Hello everyone!  Welcome to another season of Illinois Marching band coverage.  We’ll be providing predictions from now until Grand Nationals in mid-November.

A little bit about how we make our predictions…First things first, we do this for fun.  Nothing should be read into these predictions.  The predictions are split up amongst the staff, and we each work on our own.  For the first couple weeks each season, we look at a band’s past record, their early-season tendencies, and the matchups.  As the season rolls on, we base our predictions on that season’s performance up to that point.

With that being said, let’s get to the first week of predictions!

Belleville East Marching Invitational: Belleville, IL

Class 1A:  DeSoto

Class 2A: This class will come down to Francis Howell North and Mehlville.  We think Mehlville will win here.

Class 3A:   Edwardsville will win this class, with Rockwood Summit running closely behind.  Edwardsville will also win Grand Champion.

Metro East Marching Classic: O’Fallon, Illinois

Class 1A:  Tough call here between Effingham and Newton.  Effingham will be dirtier, but we feel they’ll win this class, with Newton running a close second.  Our pick: Effingham

Class 2A: This class will come down to St. Charles West or Rockwood Summit.  St. Charles West gets the nod due to Rockwood going on early in class.

Class 3A: This is another tough call between Belleville East and Edwardsville.  These 2 will grow sick of each other by the end of the season, as they meet up 5 times.  We think Edwardsville will take this round.

Grand Champion: Edwardsville

Olympia Marching Spartans Invitational: Stanford, IL

Class A: Farmington should edge out a win here over Rantoul and Ridgeview.

Class AA: We feel fairly confident that Metamora will take this class.

Class AAA: Being the beginning of the season, this one is rather hard to call, but we’ll go with Normal West followed closely by Limestone.  Normal West will also take Grand Champion honors.

Lake Park Lancer Joust: Roselle, IL

Class A: This proves to be an emotional class.  Lincoln-Way West, dealing with the loss of their director, debuts their 2011 program here.  We predict that they will carry on the successes from last year and win this class, with Wheaton North 2nd and Herscher 3rd.

Class AA:  An interesting class, as a number of bands that would never expected to be AA are in this class, making it all the more interesting.  More than half of the bands competing here are in this class, including Waubonsie Valley, Victor J. Andrew, Naperville North, Downers Grove South, and last year’s most surprising band, Huntley.  We think Naperville North will win the class, followed closely by Downers Grove South, and Victor J. Andrew taking 3rd in the class.

Class AAA: Always a good class.  It’s fun to see Lincoln-Way East and Prospect meet up early season.  We think they’ll battle it out for top honors in the class, with Prospect taking it, Lincoln-Way East 2nd, and Lockport 3rd.  Tough class to call!

Finalists: This is very difficult to call this year, as there are many good bands here that could make it.  Our ten are: Prospect, Lincoln-Way East, Lockport, Downers Grove South, Naperville North, Victor J. Andrew, Wheeling, Plainfield North, Lincoln-Way West, and John Hersey.

Grand Champion: We think Prospect will prevail over an early season Lincoln-Way East.

Best of luck to all bands this weekend!