BRMMSax20

A big SHOUTOUT to Mater Dei here! I agree with the scoresheets. I thought their show design was solid across the board, and not just a "small school" band. Had they been at ISU, I'd wager they might have been in the mix with Paris & Eureka for that third place battle.

IMBC Small Schools Results Class 2A - 1) U-High (Music, GE), 2) IVC (Visual), 3) Paris Class 3A - 1) Morton (All), 2) Mahomet-Seymour, 3) East Peoria Class 1A - 1) Mater Dei (All), 2) Watseka, 3) Maroa-Forsyth Small School's Governor's Cup: Morton

I think if the dates were reversed, there probably would have been more chatter. Predictable, but more chatter. What's really made things interesting the last few years at ISU is the variety of "new" bands (Washington, Paris, Monticello, Galesburg) to shake up the mix, the powerhouses undergoing change (IVC, Eureka, Marian, Lake Park, Prospect), and the departure of veteran programs (John Hersey, Lockport, Lincoln Way, etc.). Oh, and the return of O'Fallon to spice things up. For the most part, it seems like the bands competing at U of I are for the most part, relatively consistent. I know last year really made the predictions fun with some new bands to spice things up in the large school classes. I agree that the Prelims-Finals dimension, makes it fun to compare bands across classes where at U of I, this is a non-factor outside of the Governor's Cup race & time slots. Counterpoint here though - is it actually to U of I's benefit here there isn't as much controversy? A lot of the feelings expressed in the ISU thread were pretty passionate (and rightfully so). It appears the lack of chatter seems to suggest many of the bands who participate at U of I regularly seem to like it as is. If I were U of I, that would suggest to me that this event's long term viability, even with its weaknesses, is pretty stable. Bold take here. Centralia wasn't on my radar until reading the forums. I could see them shaking things up in the small schools if they came to U of I. Morton is a lock at ISU for the time being in Class 2A at ISU. @Zdsmith

I love when I have to look up where these old high schools are. Roberts-Thawville is now split between Tri-Point, Iroquois West, & Paxton-Buckley-Loda. Bethany was just renamed to Okaw Valley. Fun fact about Roberts-Thawville, it was actually closed the following year in 1974.

This is the path that IVC has been on for the last five years. It's taken a few years to adapt & modernize their visual repertoire, as well as their overall show design. The judges tapes for them now are night & day compared to only a few years ago.

ISU officially posted that Homecoming 2026 will be October 24th. I know this has already been discussed elsewhere, I'd assume that ISMBC will most likely be either October 10th or October 17th. But that's TBD.

I was holding off on making my predictions until we got to the other side of Dunlap & BOA. Class 2A - 1) IVC, 2) U-High, 3) Paris, 4) Effingham...5)-7) in any order Monticello, Newton, Providence Catholic. There's been ALOT of talk about this race all season, but why not?? Proving their ISU finish was no fluke & hot on their heels after a great finish at BOA, U-High chases after IVC and hopes to take GE and maybe even Music. IVC has had the edge all season with their challenging visual package, which U of I has been consistent with rewarding. IVC comes off of an electrifying abrupt end to their run at Dunlap, and will want that run back adding fuel to their fire to pull off one last great run to cap off the season. Music will be one of the deciding captions here. U-High's earlier time slot may hurt them, may not. IVC went first in class at U of I last year, and had decisive scores that held throughout the morning. Coming off a disappointing finish at ISU & still falling shy against U-High at BOA, Paris will look to pull the spoiler or end their season on a high note. Going second to last & given the scoring system used at U of I compared to ISU/BOA, I have a sneaking suspicion that Paris show will be a wild card here in the Visual & GE categories. Both Paris & U-High also had long travel weekends this weekend, and got better judging than IVC. I think emotions will be running high for all these ensembles, and all it takes is one "great" run, one or two judges to favor one show or the other, or captions getting scattered like at ISU., to make all the difference. Class 3A - 1) Morton, 2) Mahomet-Seymour, 3) East Peoria, 4) Highland Small School's Governor's Cup: Morton Class 1A - 1) Mater Dei, 2) Watseka, 3) Maroa-Forsyth, 4) Arcola, 5) ROWVA It's always fun learning about the true "small school" bands. Anything after Mater Dei to me is a toss up. I made my predictions off relative head-to-heads with common opponents. After seeing my predictions are in schedule order, it'll be cool to see if there are any jumps here. As I've said the last few years, I think U of I has certainly maintained its legitimacy as a statewide showcase of bands. I appreciate that there's a separate Class 1A for the true "small school bands" outside of the 2A programs with great tradition & pedigree, that would otherwise get smoked at ISU by the frontrunners. To no fault of their own mind you, as we've discussed about the wide degree of scale, skill, & budgets of programs across the state regardless of band size or enrollment. There is certainly a stage for the bands that perform at U of I 1A or like at Metamora during ISU weekend. TLDR - I think U of I 2025 will feature another great year of marching band performances & I hope great finales to many of these programs seasons.

Dunlap Results: 1A 1st: Watseka 2nd: Arcola 3rd: Heritage 4th: New Berlin 2A: 1st: Rock Falls 2nd: Paxton-Buckley-Loda 3rd: Richwoods 4th: Tri Valley 3A: 1st: Metamora 2nd: Mt. Zion 3rd: Unity 4A: 1st: Limestone 2nd: Rochelle 3rd: Canton 4th: Rochester 5A: IVC (Grand Champions)

Just saw this on Facebook: “We regret to inform you that due to the forecasted weather for Saturday, October 18th, the 2025 Lincoln-Way Marching Invitational is officially cancelled. There is not a scenario where outdoor performance would be sustainable or safe for every student involved. Thank you for your support of the Lincoln-Way Marching Band program, and we hope you will join us in 2026!”

After looking at the recap, isolating 1A scores and doing the caption splits, Paris missed out on 3rd due to “Music Indiv” and “Visual GE” (which is not the caption I’d call their weakness). I think what we thought was a 3-horse race in 1A was actually a 4-horse race, and U-High played spoiler while Eureka (famous for their clean execution musically & visually) boxed Paris out of the top 3. Overall, as I suspected going into the weekend, and as the stats reflect, there was no one true frontrunner show, but instead a game of inches between what were all very worthy performances (any given year) by the top 4 ensembles in 1A. I think Class 2A at U of I should be on notice considering U-High got both Paris & IVC in Music and GE. However, U-High was a solid point behind either in Visual.

IVC Lemont Galesburg Collinsville VJA Plainfield Central Oswego Romeoville Plainfield North Marian Catholic Prospect Bloomington O’Fallon Normal Morton

YEAR / DATE / 7 AM / HIGH / DIFF 2025 10/11 54 ~75 +21 Other than the wind, what a beautiful day for marching band!

@Magnichucalled this! I never saw U-High coming, but to be fair I underestimated their placements earlier this season relative to their competition, so one never knows.

Just heard it sounds like IVC & Lemont are teeing off finals. Do not quote me, I also missed Galesburg but watched most of the morning session, I heard they may have had an off run. I think IVC, Lemont, Galesburg are a great head to head match up nonetheless. However, I think it’s unlikely we will see IVC jump anyone. I could see Lemont possibly upsetting Galesburg, especially since they usurped Washington.

It’s a balmy 54 degrees and blue skies! 42 bands of the day on deck for the next 10+ hours! Go leave it all out on the field everyone!

I think it will be a dogfight between you guys, Effingham, Limestone, & LaSalle-Peru for 3rd! No matter the result, like@Suburbanbandfan said, go out & leave it all out on the field with your best run of the year!……and compared to many bands tomorrow, you guys get an encore at Metamora, while many bands go home. Have a great show day Raiders!

4. Someone successfully pulling off a 6-7 joke in the chat LOL

@Dan Balash Were there any major storylines going into this weekend that haven’t been mentioned or you’ve picked up on? In 1A, you’ve got the new director at Eureka vs. Mr. Chapman’s retirement year at IVC vs. a possible historic new 1A victor in Paris, who’s been knocking on the doors the last few years. Morton chasing after building their dynasty. The intense battles in 3A & 4A, Washington (& Dan Dietrich’s return to ISU). The return of O’Fallon. And the notable absence of Hersey & Lockport. Etc.

One of my other favorite story lines about Washington coming back to ISU is the return of Dan Dietrich to ISU as apart of his assistant/tech role with the band. I would love to see him return to Finals after nearly 20 years.

Some red flags here - Bloomington ~200 miles?? Washington ~170 miles?? LOL. Per Google Maps - Prairie Central is ~36 miles, Limestone is ~42 miles one way. For reference for further distances, VJA is ~109 miles, Huntley is ~150 miles, Mundelein is ~150 miles, O'Fallon is ~160 miles...

This will be a great preview going into U of I in two weeks!

21st Annual Youth In Music Marching Band Championships Minneapolis, Minnesota | US Bank Stadium Only one IL band - Rock Island H.S. will be competing in Class 3A. Best of luck to Rock Island! National Anthem 6:55 AM Osseo HS Osseo, MN A 7:00 AM Hutchinson HS Hutchinson, MN A 7:15 AM Harrisburg HS Harrisburg SD A 7:30 AM Andover HS Andover, MN A 7:45 AM Blaine HS Blaine, MN A 8:00 AM Minnetonka HS Minnetonka, MN A 8:15 AM Lourdes HS Rochester, MN A 8:30 AM Coon Rapids HS Coon Rapids, MN A 8:45 AM Anoka HS Anoka, MN A 9:00 AM St Croix Central HS Hammond, WI EXH 9:15 AM Theodore Roosevelt High School Des Moines, IA AA 9:30 AM Sioux Falls O'Gorman HS Sioux Falls, SD AA 9:45 AM Baldwin - Woodville HS Baldwin, WI AA 10:00 AM Brookings HS Brookings, SD AA 10:15 AM Waseca HS Waseca, MN AA 10:30 AM Sioux Falls Roosevelt HS Sioux Falls, SD AA 10:45 AM Champlin Park HS Champlin Park, MN AA 11:00 AM Hastings HS Hastings, MN AA 11:15 AM Mankato Area 77 Lancers Mankato, MN AA 11:30 AM Eastern Carver Country Chaska, MN EXH 11:45 AM Class A, AA Awards 12:00 PM Sioux Falls Washington HS Sioux Falls, SD AAA 12:30 PM Rock Island HS Rock Island, IL AAA 12:45 PM River Falls HS River Falls, WI AAA 1:00 PM Chippewa Falls HS Chippewa, WI AAA 1:15 PM Farmington HS Farmington, MN AAA 1:30 PM Lakeville South HS Lakeville, MN AAA 1:45 PM Marshall HS Marshall, MN AAA 2:00 PM Eden Prairie HS Eden Prairie, MN AAA 2:15 PM Irondale HS New Brighton, MN AAA 2:30 PM Millard North HS Omaha, NE AAAA 2:45 PM Millard West HS Omaha, NE AAAA 3:00 PM Greendale HS Greendale, WI AAAA 3:15 PM Brandon Valley HS Brandon, SD AAAA 3:30 PM Sioux Falls Lincoln HS Sioux Falls SD AAAA 3:45 PM Eastview HS Apple Valley, MN AAAA 4:00 PM Rosemount HS Rosemount , MN AAAA 4:15 PM UWEC Blugold MB Eau Claire, WI CExh 4:30 PM Class AAA, AAAA Awards 4:45 PM

My bold prediction - neither sweep. With the different scoring systems & the different style of shows, it wouldn't surprise me if Paris wins this weekend (possibly with a scoring gap) and then IVC comes back at U of I. Regardless, that back-to-back at U of I makes it a much more fair fight. Judging has also been more consistent (regardless of time slot) at U of I in recent years than ISU. Who knows, at the end of the day, one judge who doesn't like your show or a bad run, can flip all of our predictions on its head!

Happy to see some bands this past weekend (October 4th) opting to go without full uniform & stick to "parade" or "half" uniform with shirts, shorts, just bibbers, etc. Even if some shows are in major crunch time going into next weekend. Haven't seen anything *yet* as dramatic as we saw back in September.

I've resorted to using Facebook most of the time the last two years when looking for videos of marching band shows. Same idea behind the search terms you used, and making sure to hit "recent" posts when sorting the posts.