Well, ladies and gentlemen, the Illinois marching season is nearly complete. Illinois State and Effingham are this weekend, and there’s a few competitions next weekend. After that is the end of the Bands of America season, with the Indianapolis Regional and the Grand Nationals Championships, held the weekend of November 15th-17th. Without further ado, we get to the predictions for this weekend.

Effingham Invitational-Effingham, IL
A: While we don’t know much about some of these bands, Georgetown-Ridge Farm’s class championship at Danville sticks out here. Look for Oblong to sneak in there as well. Our pick: Georgetown-Ridge Farm
AA: Newton and Eobinson have gone head to head a few times this year already, with Newton winning each time. Look for Newton to win again here. Our pick: Newton
AAA: East Richland and Murphysboro are both having pretty good seasons. That having been said, look for Murphysboro to win this class. Our pick: Murphysboro
AAAA: Mattoon, Charleston, and Centralia are all going head to head in this class. While Charleston scored higher than Mattoon at EIU (in two different classes, mind you), we just can’t overlook Mattoon’s class championship at Mt. Zion 2 weeks ago. Our pick: Mattoon
AAAAA: Pontiac and Edwardsville will be the frontrunners to win AAAAA. Pontiac has a few class championships this year, and Edwardsville will make it interesting, but Pontiac has one impressive show. Our pick: Pontiac
GC: Via the benefit of Pontiac winning AAAAA, they will win Grand Champion. Our pick: Pontiac

State of Illinois Invitational High School Marching Band Championship-Normal, IL
1A-IVC, Eureka, and Watseka all went head to head last week at U of I. IVC beat Eureka by 9 points, and Watseka by 24. IVC looks to win this class this year and get into the night show. Herscher might slide into 2nd on account of them beating Eureka by two points last weekend. Our pick: IVC
2A-So far this year, Morton has been unbeatable by bands their size. Also, they have beaten Lincoln Way Central for Grand Champion once this season. 2nd place goes to Geneseo. Our pick for this class goes to: Morton
3A-27 consecutive class championships is on the line this weekend. Will that streak be interrupted? Short answer is: no. Look for Lemont to sneak into finals as well. Our pick: Marian Catholic
4A-United Township looks to win their third consecutive class championship. Their early time and the fact that Normal West and Bloomington are also in this class makes it one of the more interesting classes of the day. Our pick: United Township
5A-Victor J. Andrew and Wheaton Warrenville South are both coming off of solid performances last weekend at the Lincoln-Way Invitational. We don’t think that anyone else has much of a chance of coming close to those two in this class, but stranger things have happened. Also in 5A, we’ll get to see the most prominent Southern Illinois band of the day in Collinsville. Collinsville outscored Joliet West and WWS last year-despite being in a lower class. In addition, they are the only band in this year’s 5A to get within 10 points of Andrew. Our pick: Victor J. Andrew
6A-Lincoln Way East and Lake Park are solid locks for 1-2 in this class. This class will have several finalists come from it, but the class championship looks to be going to Frankfort for another season. Our pick: Lincoln Way East

Finals:

1./2. These two, in my book, are interchangeable. Marian looks to win their fourth consecutive ISU title, and Lincoln Way East looks to take a title that no band not named Lake Park or Marian Catholic has won this decade. Our pick: Marian Catholic
3. Lake Park
4. Victor J. Andrew
5. Morton-I fought with myself over this one for a while, but I think they can do it.
6. Lincoln Way Central
7. Lemont Township
8. Warren Township
9. United Township
10. Naperville North
11. Lockport
12. IVC