The Woodlands wins first of two Houston regionals


Sept 26, 2021 at 7:02 p.m. CT

The Woodlands wins first of two Houston regionals

By Jeremiah Wooten

Local favorite The Woodlands won their first Houston regional champion title since 2013. The band also swept captions, winning awards for best music, best visual, and best general effect at the Conroe event.


The Woodlands performs at the San Antonio Super Regional in 2018. Last night, the band earned their first regional champion title since their 2013 national championship.
Photo by Jeremiah Wooten for HornRank
With such a strong demand each year in Houston, Bands of America decided this year to add a second regional in the area to give more bands access to the highly competitive events. The 23 bands competing here in Conroe is already a healthy enrollment, but this year, another 31 bands will compete next week in Katy.

To anyone familiar with the BOA world, it may not be surprising to see The Woodlands (86.25) winning this regional. After all, they're a consistent finalist at regional, and super regional, and national events, even winning Grand Nationals in 2013. However, digging into their history reveals the last time The Woodlands won a regional was that 2013 season when they went on to win Grand Nationals. So, is this early-season victory a sign that the Eagle will remain in Texas another year? Only time will tell.


Nearly four points behind The Woodlands, just 1.5 points separated the next four bands. Cypress Woods (82.70), Klein Oak (82.10), Seven Lakes (81.50), and Wylie East (81.25) all earned second-place rankings from at least one judge in finals. Cypress Woods grabbed two second-place rankings in the general effect caption, which accounts for 60% of the overall score. That was enough to push them six tenths ahead of the other three. Klein Oak also had their strongest scores in the general effect caption, tying Cypress Woods for second place in music effect.

Seven Lakes and Wylie East didn't score as highly in the effect caption, but did have their own high-scoring captions. Seven Lakes earned second place in both the music and visual performance captions, but those captions together only account for 40% of the overall score. Wylie East also earned music and visual performance scores that put them above Cypress Woods and Klein Oak, but their general effect total tied Seven Lakes and kept them from moving up a spot in finals.

Keller Central (78.60) held onto their sixth place spot from prelims, followed by two groups who made some gains. Pearland (77.25) jumped four spots in finals to finish seventh overall. That growth was primarily in the visual and effect captions where they received 15th and 13th place averages in prelims. In finals, those caption placements rose to ninth and seventh. Cy-Fair (75.65) also improved their placement by one spot, rising from ninth to eighth thanks to a similar but smaller boost in effect caption scores.

Another close string of scores developed from ninth to 11th place with James E. Taylor (75.20), Dawson (74.80), and College Park (74.50), finishing just a few tenths apart. James E. Taylor led in the music and visual performance captions, while Dawson and College Park earned higher effect scores. Stephen F. Austin (73.05) finished 13th in prelims, but was invitied to compete in finals in Bridgeland's absence. SFA easily proved they deserved to be in finals, earning seventh place rankings from both visual performance judges.

You can read more about this contest on the Conroe Regional Page. Or dig into the prelims recap and finals recap for yourself.