2015 San Antonio Super Regional



Prelims Results
(view full recap here)

Class A
1. Hidalgo H.S., TX
2. Archbishop Alter H.S., OH

Music: Hidalgo H.S., TX
Visual: Hidalgo H.S., TX
GE: Hidalgo H.S., TX

Class AA
1. Aledo H.S., TX
2. Lubbock-Cooper H.S., TX
3. Calallen H.S., TX

Music: Aledo H.S., TX
Visual: Aledo H.S., TX
GE: Aledo H.S., TX

Class AAA
1. Cedar Park H.S., TX
2. Vandegrift H.S., TX
3. Wakeland H.S., TX

Music: Cedar Park H.S., TX
Visual: Wakeland H.S., TX
GE: Cedar Park H.S., TX

Class AAAA
1. Claudia Taylor Johnson H.S., TX
2. Ronald Reagan H.S., TX
3. Flower Mound H.S., TX

Music: Flower Mound H.S., TX
Visual: Ronald Reagan H.S., TX
GE: Claudia Taylor Johnson H.S., TX

Finals Results
(view full recap here)

1. (92.75) Flower Mound H.S., TX
2. (92.35) Ronald Reagan H.S., TX
3. (91.90) Claudia Taylor Johnson H.S., TX
4. (91.60) Hebron H.S., TX
5. (91.20) Cedar Park H.S., TX
6. (91.20) Marcus H.S., TX
7. (88.85) The Woodlands H.S., TX
8. (88.50) Owasso H.S., OK
9. (87.50) Round Rock H.S., TX
10. (87.30) Vandegrift H.S., TX
11. (87.10) James Bowie H.S., TX
12. (85.10) Cedar Ridge H.S., TX
13. (85.10) Keller H.S., TX
14. (84.70) Wakeland H.S., TX

Music: (tie) Hebron H.S., TX
and Marcus H.S., TX
Visual: Ronald Reagan H.S., TX
GE: Flower Mound H.S., TX
About
The 2015 San Antonio Super Regional was held Oct. 30–31 at the Alamodome. After a hectic prelims with many rain delays and schedule changes, Flower Mound won the finals competition over Ronald Reagan and Claudia Taylor Johnson, two groups that beat FloMo in prelims.

Analysis
The San Antonio Super Regional is always defined by unpredictability and this year, it did not disappoint. After severe storms left many groups unable to compete in Friday's prelims, event staff worked through the night to reschedule many of the groups.

Unfortunately, three groups were unable to perform in their originally scheduled prelims slot, or in the alternative spot on Friday night, or in the alternative spot on Saturday morning. After declining these three separate performance slots offered by event officials, Dripping Springs, Hendrickson, and Leander were offered exhibition performance slots during the regularly scheduled breaks.

While some people want to focus on the three groups who weren't able to perform, there were 60 other groups who did perform.

There were so many groups who could have taken home the champion title, but the honors went to Flower Mound. Once again, we get to see the dominance of Lewisville ISD schools as Flower Mound, Hebron, and Marcus captured half of the top six spots.

Hebron, Keller, Round Rock, and The Woodlands will all be competing at Grand Nats just a few weeks after this competition, and we expect all four of these groups to represent their state well.

One interesting result to point out is Owasso. Texans love to talk about how great their groups are and how their groups place in the years they go to Grand Nats, but Owasso's placement distorts the bubble a little bit. When Owasso competed at Grand Nats in 2014, they finished in thirteenth place, the first group not in finals, but here at San Antonio, they placed eighth, ahead of two groups who would go on to make finals at Grand Nats this year.

All in all, this San Antonio Super Regional was not a disappointment even with all the craziness caused by storms.

Pre-Competition Analysis and Predictions
When we wrote our initial impressions back in the spring, just after the list of participating bands was released, we had no idea what to predict, so we thought the group that won in 2014 would be a pretty safe guess. Since then, we've had four regionals across the state of Texas and have had an opportunity to see many of these top groups go head-to-head against each other. They've produced some interesting results that we could spend a lot of time talking about, but we'd prefer if you just read our recaps from the Austin Regional, the McAllen Regional, the Conroe Regional, and the Arlington Regional.

Now it's time for our new favorite thing: categories.

At the top (1st-5th)
This group consists of the four regional champions and a group who we've really come to love over the past couple of years.

Claudia Taylor Johnson was named regional champion of the McAllen Regional on Sept. 26. It was a crazy competition, interrupted multiple times because of rain, with the ultimate decision made to cancel the finals competition and give finals awards based on prelims performances. This group was also the 2014 San Antonio Super Regional champion, which means the odds are not in their favor to win again. The last time a group won back-to-back San Antonio Super Regionals was when LD Bell won in 2008 and 2009. Coincidentally, or maybe not, these are the first two years that CTJ existed. Is this some miraculous sign that they will be the next group to repeat as San Antonio Super Regional champions?

Flower Mound was named regional champion of the Arlington Regional on Oct. 10. They beat Hebron by 0.1 points, slightly more than the 0.05 points Hebron consistently loses to The Woodlands by. This regional performance combined with last years Grand Nationals performance sets them up to be in the conversation for the regional champion title here at San Antonio.

Hebron is the only group in our top five that didn't win a regional so far this year. We say so far because this could be the one they win. In the past ten years, Grand National champions have consistently finished in the top two at a Super Regional in the same year they won Grand Nats. There's a lot of talk that Hebron may be in the running for that Grand National champion title, but that starts with a pair of not just great but superior performances here at San Antonio.

Leander was named regional champion of the Austin Regional on Sept. 19, beating second place Cedar Park by only 0.05 points. Their third place finish at San Antonio (second in prelims) in 2014 combined with this year's early achievements are setting the groundwork for a really exciting season. If only we could convince one of these AAA groups to take a trip to Grand Nats.

Ronald Reagan was named regional champion of the Conroe Regional on Sept. 26, beating our reigning San Antonio champion and neighbor school CTJ. It was just seven years ago that Ronald Reagan suffered a bit of a dip in performance after splitting to launch CTJ. It amazing to see these two schools in such close proximity competing on such a high level against each other and against bands all across the state of Texas.

In the middle
These next five groups are all extremely successful groups who placed in the top five at various regionals. Any of them could break up our top five and send our predictions to shambles.

Cedar Park placed second at the Austin Regional, just a 0.05 points behind champion Leander.

James Bowie placed fourth at the Austin Regional, just 0.4 points behind champion Leander

Marcus placed third at the Arlington Regional, with more than a full point gap separating them from second place Hebron.

Round Rock placed fourth at the Austin Regional, just 0.4 points behind champion Leander. However, they also received a 0.5 point penalty in finals. Without that penalty, they would have won the Austin Regional.

The Woodlands placed third in prelims at the Conroe Regional. They did not compete in the finals competition because of a football game that conflicted with the finals competition.

At the bottom
The heading "at the bottom" makes it sound like these last four bands are in some way bad groups. That's far from the truth. At any super regional, including San Antonio, finals is filled with some of the best groups in the whole country.

Cedar Ridge had a director change from last season to this season. Typically, changing directors can cause groups to lose momentum for a couple of years, but it doesn't seem like this is affecting Cedar Ridge at all.

Dripping Springs had a great showing last year at Atlanta, placing sixth and tying Blue Springs. this year, they'll try to bring that momentum to another super regional, this time in San Antonio.

Owasso is part of the “big three” Oklahoma band programs (along with Broken Arrow and Union) and was a Grand National finalist in 2011. We expect the power of their sound to not be overmatched by the Texas sound they’ll be surrounded by in prelims.

Vandegrift has had some exciting achievements in their short history as a school. In 2013, Vandy won the music caption in the San Antonio finals competition, but since then, they've faced some serious competition from fellow AAA schools Leander and Cedar Park.

With so many past Grand National and San Antonio finalists in attendance, expect this edition of the San Antonio Super Regional to be one of the most competitive regionals of the season.

Predictions
1. Hebron H.S., TX
2. Ronald Reagan H.S., TX
3. Claudia Taylor Johnson H.S., TX
4. Leander H.S., TX
5. Flower Mound H.S., TX
6. The Woodlands H.S., TX
7. Round Rock H.S., TX
8. Cedar Park H.S., TX
9. James Bowie H.S., TX
10. Marcus H.S., TX
11. Vandegrift H.S., TX
12. Cedar Ridge H.S., TX
13. Owasso H.S., OK
14. Dripping Springs H.S., TX