First BOA Experience

[bigtrombone]

I'm gonna ask y'all a question that I'm genuinely curious about and I don't think has been discussed on these forums before. I would like to know about your first BOA experience. Whether you were a band parent attending, a volunteer helping with the event, a band director, or a student performing, I would like to hear your stories about your first BOA experience!

Seeing as how I've brought this up, it's only fair that I start with my first BOA experience. My first BOA experience was at the 2014 St. Louis Super Regional as a junior year student at Lincoln High School in South Dakota. This was Lincoln's first appearance at a BOA event since the 1985 Whitewater Regional so it was pretty important for us. We attended the first block on Friday and my first band that I saw live in BOA competition just so happened to be Blue Springs. This was the year Blue Springs had statue props and traded out their purple & black uniforms for white ones, and I remember being absolutely blown away by their sound. Our performance time was early in the 2nd block on Saturday, and in warmups I remember being really excited to perform for, what I can describe as a much different crowd than what we were used to performing (I personally was also really excited about performing at an NFL stadium not called the HHH Metrodome). We had a great performance, and while we didn't make finals, we laid the groundwork for us to make finals in the future (notably we notched the 2nd highest Music Ensemble score of prelims, right behind Broken Arrow).

I also had a lot of fun watching the rest of prelims & finals. Not many remember this but the 2014 St. Louis Super Regional was kind of stacked. My personal favorites of the weekend were Paul Laurence Dunbar (This was their horse show), Bellevue West (This was their chapel show, we had actually seen them at other competitions prior to St. Louis but I still really loved them), James Martin (Loved that Texas Sound they put out, I think they had a show similar to Union's that year), Paragould (They were me and my friend's personal favorite of the event, we absolutely adored them and loved the sound they put out as a Class A band), and Broken Arrow. Experiencing FaceMe for the first time was almost overwhelming in a sense. At the time, I couldn't believe that a high school marching band could put out a show of that quality and I was left in awe.

[Subito Fortissimo]

BOA Orlando regional - September 29th, 2001

It was my second ever competition as a freshman so I was still just figuring things out. My older sister was already in the band and I had attended a number of competitions in 2000, though they did not attend a BOA show that year, but I was pretty familiar with things and was super pumped to be able to become a band member myself. It was a very raw time emotionally for our band as this was less than three weeks after the 9/11 attacks and we had a member of our baritone section who had lost a family member in the WTC. Not only that but a member of the concert band percussion section was killed in a car accident earlier in that week. He was not in marching band but many members were close friends of his.  So needless to say, it was a rough time for the band. 

Despite all of that we made finals and my love for all things BOA was cemented in getting to perform in a big stadium and see awesome bands. I got my first exposure to a GN finals level program at this show in seeing Tarpon Springs perform in prelims. This was also Kennesaw Mountain's first ever competition though I don't think I was able to see either of their performances. They definitely showed the greatness that was going to soon come as they finished 2nd.

[ilikeguard]

My first BOA experience was the 2017 Powder Springs Regional in Georgia. That was my junior year and my first year of band. Surprisingly, it was not my first time traveling 11 hours in a charter bus – my sophomore year our choir competed in Gatlinburg, TN, which is almost the exact same driving distance. It was my first time having Chik-fil-a and I have been within the wicked grasp of the hate chicken ever since. We won Class AA and placed 4th in finals, behind Harrison, Mill Creek, and Milton. A lot has changed within the lineup of GA and the Carolinas since then! I remember holding hands with a Milton student as we were lining up for retreat. It actually ended up being one of my only retreats, as we were 11th at BOA Clarksville in 2018 and obviously didn’t make finals at San Antonio or Grand Nationals my senior year.

That year we also attended the Golden Regiment Invitational, placing 4th, Ozarko at Missouri State, placing 2nd (and winning prelims by .05!), and the BOA St. Louis Super, where we were 3rd in class, 13th in prelims and 14th in our first finals appearance ever. We were first out in 2015 and didn’t know how to cope with finally making it, so we just had fun and dropped by over a point 😅 I didn’t know it yet, but some of the people I competed against would later become good friends from Broken Arrow, Blue Springs, Bentonville, Grain Valley, and Anderson (I would be able to name abtwitch from Westwood among those people if he hadn’t just graduated that spring!).

[hewhowaits]

Youngstown Regional, 10/2/2004, as a parent spectator. One of only two BOA events I have ever attended only as a spectator (the other was 2004 GN). It snowed during finals.

[dbalash]

Indy 2001 was my first BOA experience, and it was definitely a memorable one.  First, the walk from the parking lot where LOS is now across South Street, past the creepy power plant along Missouri, to the convention center.  Why the busses didn't drop off at the Convention Center like they did for Nationals is beyond me.  Then, as we're warming up, it is discovered that I sat in hot chocolate mixture, and it got all over my white pants (we had the split band that year with white in the percussion and woodwinds, and black in the brass).  So, as we're in musical warmup, I have a band parent furiously wiping my pants down.  Then, we enter the airlock.  Let me tell you, if you experienced entering it, you'll never forget it.  There was nothing cooler than the big doors opening, moving out of the airlock into the tunnel, and seeing all of the band banners fluttering around from the upper deck (Marian, PCEP, Carmel, etc.)  We enter the field, and we're in a wall (Vietnam wall), and...I don't see my section.  Turns out my idiot self lined up at the wrong hash, so as we're being announced, I have to dash to the correct spot.  Oops.

Another memorable experience was the Pontiac regional in 2004.  First time in a while Marian has done two regionals in a season, and we're excited to show off the new uniforms and get another competition under our belts.  We're driving along I-80 entering Michigan during rush hour, and all of a sudden, we're getting off.  After a while, it gets back to us that one of the busses lost a wheel, and it was last seen rolling down the expressway.  So, we all cram into 6 busses instead of 7, and we continue along after like an hour.  We stop for dinner around Kalamazoo, and after we start to leave, there's yelling on the radio.  Turns out a bus driver started falling asleep and is driving off the road.  We finally get to PCEP and have a pizza dinner with them.  Next morning, we're on the road to Pontiac.  I look out the window, and there's one of our busses, which apparently missed a turn, backing up in traffic to get down the street.  Needless to say, we never used that bus company again.

[LeanderMomma]

BOA AUSTIN 2014. My daughter was a Sophomore and I am embarrassed to admit I didn’t see her perform at BOA at all in 2013 because they got rained out just as they took the field in Austin in ‘13, and didn’t make finals in San Antonio that year either. But as of September of 2014, I became HOOKED. Color Study was also a great year to get hooked. 😁

[boahistorybuff]

I first attended when I was in 8th grade. It was the 1987 BOA Grand Nationals in my home state. I went to watch Flushing, the band I would be joining the next year. I was mesmerized by what I saw. I knew that was what I wanted to do.

As a performer, my first experience was the 1988 BOA Akron OH regional when I was a Freshman. It was the first time I had marched on astro turf. After our Prelims performance, we got to watch some of the bands. I got to see the Centerville Jazz band for the first time. Then during finals award ceremony, I remember standing there on the field listening to Lake Park IL winning everything.

[Allohak]

Nov 14, 2023 8:19:11 GMT -6 hewhowaits said:

Youngstown Regional, 10/2/2004, as a parent spectator. One of only two BOA events I have ever attended only as a spectator (the other was 2004 GN). It snowed during finals.

Hey that's mine, too

[FaultLineBlues]

Nov 14, 2023 13:58:59 GMT -6 LeanderMomma said:

BOA AUSTIN 2014. My daughter was a Sophomore and I am embarrassed to admit I didn’t see her perform at BOA at all in 2013 because they got rained out just as they took the field in Austin in ‘13, and didn’t make finals in San Antonio that year either. But as of September of 2014, I became HOOKED. Color Study was also a great year to get hooked. 😁

Hey, same event and year for me! Though, I was a student performing on field with Cedar Ridge!

[charredbrown]

It was 2009 - my freshman year. Despite performing at BOA St. Louis, the event that really sticks out to me is Grand Nats later that season. Until this point I had been to a handful of local central Illinois shows, had seen Marian Catholic and the Lincoln Ways perform at State, and had even run into Broken Arrow at St. Louis (funny story: one of our guard girls went trick-or-treating as a Broken Arrow guard girl, lizard tail and all. She made her own costume and everything. Iconic). Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to witness at GN finals that night.

Everything about finals that night left me spellbound. I had no idea that marching band could be this epic, this magnificent. The lineup was insane. Marian Catholic's "Nightingale: a Parable of Gilded Cages" is classic MC and such a powerful story. Broken Arrow's "Rite of the Raptor" is weird and raw and so, so cool. Carmel's "Virtuosity" where they actually staged a cello??? on the field??? L.D. Bell having the absolute audacity to march Mackey's "Kingfishers Catch Fire" (a piece I would go on to play in concert band that Spring - for the man himself!) in their amazing show "Prayer for Light." Marcus bringing Shakespeare to life with "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

And Avon. Oh, Avon. "CommUNIFORMity" was and still is to this very day my favorite show of all time. Full stop. It solidified me as a ride-or-die Avon fan for life. The uniforms. The music. The guard. The nylon over the faces. That BALLAD. That ENDING. I was absolutely shook.

This might just be my nostalgia goggles, there has only been one Grand Nationals finals lineup that tops the one from 2009.

And that's 2010.

[ohbandfan]

My first time on the field for a BOA event was the 2009 Centerville regional. It was a long day, and I was a freshman so I don’t remember much. I do remember getting a glimpse of Carmels seesaw piano. Of course we finished third behind them and Centerville. St Louis that year was a rush. My first time in a big dome. Still a fuzzy memory. But I remember always being on the field with Centerville, who we always trailed behind. I do however remember GN that year. We got to sit in the stands for prelims on Friday night and I remember seeing Marian Catholic, Lawrence Central, and LD Bell perform. Our semi finals performance was a super emotional run and there weren’t many people that had dry eyes in the band.

My sophomore year was a lot more memorable though. winning our first regional, getting to watch Tarpon springs live (2010 was an unreal show), we also came so close to finals that year as well.

The things I would do to get to go back and relive all of my marching band memories.

[realjsnacks]

My first experience in the BOA foray is a rather recent one- BOA Midland 2022. I had long graduated from the band, but my brother is in guard at Piedmont, and Midland was the first BOA competition they had entered since 2011. I was incredibly hyped given that I had kept up with BOA before, but now I got to see it live. West Texas did not disappoint, either. Piedmont didn't make finals, but did snag some hardware in the form of 2nd place in AA- I couldn't have been prouder of them, though. The administration also received a letter upon the band's return from a parent sitting in the stands next to some of the kids, commending them on their sportsmanship and their constant encouragement of the bands performing- something I've never heard of someone writing to a school for before, but I did think that was really awesome that they brought that to light. The kids seemed to enjoy the experience, too. I do hope they'll be back to BOA next year.

[dbalash]

Nov 14, 2023 13:31:39 GMT -6 dbalash said:

Indy 2001 was my first BOA experience, and it was definitely a memorable one.  First, the walk from the parking lot where LOS is now across South Street, past the creepy power plant along Missouri, to the convention center.  Why the busses didn't drop off at the Convention Center like they did for Nationals is beyond me.  Then, as we're warming up, it is discovered that I sat in hot chocolate mixture, and it got all over my white pants (we had the split band that year with white in the percussion and woodwinds, and black in the brass).  So, as we're in musical warmup, I have a band parent furiously wiping my pants down.  Then, we enter the airlock.  Let me tell you, if you experienced entering it, you'll never forget it.  There was nothing cooler than the big doors opening, moving out of the airlock into the tunnel, and seeing all of the band banners fluttering around from the upper deck (Marian, PCEP, Carmel, etc.)  We enter the field, and we're in a wall (Vietnam wall), and...I don't see my section.  Turns out my idiot self lined up at the wrong hash, so as we're being announced, I have to dash to the correct spot.  Oops.

Another memorable experience was the Pontiac regional in 2004.  First time in a while Marian has done two regionals in a season, and we're excited to show off the new uniforms and get another competition under our belts.  We're driving along I-80 entering Michigan during rush hour, and all of a sudden, we're getting off.  After a while, it gets back to us that one of the busses lost a wheel, and it was last seen rolling down the expressway.  So, we all cram into 6 busses instead of 7, and we continue along after like an hour.  We stop for dinner around Kalamazoo, and after we start to leave, there's yelling on the radio.  Turns out a bus driver started falling asleep and is driving off the road.  We finally get to PCEP and have a pizza dinner with them.  Next morning, we're on the road to Pontiac.  I look out the window, and there's one of our busses, which apparently missed a turn, backing up in traffic to get down the street.  Needless to say, we never used that bus company again.

Not to mention, the Silverdome should have been yeeted as soon as the Lions moved out. What an absolute shitheap of a stadium, and that was in 2004! I wish I could find the picture of Debbie Asbill vacuuming the turf the first time the regional returned in like 2009-2010ish.

[ccbop]

2016 Grand Nationals- Student Preformer

It was my rookie year, 7th grade, with Campbell County when we went and got destroyed in prelims.
Went to Grand nats a total of 3 times, 1 super regional and around 4-5 regionals

[redpants]

My first BOA experience was at the October 6, 1990 Midwest Regional in Bloomington, IN. I was a second-year junior at Carmel (then a three-year high school). It was Carmel’s first-ever BOA event, and our rival Center Grove’s too.  We had never had such a long competition day before. It was such an early call time, we were instructed to arrange a buddy system with friends to call each other to make sure we didn't oversleep. I remember we were handed a new set of drill for our closer in the parking lot at 4:45 am while the buses warmed up on the sideline. There were not a lot of parking lot lights, so we all had to cluster under a couple of light poles to read our drill sheets.

We were a bit intimidated by the big competition format, the well-known and the out-of-state bands. We had never competed against bands from outside of Indiana. Also, at invitationals and ISSMA we never had more than about ten bands to compete against, since it was all by class. I remember Mr. Saucedo giving us a pep talk before our prelims performance, reminding us to just be who we were and to stay focused on our show and not be overawed by the big names.

It was such a big stadium, and a turf field, which was unusual for the time (get those heels way up when you’re marching backwards!). We stayed after our performance to watch several bands in prelims – if you were in the Hopkinsville, Lawrence North, Centerville, Northrop, Concord, or Castle band then, I got to watch you perform that day. We were used to having to sit in the back bleachers of smaller HS football stadiums after performing, so watching bands from the front was a treat. I had never had any concept of how marching band worked outside of Indiana; ISSMA was the be-all and end-all for us, and there were no online videos for us to check out the competition's shows. We had no idea if we would make finals; winning prelims was both a huge thrill and a big surprise. We performed last in finals and then our drumline played the bands on for retreat, which seemed to take forever. Center Grove won finals, we took second place, but we got medals as class champions. I still have mine.

I remember interacting with other bands a lot more that day than we did at ISSMA or invitationals. Probably the relatively large amount of downtime between prelims and finals encouraged this. In the lot, the stands and at retreat it was cool to see students just like us but in other uniforms, including the kids from famous programs like Marian Catholic, Lake Park and Centerville. I later ended up sitting next to a Center Grove trombonist in a youth orchestra, and going to college with a clarinetist from Lake Park, and would share happy memories of that day with both. I also remember starting to get a sense of how hard our parents were working to support us in doing band. The student interaction and the obvious parent commitments probably both helped build my sense of band as a community activity rather than an arena of individualized achievement.

[boahistorybuff]

Nov 14, 2023 23:58:16 GMT -6 redpants said:

My first BOA experience was at the October 6, 1990 Midwest Regional in Bloomington, IN. I was a second-year junior at Carmel (then a three-year high school). It was Carmel’s first-ever BOA event, and our rival Center Grove’s too.  We had never had such a long competition day before. It was such an early call time, we were instructed to arrange a buddy system with friends to call each other to make sure we didn't oversleep. I remember we were handed a new set of drill for our closer in the parking lot at 4:45 am while the buses warmed up on the sideline. There were not a lot of parking lot lights, so we all had to cluster under a couple of light poles to read our drill sheets.

We were a bit intimidated by the big competition format, the well-known and the out-of-state bands. We had never competed against bands from outside of Indiana. Also, at invitationals and ISSMA we never had more than about ten bands to compete against, since it was all by class. I remember Mr. Saucedo giving us a pep talk before our prelims performance, reminding us to just be who we were and to stay focused on our show and not be overawed by the big names.

It was such a big stadium, and a turf field, which was unusual for the time (get those heels way up when you’re marching backwards!). We stayed after our performance to watch several bands in prelims – if you were in the Hopkinsville, Lawrence North, Centerville, Northrop, Concord, or Castle band then, I got to watch you perform that day. We were used to having to sit in the back bleachers of smaller HS football stadiums after performing, so watching bands from the front was a treat. I had never had any concept of how marching band worked outside of Indiana; ISSMA was the be-all and end-all for us, and there were no online videos for us to check out the competition's shows. We had no idea if we would make finals; winning prelims was both a huge thrill and a big surprise. We performed last in finals and then our drumline played the bands on for retreat, which seemed to take forever. Center Grove won finals, we took second place, but we got medals as class champions. I still have mine.

I remember interacting with other bands a lot more that day than we did at ISSMA or invitationals. Probably the relatively large amount of downtime between prelims and finals encouraged this. In the lot, the stands and at retreat it was cool to see students just like us but in other uniforms, including the kids from famous programs like Marian Catholic, Lake Park and Centerville. I later ended up sitting next to a Center Grove trombonist in a youth orchestra, and going to college with a clarinetist from Lake Park, and would share happy memories of that day with both. I also remember starting to get a sense of how hard our parents were working to support us in doing band. The student interaction and the obvious parent commitments probably both helped build my sense of band as a community activity rather than an arena of individualized achievement.

Love this personal perspective of Carmel's first ever BOA competition. One for the history books for sure.

[hewhowaits]

Nov 14, 2023 15:50:00 GMT -6 Allohak said:

Nov 14, 2023 8:19:11 GMT -6 hewhowaits said:

Youngstown Regional, 10/2/2004, as a parent spectator. One of only two BOA events I have ever attended only as a spectator (the other was 2004 GN). It snowed during finals.

Hey that's mine, too

But you got to PLAY in the snow!

[Allohak]

Nov 15, 2023 13:47:11 GMT -6 hewhowaits said:

Nov 14, 2023 15:50:00 GMT -6 Allohak said:

Hey that's mine, too

But you got to PLAY in the snow!

while standing on a turf penguin 🐧