their season with an incredibly close 2nd place finish behind Lovejoy (TX) at the Golden Triangle Classic. Summit’s first competitive performance was at the Mansfield Preview of Champions, where they finished 6th and were 8th at the Wylie Marching Invitational the following weekend. Onto the remaining three, fellow Mansfield ISD program Lake Ridge was at the same contests as Summit, placing 3rd at Mansfield and 4th a week later at Wylie. Sachse joined the Mansfield programs at Wylie, where they finished in 10th place, much to fans' surprise. Fossil Ridge has only competed at the Golden Triangle Classic, where they finished 5th in finals. 

The following three programs are those that are other regulars at this regional and will be in the running for finals: Frenship (TX), Midland (TX), and Del Rio (TX). Frenship and Midland were both at the Tumbleweed Marching Festival, which was predictably won by the former, but Midland actually was on top after prelims. The race between these two will be exciting this weekend, especially seeing who makes the finals cutoff. Del Rio was at the BOA McAllen Regional, where they finished 4th in finals. 

Finishing off the preview, we have three likely medalists in Permian (TX), Clovis (NM), and Moe and Gene Johnson (TX). Permian has been steadily improving as a program over the last eight years. It is the only West Texas band to have made finals at this regional more than once, qualifying for finals in all four years it has existed. Clovis attended this regional in both 2017 and 2019. They had strong finishes in the top half of finals and are returning this year following their first two BOA Regional Titles in school history at Las Cruces and Flagstaff. Finally, our returning champions Johnson are doing their first of only two BOA contests of the season (the next being Waco) before their trip to BOA Grand Nationals. Their only competitions this year were local contests in San Antonio, where they won both the Hornet Invitational Marching Contest on September 24th and the Rocket Review Marching Contest on October 1st. 

As someone who has made the long drive to watch this contest in the past, I can’t recommend it enough. It is worth the trip out, even if you don’t recognize any of the bands at first glance. If you can’t make it out to Midland, then be sure to keep an eye on the BOX5-TV live stream. 

Aaron Blackley is one of the original contributors for General Effect Media. Despite being young and fresh out of college, he has a vast knowledge and passion for the marching arts and has worked alongside the likes of HornRank as a ranker and moderator as well as the TxBands.com liveblog team since summer 2021. He can be found on Twitter as @GEMAaronB.