The 2019 Bands of America seasons gets off to a firing start, bright and early at 7:45 a.m. CT on Saturday, September 21, as the focus centers on one of the nation’s hotbeds for marching music at Veterans Memorial Stadium in McAllen, Texas.

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While none of the Texas bands that earned spots in last year’s UIL state finals will be in attendance, the 27-deep setlist of competitors certainly looks to provide plenty of intrigue and interest early on in the BOA season.

After nearly 10 hours’ worth of prelims competition wraps up around 4:30 p.m., the day’s finals competition — featuring the top 10 bands — will kick off at 7:45 p.m.

Back In The Saddle

In terms of BOA competitive history, just one Texas band attended last season’s Grand Nationals, but looking back to 2017’s event, one of this weekend’s competitors, Winston Churchill H.S. (9:00 a.m.), holds the recent title of Grand National Semifinalist under its belt. 

At this same event a year ago, Winston Churchill H.S. wasn’t in attendance—but, seven of last year’s finalists will make return trips to McAllen, including three of the top five which include second-place Roma H.S., third-place Pioneer H.S., and fifth-place Edinburg North H.S.

Other 2018 regional finalists making the trip back to McAllen include Juarez-Lincoln H.S., John B. Alexander H.S., Del Rio H.S., and Sharyland H.S. 

Of those four, the first two were separated by less than a point. Sharyland will be the second-to-last group to perform in this weekend’s prelims, with McAllen Nikki Rowe H.S. rounding things out at 4:15 p.m. 

Dripping Springs, which took home top marks at the McAllen event in 2018 by more than two full points, won’t be among this year’s field. 

Looking beyond last year’s Top 10, though, a handful of bands who just missed their chance to push into the Saturday night portion of the competition will be looking to rewrite the script this weekend. 

Robert Vela H.S., for example, took 12th in 2018’s prelims, just 1.6 points away from the cut-off. Valley View H.S. was also less than two points from earning a finals bid; Valley View and Robert Vela were split by less than four-tenths a year ago.

One band which, like Winston Churchill H.S., wasn’t in attendance at this event last season but could make some noise this weekend is McNeil H.S., which earned a finalist position of sixth at one of the other BOA Texas regionals last season.

Once all is said and done at Saturday’s regional, with nearly 40 performances in total, finals competition is expected to wrap up at 10:15 p.m., with awards presented at 10:30 p.m. Tune in all day on FloMarching to catch every moment of the action!

Run Of Show