This year’s St. Louis Super Regional is jam packed with excellent returning bands and many exciting new challengers. Here’s a quick look at some of the top groups from each day you’ll want to be sure to watch.

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Returning champion Broken Arrow heads to the dome straight off an impressive regional victory in Orlando against some of the region’s top bands. Their 2019 production “Yee Haw!” was a crowd favorite in Florida, and will certainly be as well received in St. Louis.

Need a refresher on the competitive format for the upcoming Super Regionals? Check out our Cheat Sheet!

Cedar Falls rematches

The fight for the remaining medals will be essentially a rematch of the earlier regional in Cedar Falls, Iowa. At that event, Blue Springs squeezed out a narrow victory over Rosemount in finals after finishing behind Rosemount in prelims. With nearly a month of time to refine and perfect their shows, we could see either group take a huge stride.

A similar matchup exists between Camdenton and O’Fallon Township. These two groups also flipped placements between prelims and finals in Cedar Falls. Camdenton finished just under a point ahead in finals, after O’Fallon earned a 2.5-point lead in prelims.

Oklahoma showdown

Oklahoma always brings their best, and this year is no exception. It’s been not one year but two since we’ve since Bixby compete in St. Louis, and this will be a defining performance for the band. The past two seasons, they’ve had early season victories in head-to-head matchups with some of the best bands in Oklahoma, including Jenks and Union. This weekend, we’ll get to see all three of those groups compete, and see if Bixby is able to hold onto their lead against these national finalists at a later season event.

#TeamTexas

Of course, Texas can never be overlooked. This year, LD Bell, Lake Travis, Coppell, Haltom, Carroll, Stephen F. Austin, and Trinity are all descending on St. Louis. That’s the most Texas bands ever in attendance at the St. Louis Super Regional.

Four of these bands have already made finals at another regional this season: Lake Travis at the Austin Regional, LD Bell and Coppell at the Dallas Regional, and SFA at the Houston Regional. Carroll was the first band out of finals in Dallas, and Haltom has consistently made finals at super regionals in Atlanta and St. Louis. Trinity has consistently challenged themselves at the super regional level in Atlanta and Indianapolis and are turning their sights to St. Louis this season.

Other finals contenders

Along with all those excellent band, there’s a strong squad of other recent super regional finalists and up and comers that will be fighting for the last few finals spots. Grain Valley, Bentonville, Rockwood Summit, Air Academy, Franklin, and Fort Zumwalt North have all made finals in the last few years. But in the last few years, they’ve each had their own sets of changes in directors, designers, or school zoning. These changes don’t necessarily mean we’ll see a drop in performance level, but it does create some uncertainty, especially in such a challenging field as we have competing here in St. Louis.