For the first time in BOA history, New Mexico is hosting a regional. BOA has consistently had a strong group of programs from the state make finals appearances at regionals such as St. George, Midland, or SoCal, so there’s clearly a strong market for another show in the area. A lot of those bands unsurprisingly will be at this contest, but there are also a lot of bands new to BOA that will be looking to make their way into the top twelve this weekend. Combine the eleven New Mexico programs with a handful of El Paso-area bands (and a few others from across Texas) and this contest of 20 groups is looking to be exciting in more ways than one.
The host of the contest is New Mexico State University, which also hosts one of the premiere contests in the state at the end of every season. The NMSU Tournament of Bands (TOB) draws the top programs from around the state and the El Paso area, so hosting large contests is nothing new for this university. Here is the schedule:
(All Times MT)
9:45 AM - Valencia (NM)
10:00 AM - Alamogordo (NM)
10:15 AM - Eastlake (TX)
10:30 AM - Bel Air (TX)
10:45 AM - Cibola (NM)
11:00 AM - Del Valle (TX)
11:15 AM - Volcano Vista (NM)
BREAK
12:15 PM - Andrews (TX)
12:30 PM - Centennial (NM)
12:45 PM - Eldorado (NM)
1:00 PM - La Cueva (NM)
1:15 PM - Las Cruces (NM)
1:30 PM - Cienega (AZ)
BREAK
2:30 PM - Clovis (NM)
2:45 PM - Grapevine (TX)
3:00 PM - Organ Mountain (NM)
3:15 PM - Riverside (TX)
3:30 PM - Canutillo (TX)
3:45 PM - Eastwood (TX)
4:00 PM - EXH. New Mexico State University
Because of the number of programs that are new to BOA and only attended a few contests in New Mexico last year, I will start by mentioning the Texas bands before summarizing the results from the New Mexico competitions from last year.
The first block of the day features many of the top El Paso bands, the first of which is Eastlake, who should be a familiar name for fans of WGI as they have been WGI Scholastic Open finalists at many events including at World Championships in previous years, most recently in 2018. On the marching season side of things, they most recently qualified for the UIL 5A State Marching Contest in 2019, but are almost always in Area Finals regardless of whether they are 5A or 6A as they have flipped back and forth frequently in recent years. Eastlake is also the only El Paso band that made finals at the NMSU Tournament of Bands last year that will be competing here, placing 2nd overall at the contest. Bel Air is one of the few El Paso bands to have competed in BOA within the past few years, making finals at the Midland and St. George regionals in 2018, and in 2021, they qualified for the UIL 5A State Marching Contest. Del Valle (from El Paso, not to be mistaken with the one in Austin) was a 5A State Qualifier in both 2017 and 2019 and was a 5A Area A Finalist in 2021 as well.
The second block starts out with Andrews, a first-time BOA attendee from outside of Midland. They’re coming off a successful competitive season which unfortunately ended in tragedy when their head band director passed away following a head-on collision on the highway as he was driving the band to a playoff football game. They are also the only Texas band in the second block.
Moving on to the third block, Grapevine is making the trip all the way from DFW this year, similar to what they did last year by going to BOA McAllen on the first weekend of contests, where they placed 9th overall and 3rd in Class AAA. The last Texas band to perform is Eastwood, another one of the top programs in the El Paso area; they are an off-and-on UIL 6A Area A finalist.
Now for a summary of where a handful of the New Mexico programs placed at the three major competitions in state and BOA in 2021:
Alamogordo:
Zia Marching Fiesta - 9th in finals, 1st in Class AA
NMSU Tournament of Bands - 1st in Class B
Cibola:
Pageant of Bands - 3rd in Class 4A
Zia Marching Fiesta - 3rd in Class AAA
Volcano Vista:
Pageant of Bands - 1st in Class 3A
Zia Marching Fiesta - 8th overall in finals
Centennial:
Pageant of Bands - 2nd in Class 4A
NMSU Tournament of Bands - 10th overall in finals
Eldorado:
Pageant of Bands - 2nd in Class 5A
Zia Marching Fiesta - 10th overall in finals, 2nd in Class AAA
La Cueva:
Pageant of Bands - 3rd in Class 5A
Zia Marching Fiesta - 6th overall in finals, 1st in Class AAA
BOA St. George - 11th overall in finals, 2nd in Class AAA
Las Cruces:
Zia Marching Fiesta - 7th overall in finals
NMSU Tournament of Bands - 5th overall in finals
Clovis:
Zia Marching Fiesta - 1st overall in finals, 1st in Class AAAA
Organ Mountain:
Zia Marching Fiesta - 2nd overall in finals, 2nd in Class AAAA
NMSU Tournament of Bands - 3rd overall in finals
While I expect all nine of these programs above to be in the running for finals, the two most likely to be in the running for the regional title are Clovis and Organ Mountain. Clovis is no new name for BOA fans, as they started their swift ascent in the mid-2010s and made history in 2018 at St. Louis as being the first band from New Mexico to make Super Regional Finals. They took the year off from BOA in 2021, but will return this year hoping to claim their first BOA Regional Champion title in school history. Organ Mountain may appear to be a brand new band that came out of nowhere at first glance, but the school actually had a name change in July 2021, being formally known as Oñate High School, and they have competed at BOA events as recently as 2019. They finished a mere 0.15 points behind Clovis at ZMF, taking silver, and took home bronze at TOB as the highest placing New Mexico band in attendance, which is also the highest an in-state band has placed at NMSU since Clovis last attended in 2016 (which was also the last time a NM band won the contest). Centennial, La Cueva, and Las Cruces will also be competitive for places in the top half of finals here, along with some of the Texas bands in attendance.
Overall, there are many unknowns going into this contest as most of these programs have never participated in BOA or haven’t been regulars in a very long time. Hopefully, this will be one of the most entertaining contests of the season!
Aaron Blackley is one of the original contributors for General Effect Media. Despite being young and fresh out of college, he has a vast knowledge and passion for the marching arts and has worked alongside the likes of HornRank as a ranker and moderator as well as the TxBands.com liveblog team since summer 2021. He can be found on Twitter as @GEMAaronB.