The kids marched 4th in the preliminary in the State Competition Monday. They were in second place after all twenty-three bands marched. We were second, behind 2008's gold medal winners. The ten finalists marched their shows and when the top three schools were announced, we were not among them. The kids placed fifth according to the five fresh judges in final competition. The kids were fairly devastated and their director gave them a good talking to and by the time the adults showed up at the bus, he gave us a good talking to, too. "I don't want to hurt any body's feelings here, but you parents need to get those sad looks off your faces and cheer for those kids. They did a great job. They did exactly what we asked them to do, and this is about them, not me and not you."
He got the kids together at the hotel and talked to them about scores. If I heard and understood correctly, there are five judges and they rank each band as they see it, 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so-forth. All five judges rated the gold medal winner 1st, so 5 ones added up to a score of 5. If every judge agreed on the 2nd place band, the best possible score would have been a 10. The 2nd place band scored a 23, third 24, fourth 25 and fifth 26. He said he had never seen anything like the disparity in the scores, but "that's the way the cookie crumbles."
He's right, they were terrific. I'm only sad, because I know how badly they wanted it. For the Juniors and Seniors this was their last shot at a medal. It was late last night when it was all over. We headed to the hotel, slept it off and headed home this morning. We picked up John at about 4:45 and everyone was subdued but not destroyed. Tomorrow's a new day. He said his new goal was to be an All-Stater in the individual UIL competition coming up later in the spring. We could not be prouder!
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