BOA Prosper Preview
This Saturday, the second regional in the Dallas-Fort Worth area is in Prosper at the Prosper ISD Children’s Health Stadium. BOA is branding it as a “North Texas” regional, as opposed to another DFW regional, likely to attract bands from out of state. The bands in attendance are primarily local, but a handful of out-of-staters and a couple of programs from further away in Texas are making the trip. Here is the full schedule (all times CT):
7:45 AM - North Garland (TX)
8:00 AM - Richardson (TX)
8:15 AM - Wakeland (TX)
8:30 AM - Mineola (TX)
8:45 AM - Sachse (TX)
9:00 AM - Melissa (TX)
BREAK
9:45 AM - Wylie East (TX)
10:00 AM - Rock Hill (TX)
10:15 AM - Prosper (TX)
10:30 AM - Choctaw (OK)
10:45 AM - Rockwall (TX)
11:00 AM - L.V. Berkner (TX)
11:15 AM - J.J. Pearce (TX)
BREAK
12:15 PM - Westlake (TX)
12:30 PM - Keller Central (TX)
12:45 PM - Neosho (MO)
1:00 PM - Burleson Centennial (TX)
1:15 PM - Colleyville Heritage (TX)
1:30 PM - Forney (TX)
1:45 PM - W.E. Boswell (TX)
BREAK
2:30 PM - Grapevine (TX)
2:45 PM - Owasso (OK)
3:00 PM - Azle (TX)
3:15 PM - Carroll (TX)
3:30 PM - Westwood (TX)
3:45 PM - Waxahachie (TX)
4:00 PM - The Colony (TX)
4:15 PM - University of Texas at Arlington (Exh.)
Being a relatively small regional for Texas, there are many first-time BOA attendees at this contest with Richardson (TX), Mineola (TX), Melissa (TX), and Rockwall (TX). Richardson and Rockwall are both bands who could make an appearance in finals, given their trajectories as a program in recent years, but it will be interesting to see how they jump from UIL to BOA-style judging. Melissa has just been reclassified as 5A going into this UIL cycle and will compete in Class AA at this contest, where they will be competing for a medal and maybe even a Class Championship. They were also the bronze medalist at the UIL 4A State Marching Contest in 2021. While Mineola technically isn’t brand new to BOA, this is only their second BOA contest ever and their first since 2002. They are notorious within the state as the band that dominated the UIL 3A Marching Contest three times in a row, winning in sweeps or near sweeps in 2017, 2019, and 2021.
Competing with Melissa in Class AA are two of our out-of-staters and a BOA Regional Medalist from earlier in the season. Choctaw (OK) is one of the many Oklahoma bands who have been on the radars of fans with their impressive finalist finish last at the BOA Indianapolis Super Regional. Neosho (MO) has consistently attended both BOA Regionals and Super Regionals for a while, this time opting for this regional instead of the BOA St. Louis Super Regional, where they most often attend. The last group in Class AA is the BOA Las Cruces silver medalist Grapevine (TX), who was also at the Bedford Regional last weekend.
More bands who have made finals at earlier regionals in the season (other than Bedford and Austin, which we will get to later) include Sachse (TX), Wylie East (TX), and Azle (TX). Wylie East had a strong 5th-place finish at the BOA Conroe Regional and had rather high scores in music. Sachse and Azle were finalists at BOA Midland last weekend, placing 3rd and 8th, respectively. All three of these groups have a good shot at making finals here, and Sachse and Wylie East could do especially well, given their results from earlier in the season.
A few bands at the BOA Bedford regional last weekend will also be here, some who made finals and some who missed. Rock Hill (TX) had a strong 11th-place finish last week when many weren’t considering the new school for a finals spot. Carroll (TX), on the other hand, narrowly missed finals, much to the surprise of fans, and will be working to have a strong comeback at this regional in preparation for BOA Grand Nationals.
A few local DFW bands will also be making their BOA premiere for the season and will all be fighting for a spot in finals. Prosper (TX) is probably the biggest name out of the group who, like Carroll, is finishing their season at the Lucas Oil Stadium with hopefully a third run. L.V. Berkner (TX) and J.J. Pearce (TX) are both Richardson ISD programs that have made BOA finals within the past five years and will perform back-to-back in prelims. Keller Central (TX) is a regular BOA Regional Finalist, most recently making finals at the BOA Conroe Regional in 2021. The final three are 5A programs that made UIL State Finals in 2021 and/or 2019: Burleson Centennial (TX), Colleyville Heritage (TX), and Forney (TX). Again, these three bands will be competing back-to-back in prelims, which makes the race between who will beat who even more enjoyable. Not from Texas but still worth mentioning in this group is former BOA Grand Nationals Finalist Owasso (OK), who would typically attend a Super Regional at this point in the season but has opted for the closer-to-home Texas Regional.
You may have noticed that I have skimmed over a few groups so far, which was intentional. I have coined this regional “The W Bowl” because of the number of excellent bands in attendance whose school name starts with the letter W. Starting with our guests making the trip up from Austin, Westlake (TX), and Westwood (TX). Westlake had a solid start to their season, finishing 7th at the everso-competitive BOA Austin Regional, and is one of the groups looking to take home their first regional title. Finishing a few spots below them in 10th place was Westwood, but since that contest, they have improved drastically and could give their local “West” rival a run for their money. The other two “W” bands were both finalists at the BOA Bedford Regional: #22 Wakeland (TX) and Waxahachie (TX). Waxahachie is one of the best-playing bands in the metroplex, and they are no different this year, finishing in a solid 8th place at the Bedford Regional. Finally, #22 Wakeland is having a historically strong season, keeping up and beating the likes of #18 Coppell (TX) and L.D. Bell (TX) and, going into this weekend, are the favorites to take home the gold medal.
With all of the varying levels of programs, starting with “W” or not, this regional is bound to be an exciting one full of surprises and upsets. While your typical Texas headliners such as Flower Mound (TX), Ronald Reagan (TX), Vandegrift (TX), or The Woodlands (TX) aren’t here, that doesn’t mean this contest will be any less entertaining to watch and follow along with.
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.
I'm in the Neosho band, and it was fun to do a comp in Texas, but still wish we went to a local comp to steal first place from our newfound rival. Not surprised we ended up in last though, but overall I enjoyed seeing Texas bands, including Carroll. A good end to a historic season for us.
Go Wood!