For the last time until the highly-anticipated San Antonio Super Regional, Bands of America action is back in Texas this weekend, which means this is the last time we’ll be able to get a read on some of the Lone Star State’s best on the BOA scale before the late-season super regionals kick into gear. 

The scene? The Bands of America Waco Regional, on the campus of Baylor University. The event itself will feature 29 bands, all from the state of Texas. In theory, this event is anyone’s ballgame, but a handful of competitors stick out heading into the weekend’s event.

Here are all of the notes to keep an eye on as we look ahead at all of the action on Saturday, with Prelims competition kicking off bright and early at 7:45 AM CT:

Key Competitors

A number of bands at this weekend’s regional have already made their presence felt in the 2019 season. Most recently, a couple of them found themselves in the finalist pool at the Dallas/Ft. Worth Regional on October 5.

First off, there’s Keller, which took fourth place at that event and scored 83.100 — bear in mind, that’s two full weeks ago now. Keller was just a few tenths away from a top-three finish. Just a few placements back from there was Waxahachie, which scored among the top 10 in eighth place. 

I’m a percussion guy, so Burleson Centennial is a name that intrigues me after the waves that program has made in WGI percussion the last couple of years. This season, Burleson Centennial earned an impressive sixth place in WGI World Class competition. For all intents and purposes, we’ve yet to see what this band is capable of on the BOA scene, so it’ll be interesting to see where they stack up in Waco.

Switching over to the guard side of things, James Bowie is a program that has been particularly notable in WGI color guard; while they didn’t go to Dayton this year, James Bowie won the Scholastic World division by a commanding margin at the Texas-heavy Southwest Power Regional over one program which would go on to earn Finals spots at the WGI World Championships. 

Unlike Burleson Centennial, we’ve seen our fair share of James Bowie in BOA competition; the band earned a finalist position at the highly entertaining Austin Regional in Septemeber.

Keep an Eye Out

Looking at some of the show information for this event’s participants, plenty of notes stick out. 

For one, we’ll get several recent drum corps standards from Dripping Springs, including “A Kaleidoscope of Mathematics” by James Horner, “Dies Irae” by Giuseppi Verdi, and “Agnus Dei” from Leonard Bernstein’s “Mass."

Magnolia’s show also seems like a lot of fun; titled "Outside the Bachs."

But those are just a couple of samplings, and the rest is sure to feature plenty of memorable moments on the field.