School Size vs. Band Size

This is a most interesting topic because I have been on both sides of it. Should marching bands be classified by school size, meaning how many students attend the school, or by band size, meaning how many students are actually in the band? Truthfully my bands have always been giant killers. We have won over bands more than twice our size on more than a few occasions. It is fun I have to admit. It is fair though? I don't know. This can work both ways. I once had a marching band with only 44 students in it...Total! We won our class at every competition except one (we were second) and won 2 grand champions. I think they might have given us a few points for being so small and good. My question is this. Do the judges judge bands of different sizes differently? I think so. You see our state competition classification is based on school size. The judges see bands from less than 70 students all the way to bands of more than 250 students. Can they possibly be objective? Sadly the answer is probably not. A more objective stance would be if the judges saw bands that were at close in size to each other. How about this for a plan:

1A - up to 48 winds

2A - 49 to 64 winds

3A -65 - 81 winds

4A - 82 - 96 winds

5A - 97 and up

It won't fix all the problems but hey it might be worth trying. What do you think?

Are you Still Here?

I am!!! I see that many people still visit this site daily. I am a bit surprised. It is a boring little site about a boring small man...really? No not really. I just get busy and discouraged but I have done a bit of, so called, soul searching lately. I think I have been a bit un "Bradylike" lately. It seems I may try a little too hard to make everybody else happy. I love to make people happy but in the end if I ain't happy what's the point? Lately though I have been just me. It always seemed to be enough when I was in 1A...2A....3A....4A...but now it will be that way in 5A! I just know we are going to have a break out year. We are going old school! If you don't know what I mean, you will. Sometimes the most simple gifts are the best. Just hold on and look back at this post in the Fall and you will know what I mean. Nobody has every out worked myself or my bands so rest up my children because we got work to do! We will be a most Bradylike band this year!