The season in Illinois has started to wind down, with last week’s ISU and U of I shows. However, we still have some action this week, with shows at Lincoln-Way and Effingham.

Last week, we correctly predicted 3 out of 6 class winners at ISU, and 6 out of 8 class/event winners at U of I. With that said, here are this week’s events:

• Effingham Marching Hearts Invitational (Schedule, Message Board)
  This show boasts a lot of schools getting ready for the Greater St. Louis contest next weekend (for the uninitiated, GSL, held in the Edward Jones Dome, is comparable for Southern Illinois bands as to how Central/Northern Illinois bands view ISU and U of I). One of the top bands at Effingham, the Crimson Express from Murphysboro, will be in attendance, as will Edwardsville and Collinsville, who have also won contests this year. While Murphysboro (last week’s ISU 2A runner-up) may be performing in a smaller class, we think that their scores this year indicate that they may still pull this one out. Our Pick – Murphysboro
• Lincoln-Way Invitational (Schedule, Message Board)
  This year, the show is being held at Lincoln-Way East, keeping with the current rotation with LW-Central, who hosted a rather muddy event last year – so muddy, in fact, that both United Township and Marian Catholic chose not to compete, and Oak Creek, Wisconsin’s band brought home hardware. Assuming no rain this year, it will be fun to see how Oak Creek stacks up against the Illinois bands. The likely top two are Morton and UT, who have been going back and forth all year – Morton won at Pekin, but the band from East Moline edged them out at ISU last week. United Township’s later performance time and higher score last week indicates to us that they have the upper hand, but this year has been nothing but surprises from Morton (including a 2A championship and top-10 finish in both prelims and finals last week!). Oak Creek could also be a factor – we really don’t know how they compare to either of these bands. Our Pick – United Township