The 2017 Southlake, Texas, Regional will be held Sept. 30 at Dragon Stadium. In 2016, Flower Mound was named regional champion, marking five years of Lewisville ISD champions at Dallas/Ft. Worth-area regionals.
Analysis
This regional in Dallas-Fort Worth has been held in many venues throughout the past few years, but was hasn’t changed is the dominance of a certain school district. You have to go all the way back to 2011 to find the last year a non-Lewisville ISD school won the regional (and that was the year Marcus didn’t attend). We expect this trend to continue with the Lewisville ISD trio of Flower Mound, Hebron, and Marcus fighting for the top spots.
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| Flower Mound performs at the 2016 Plano Regional. The group earned first place overall in prelims and finals. // Photo by Jeremiah Wooten |
After winning San Antonio two years in a row and with a trip to Grand Nats this November, there are some high expectations for Flower Mound. Another DFW regional win is just what they need to show they’re ready to challenge Avon, Claudia Taylor Johnson, and The Woodlands at San Antonio in about a month.
Behind Flower Mound, Hebron and Marcus will be fighting for second place. Last year, Marcus took the silver medal with Hebron in third, but in 2015, Hebron took second and Marcus took third. We’re giving Marcus the nod for second place. With a trip to grand Nats in November, we expect this to be a very special year for the Marcus Band.
Keller was robbed at San Antonio last year. Sure, it wasn’t the band’s best show ever, but it certainly wasn’t 13th place, either. If they can bring another product like that this year, they’ll be able to make the leap over LD Bell, who missed finals at San Antonio last year. However, LD Bell can’t be discounted and will be fighting just as hard to hold on to its 14th place spot from last year.
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| Vista Ridge performs at the Austin Regional on Sept. 23, 2017, at Kelly Reeves Athletic Complex. // Photo by Jeremiah Wooten |
The bottom half of finals is pretty wide open. Early season videos of Coppell have shown consistent and impressive improvement over the weeks. While they missed finals at Plano last year, this band seems to have gone through a bit of a transformation and could place as high as sixth. Vista Ridge is right on their heels, having earned tenth at an incredibly stacked Austin Regional just last week.
For these final three spots, there are six groups that we could see earning a spot in really any order: Duncanville, James Martin, Keller Central, Timber Creek, Wakeland, and Waxahachie.
Martin, Keller Central, and Waxahachie were all in finals last year, but with such an impressive line up, it’ll be even harder to make the night show this year.
With no recent BOA experience, it’s hard to judge where Duncanville may end up. They certainly seem to have the musical chops to grap one of the last few spots in finals, and we’re excited to see how they fare among some of the top groups in Texas. That early performance spot is certainly not ideal.
Timber Creek was so close to finals at two BOA regionals last season, earning 11th at Conroe and 12th at Plano. With the steady improvement they’ve shown the past few years, a finals appearance is not out of the question.
As a former regional finalist, Wakeland was the first band out of finals last year, and has very good chance of being back in the night show this year. Their early afternoon performance slot is a great place to get an accurate evaluation from the judges, and with a good run, they could really finish anywhere in the bottom half of finals.
Predictions
1.
Flower Mound H.S., TX
2.
Marcus H.S., TX
3.
Hebron H.S., TX
4.
Keller H.S., TX
5.
LD Bell H.S., TX
6.
Coppell H.S., TX
7.
Vista Ridge H.S., TX
8.
Wakeland H.S., TX
9.
Timber Creek H.S., TX
10. Duncanville H.S., TX
Adjudication Panel
Music: Wayne Dillon, Jay Kennedy, John Phillips, and Kyle Young.
Visual: Curtis Costanza, Greg Llacer, and Carl Nelson.
Chief: Gary Markham.
