“My band beat that band, why are they ranked higher?”… 

“My band scored 5 points higher than that band, how could they possibly beat us?”… 

“My band gets no love on the polls”…

“What do the red numbers mean?”… 

“Concord in 5th?!?!?” 

Odds are if you’ve ever been in the chat room on Monday evenings for one of our Live Poll Releases, you’ve seen these questions (and similar ones) pop up from time to time. You may have even made one of these comments yourself (although if you made the Concord comment, hopefully you’ve learned by now that Concord being in 5th generally means squat by the end of the year). Well, I’m going to give you an inside look into the process I personally go through each week when deciding how to vote in the poll. Hopefully by the end, you’ll have a better understanding of what all goes into the decision-making process each week. 

Before you read any further, if you haven’t read the “How the Poll Works” page on our website before, please take a couple minutes to read it.

http://www.indianamarching.com/polls/writerspoll/howdoesthepollwork.php

If that was your first time reading that section, hopefully you’ve learned a little more about the polls. Most of what you’ll read in this article directly ties into that page, but now you’re going to get a little more of an in depth look at what criteria I used when ranking each of the groups.

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The General Process

As all of you know, each Saturday the available IM staff members head out to various contests across the state to capture video (and Live Stream) various performances. What you don’t see is the hours of work we do in the following days to not only prepare the video clips for the Video Vault, but also to make sure we’re as familiar with as many of the bands as possible to make an accurate vote in our poll. As soon as we get home Saturday night, we begin the capture and encoding process so we can get our videos uploaded as quickly as possible for the staff and directors on our voting panel. We also spend a little bit of time (while we still have energy) discussing what we each saw live that day. For me, I even begin to put together a preliminary poll based strictly on the results in hand. I usually start with my own poll from the week before, and start making adjustments based on the results, making note of all the shows I feel will require viewing if available. When looking at results, obviously the head-to-head results are given the most weight. I never compare scores between different competitions, and I don’t put as much stock in score comparison between groups that are in the same ISSMA class but compete in different classes at an invitational (mostly the Southern Indiana shows). I certainly don’t ignore results from other circuits (MSBA, BOA), but those results are also not looked at quite the same because the sheets are different.

Since the encoding process can take a while, we all head to bed to get our beauty sleep before diving into the videos on Sunday. After church on Sunday, I start watching videos, spending the majority of the day (when the Colts aren’t playing) doing nothing but watching videos. If I know I have to work on Sunday night, I put videos on my phone and watch them during down periods at work. Trust me, we watch more videos on a given weekend than a lot people watch in a year. If I’m having a hard time ranking the bands, I’ll watch certain videos multiple times to try and get the best possible read. As I’m watching videos, I’m moving bands up and down on my rankings based on these video comparisons. After work on Monday, I’ll do any last minute video watching I feel is necessary, double check all results to make sure I didn’t overlook anything, and finalize my poll before submitting it.

So, now you have a general idea of what we all we do each weekend before submitting our polls. Since I’m also in charge of tabulating the poll, I also make sure to double-check all poll submissions, and ask any necessary questions of voters to make sure they didn’t have any glaring omissions. Sometimes it can be easier than you think to overlook someone when you’re trying to cram so many good bands into 15 slots, so I try to make extra sure that I’m as familiar with the groups as possible to ensure all poll voters have weighed every option.

Without any more delay, let’s take a look at how I voted in my poll this past week, and the reasons why I ranked groups where I did.

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Class D

 
The top 3 in Class D have been fairly consistent for the past several years (with the exception of Paoli getting third last year), so it’s a pretty safe bet at this point in the season that those 3 bands are going to be there again. I’m not counting Paoli out of the picture yet, but I think for now they’re a solid fourth. Here’s how my top 3 went this week.

1) Forest Park (Last Week: 1)

I’ve seen Forest Park on video twice now, and I don’t remember ever being as impressed with a Class D band this early as I am with Forest Park right now. Now, that’s not to say they don’t have some things that need improvement (biggest thing for me right now is ensemble music), but I think right now they’ve got a little bit of a lead on the rest of the pack.

2) Lewis Cass (Last Week: 2)

I saw Lewis Cass live during week 2 at Maconaquah. It’s a show that can easily win another State Title, and if Forest Park wasn’t so impressive, they’d be my favorite. I think right now they’ve got maybe a small edge on Forest Park in music (that’s with the assumption that the normal improvement was made from week 2 to week 3, since we have no video to compare from week 3). Being the defending champion gives them the edge over Springs Valley right now for second.

3) Springs Valley (Last Week: 3)

I only have week 1 video to go on right now (which was certainly impressive). I’ve got to admit, hearing Steve Rondinaro and Dennis DeLucia calling golf action takes a little getting used to. They go head to head with Forest Park this weekend at Districts, so if they’re able to win a couple captions, they could easily leap into first for me next week.

As I said above, Paoli for me is a solid fourth place, I don’t think right now they’re at the level of the top 3, but they’re certainly capable of catching them (as they did last year).

4) Paoli (Last Week: 4)

They’re capable of reaching the top 3, but also more susceptible to being caught by the next group. Districts should be a good indicator of which group they’re closer to. I’ll be keeping a close eye on the Class D Jasper District this weekend.

After the top 4 (which I’d consider near-locks for State Finals), there’s a fairly large group of bands in the mix for the other 6 spots. I’ve got 7 bands that I feel the most strongly about as of right now, but there’s about 10 more behind them that are all capable of making State as well. For these next 7 groups, the biggest factors that went into my rankings were the head-to-head results (where applicable), and video comparison (where available). This is how I ended up ranking them…

5) Monrovia (Last Week: 5)

Since we have no video or real head-to-head comparison to use for Monrovia, they are kind of getting the benefit of the doubt from me right now. They’re certainly capable of making the top 5 (fourth in 2009), and they usually are a strong band out of the gate, so for now they’ll stay 5th until someone else distances themselves from the second tier. The one thing that either gives me pause or makes me notice another group is that their gap over Morristown shrank from 6.6 points to 2.2 points in two weeks. The showdown with Clay City this week is something to watch.

These next three groups have been really closely bunched the first three weeks. While I’ve taken the scores into account, I’ve also been doing my own judging through video comparison (since the scores have been close). For this week, South Spencer got the top spot in the group, but I anticipate these three flipping around several more times this year.

6) South Spencer (Last Week: 8)

Someone on the forums wanted to know why South Spencer wasn’t getting any love. I don’t really know how much more love I can give you guys! It’s hard to rank a band in the top 5 when they haven’t been to State in 11 years, but this group is not only capable of breaking that streak, they’re capable of making a statement in the process.

7) Mater Dei (Last Week: 9)

They get the edge over Southridge this week because of their win at Evansville North.

8) Southridge (Last Week: 6)

I’m aware they beat South Spencer head-to-head at Castle in the day show. But like I said above, with such close scores, I went by video comparison this week, and based on that, they fall a couple spots to 8th this week.

9) Adams Central (Last Week: 10)

They’ve yet to lose on the season, but they’ve also not competed against too many bands. They have knocked off a State Finalist from last year (Bluffton), so that’s certainly worth something. I saw this group live the first week, and while fairly clean for week 1, I thought it was lacking emotion. Well, based on the video from Penn, I think they’re starting to get it (and it’s never easy performing in the rain/sleet). We won’t truly have a good barometer on them until Regionals, so for now it’s back to the handy video comparison, and with that they come in 9th this week.

10) Clay City (Last Week: Unranked)

Jumping from unranked to the top 10 is certainly an accomplishment in my eyes, and perhaps I’ve been underrating them so far this year, but seeing them live at Avon made me take notice (not to mention knocking off one of my top 10 groups from the prior week).

11) Eastern Greentown (Last Week: 11)

I saw them live at Maconaquah and I have to admit, I really like this show. I was a little surprised by the results that day. I have a feeling they’ll make their way back into the top 10 before too long, and I could see them even improving on their 6th place finish last year.

Those are the groups that I feel have the best shot right now at making State Finals, but I wouldn’t consider any of them a lock at this point. Right behind them is a large group of bands that are all in the mix and it saddens me that only 20 bands will make it to Semi-State (unless we get another tie for 10th at regionals), because Class D is really loaded with quality groups this year. It was really hard to narrow down this group to only 4 bands, but that’s the way these polls work. This is what I decided on this week.

12) Taylor (Last Week: 15)

I have them 12th because they beat Eastern (Greentown) in week 2 at Maconaquah. Like I said, I didn’t necessarily agree with the results, but those were still the results, and I have to give credit when it’s due.

13) Orleans (Last Week: 7)

I was a little disappointed with you guys at Avon this past week. I know you’re capable of more, which is why I didn’t drop you completely off the poll. You’ve got a challenge in front of you going first off the line at the loaded Jasper Class D District, but make some noise, and you’ll be right back in the thick of things.

14) Crawford County (Last Week: Unranked)

I was very impressed with your week 1 video from Springs Valley (I believe I had you ranked 15th that week), so I’ve been keeping an eye on you guys all season. While I haven’t had any videos to watch since then, a solid win over Henryville and being within 4 points ahead of a great Class C band like North Harrison was enough to warrant inclusion in my poll again this week.

15) South Knox (Last Week: Unranked)

It’s great to see new bands getting deserved recognition on our polls. I have to admit when I got my score alert from Evansville North and saw that you knocked off Gibson Southern, I was scratching my head a little. Even after hearing from Matt and Moe that it was legit, I was still hesitant…until I watched the video! Holy cow! These guys can play!! That was all the proof I needed that you should get my last spot this week.

Sadly, I have to stop at 15. Maybe one of these days if everyone keeps getting better, we’ll start expanding our voting to 20 bands. But I would like to at least mention the other bands that I strongly considered this week. In no particular order, they were Morristown, Eastside, Bluffton (12th in my poll last week), North Posey (13th in my poll last week), Perry Central (14th in my poll last week), and Henryville. I watched all these videos (where available) and ultimately just couldn’t fit you in this week.

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Class C

Class C is shaping up just like it has the last several years: Western…then everyone else. Week 1 caused a little concern until we realized that 1) they only performed their opener and 2) Maconaquah is actually REALLY good this year. Week 2 (I saw them live) confirmed what we all expected, Western is just the class of the field again this year. Now, please don’t assume we’re just handing Western their fifth straight championship, because we aren’t. I’ve actually been quite impressed with a couple groups that I think could still give Western a run come November 3rd. But for now, until someone rises to the challenge, Western is going to remain firmly in the first place spot.

1) Western (Last Week: 1)

Just another outstanding show and they’re starting to perform it like the champion band they are.

After Western, there’s five groups that have so far proven they belong in the top 5 (or near it anyway). Four of these groups most people expected to be here (they filled out the top 5 last year), but the other group has been consistently hanging with them (in my eyes) all year. I’ve watched these 5 bands on video many times trying to decide how to rank the Northern groups versus the Central groups. This week, my votes went like this…

2) Norwell (Last Week: 2)

Having consistently beaten Concordia Lutheran so far this year, they’ll continue to get the edge for 2nd place in my poll until Concordia can catch them.

3) Concordia Lutheran (Last Week: 3)

While I have them third, to me, this is the band (and show) most capable of knocking Western off their throne. Being a Fort Wayne guy, I’d love to see them do it too.

4) Edgewood (Last Week: 4)

It’s still a tough call trying to compare them to the two groups above. I think it’ll really be a tight race in the end. Since it’s so close in my eyes, I’m keeping them 4th because Norwell and Concordia were both ahead of them at State last year.

5) Maconaquah (Last Week: 5)

Ah, Maconaquah. They’ve continued to prove that Week 1’s defeat of Beech Grove and close call with Western wasn’t a fluke. They even took a caption from Western this past weekend at Twin Lakes. It’s been a while since they’ve made State, but so far their first trip to Lucas Oil Stadium is looking more and more certain.

6) Beech Grove (Last Week: 6)

It was my first time seeing Beech Grove this past weekend, and while I know there are still a lot of things to improve upon, this show has all the makings of another Runner-Up show (or who knows, maybe their first State Championship). The one thing that is certain to me though is that the horn line has to start improving. It was hard to believe this was the same group that won music (yes!) at State last year. If the horn line starts to live up to their potential, this will be a show to watch.

After these 6 groups, it’s a total crapshoot (like usual). Just like Class D, where everyone who makes Semi-State is a State contender, Class C is probably even deeper (which is usually the case every year). Just look at last year with Heritage Hills. They got a silver rating at Regionals, then proceeded to shock the band world and not only make State Finals, but finish 7th. We could easily see another scenario like that this year (who knows, lightning may strike twice for Heritage Hills, although I’m sure they’d prefer the gold at Regionals along the way). Of all the groups in the mix, one group to me has stood out a little bit more…

7) Angola (Last Week: 7)

I knew as soon as I saw them week 1 that this was a different Angola band. They had an edge that had been missing these last couple years. They backed it up in week 2 by taking a caption from Edgewood. They remain 7th because they’ve been more consistent than everyone else, and I just haven’t seen anyone that’s quite at their level yet. It should be interesting to see if they’ve gained any ground on Norwell and Concordia this weekend.

8) North Harrison (Last Week: Unranked)

You know, I think I just forgot about them last week honestly. They haven’t been quite as strong out of the gate as last year, but this is still a band that finished 6th last year and this past weekend they beat Scottsburg (who I was very impressed with after week 2). I promise I won’t forget about you again.

9) Scottsburg (Last Week: 8)

They definitely have an improved show over last year, though it’s not quite on the level of their back-to-back 4th place finishes. They’re still solidly in the mix for a spot at State. I was a little disappointed by the finish at BOA, but BOA is a different animal than ISSMA, so I’m not too concerned.

10) Fairfield (Last Week: 9)

It’s always a challenge to compare the Class C bands from the North and the South every year. Even on video, with so many groups in seemingly the same ballpark each week, it’s almost easier (and less time-consuming) to pick names out of a hat. For the record, I haven’t resorted to doing that (yet). Fairfield is a great group. They’ve maintained their excellence even after bumping up to Class C several years ago. They’ve made State 3 years in a row, and I’m sure those Seniors want to make sure they make it 4 for 4. To me they’re a step below Angola, but right on that line with North Harrison & Scottsburg.

11) NorthWood (Last Week: 12)

They made us take notice in week 2 at DeKalb by beating Leo and Woodlan (barely), and they solidified that by winning their class at Hamilton Southeastern this past weekend. This year, they’re attending the loaded Class C Homestead District, so we’ll see if they can continue to hang around the top 10. They’re one of the few bands out there that we’ve yet to see on video, so right now we’ve just got to go on results, which they’re producing so far.

12) Leo (Last Week: 13)

I finally got to see a video of Leo this past weekend, and after a rough start at the beginning of the show, the second half just proved that they aren’t satisfied by just making State Finals. They were just barely behind Fairfield this past weekend (even took two captions), and with a great performance at Districts, they could find themselves back in the top 10.

13) Vincennes Lincoln (Last Week: 11)

Here’s another group that I’d love to put in the top 10, but I just couldn’t find any room! They’re starting to round back into the State Finalist form they had in the 2000’s, and they could easily find themselves back again. I dropped them this week based on video comparison with Leo and Fairfield, who I thought had slightly better performances.

14) Woodlan (Last Week: 14)

They just continue to hang around, not showing any signs of backing down after moving up to Class C. I feel like they’re just kind of lurking in the background, waiting to make their move. They had another solid performance at East Noble this past weekend.

15) Tri-West (Last Week: 15)

I was impressed enough by their video from week 1 that I knew I had to fit them in my poll somewhere, and I was once again impressed enough seeing them live at Avon that I knew I couldn’t take them off, so they continue to hold the 15th slot (3 weeks in a row now). Until someone else impresses me more, you’ll continue to get my vote.

As I said, Class C is completely loaded. And just like Class D, I wish I could vote for 20 bands, because there are at least that many who deserve votes (seeing as how 21 bands received votes). Some of the bands that I left off, but gave strong consideration to were Gibson Southern (10th in my poll last week), Mt. Vernon, Danville, Princeton, Northwestern, John Glenn, Twin Lakes, Garrett, Heritage, and Salem. That’s 25 bands I found worthy of consideration this week, and that doesn’t even include Heritage Hills (who I haven’t forgotten about). If that’s not a loaded class, I don’t know what is.

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Class B

These last two years have seen the top 5 groups separate themselves a little from the rest of Class B, but after this past weekend, the landscape of Class B is beginning to change just a bit. Since 1989 (minus the 2 year ascension of Avon), the State Champion from Class B has come from one of three groups: Greenwood, Northview, and Concord. Every other class in that same stretch has had at least twice that many different State Champions. Jasper and Goshen (when they’ve been in Class B) have been right in the mix with those groups almost every year. For my poll this week, it’s these two groups leading the pack. I watched both of these shows several times, and ultimately decided on this order.

1) Jasper (Last Week: 5)

Yeah, they rose from 5th to 1st on my poll this week. I wasn’t blown away by their week 1 video, but seeing them live (and perhaps that helped sway my mind) I was able to see that they’re certainly much better than I expected. You mix that in with a decisive victory over Northview (who I was also very impressed by), and for this week they take my top spot.

2) Goshen (Last Week: 2)

It was hard not to vote them in first. They’re once again strong early on, and maybe this year they’ll maintain that edge for the remainder of the season. I’m sure they know Concord (and Northridge?) isn’t going away quietly. We’ll have to wait all the way until Semi-State this year to see the Northern groups and the Southern groups finally meet up, but I have a feeling patience will pay off for us all, because Class B is going to be a war.

3) Greenwood (Last Week: 3)

I’m having a hard time getting a read on Greenwood. I watched their video from week 2 a couple times, and it’s just such a different show for Greenwood than what we’re all used to. I think it’s too early to say if that’s a good or bad thing, but either way, they’ll be near the top. They haven’t finished outside the top 3 more than twice since winning their first title in 1986. That’s a long stretch of excellence. I really need to see this group live.

4) Northview (Last Week: 5)

I loved this show at Avon. I think it was the best I’ve seen them at the Avon show in a long time. It did feel like the skeleton of a more complete show still to come, but what they did, they did really well. I had a hard time even putting them fourth because they were so impressive, but that’s just how good Class B is.

5) Concord (Last Week: 1)

I know Concord is used to taking big dives in our poll, and I’m sure they could care less. Anyone who follows Class B knows that Concord always starts out a little slower than most groups, but by the end of the season, they’re placing much higher than people expect. They held on to that top spot for several weeks this year because they were the defending champions, and we had no official results to justify dropping them. Even though they got beat by Northridge this past week, I can’t yet justify dropping them out of the top 5 right now, given all the reasons above.

After the top 5, I think there’s another group of 5 bands that have maybe put some separation between themselves and the other Class B contenders.

6) Northridge (Last Week: 7)

Week 1 didn’t really do anything to make me notice Northridge, but jumping 17 points and being a respectable 2.45 points behind Goshen in Week 2 sure made me pay attention. Knocking off Concord in Week 3 was enough to earn them the sixth spot (over two groups who I think can also make a great argument for this spot).

7) Floyd Central (Last Week: 8)

I finally found a video from this past weekend (on YouTube), and I’m glad I did, because I was considering dropping them more due to a lack of quality results to go off of. But watching them on video just confirms that they’re still a major player in Class B.

8) Munster (Last Week: 6)

If you haven’t already watched the week 2 clip of Munster, please do so, because it’s just a whole lot of fun! I saw them live at Maconaquah in week 2, and was thoroughly impressed. They’re taking a little bit of a drop from me this week because they didn’t compete, but I expect some interesting things out of the Concord District this weekend that could cause the Class B poll to get even crazier.

9) DeKalb (Last Week: 10)

I saw them Week 1 at Bluffton, and I admit I was a little disappointed (the lighthouse prop is really cool though). But their strong showing at Penn was enough to bump them up a spot this week.

10) New Castle (Last Week: 9)

I think they’re a solid top 10 group right now, I just couldn’t find any room above to fit them in yet. They dropped a spot because of DeKalb’s impressive results at Penn, and because I didn’t have any video from this past weekend to compare to.

After that second group, there’s a decent size group of bands who are going to be gunning to steal one of the Finals spots. While Class B isn’t quite as deep as Classes C & D, there are still quite a few quality bands out there that could make a case for being ranked right now.

11) North Side (Last Week: 12)

They had a decent show at Penn, and they weren’t too far behind DeKalb, but I think right now they’re just outside the top 10. They’re easily capable of moving into that next group though in the coming weeks.

12) Zionsville (Last Week: Unranked)

I’ve been doing quite a bit of flip-flopping on these last four groups for the first three weeks. For this week, I went with Zionsville in 12th. They had a solid score at Greenwood, but they aren’t quite at the level of the top 11 right now in my eyes.

13) New Palestine (Last Week: 15)

I probably should’ve had them ranked ahead of Zionsville due to their narrow victory over them in week 2 at Plainfield. Still, they moved up from last week with an impressive showing at the MSBA show at Hamilton Southeastern.

14) Bloomington North (Last Week: Unranked)

They weren’t too far behind Zionsville at Greenwood this past weekend, and that was enough to warrant inclusion in my poll this week.

15) Plymouth (Last Week: 13)

They had another solid, though not spectacular showing at Penn this past weekend. They’ve got an enjoyable show that could push them to the brink of State Finals, and if things align in their favor, they could sneak in for just their second State Finals appearance (and first in Class B).

I fully expect to have plenty more changes in the bottom of my poll from here on out. It was hard to leave off a couple groups, but I felt these 15 groups did the most with their opportunities this week. But if you’re marching for Plainfield (11th last week), FJ Reitz (14th last week), Elkhart Central, or Evansville North (to name a few), don’t get too concerned, because Class B is still anybody’s guess.

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Class A

As you can see from the past two polls, the staff & directors have been pretty split on who’s ahead right now in Class A. I’ve even flipped back and forth myself these first couple weeks. Since Homestead and the Indianapolis area schools won’t meet up until Semi-State, I’ve been relying on video comparison each week. Here’s how the top 2 ended up this week for me…

1) Homestead (Last Week: 2)

I saw them live the first week at Bluffton (and at their first home football game as well), and while I thought they were good, I wasn’t really digging the show. Well, this week’s video finally made me feel that Homestead magic. Usually if a band impresses me live (which Avon did this week), I end up voting for the band I saw live, because it leaves more of an impression, but to me Homestead was clearly superior to Avon in my eyes this week.

2) Avon (Last Week: 1)

Like I stated above, I was very impressed with what I saw in person this week, and had Homestead not been so good, this would’ve been the clear number one for me. I have a feeling though that Avon may get more first place votes from me before the season is over though. It’s going to be an awesome Class A State Finals again this year.

While these two groups have put a little separation between themselves and the next two groups right now, I think before this season is over, we’re going to be seeing the top 4 begin to tighten up with some surprises possible before it’s over.

3) Lawrence Central (Last Week: 3)

If there was one thing I took from watching videos after week 2 it was this: Lawrence Central is BACK! Not that they really went anywhere, but they’re bigger, they’re louder and they’re cleaner than they’ve been in several years. To me this is easily their best show since Echosphere, and if things go there way, great things are bound to happen for them this season. While they did get beat by Carmel (BARELY) at Avon, I went with my own opinion on this one, because I thought they were the better band that night.

4) Carmel (Last Week: 4)

I was really disappointed with Carmel’s music performance at Avon. Perhaps it was a bad run, maybe they’re struggling a little bit early on (is this a younger group?), but this wasn’t the Carmel sound I’m used to hearing. The visual performance was exactly what I expected, and I was really digging a lot of the design elements in the show. It’s way too early to count Carmel out of anything, but at least this week, I’m a bit skeptical of putting them in the championship picture.

After the top 4 groups, I’ve got a group of 3 bands that I feel are in the same range right now. It’s hard to tell which one (or more) could get that last top 5 spot at State Finals, but I think they’ll all be in the mix for a Grand National finals spot come November.

5) Center Grove (Last Week: 5)

I love this show for Center Grove right now. I really hope they can max out with it, because I think it has a ton of potential. For that reason, I’ve got them in 5th right now.

6) Lake Central (Last Week: 7)

At times during the week 2 video, I got the sense of a top 5 band, but at other times, I had a hard time buying into it. This is a show I’ll definitely need to see live to start to appreciate. Unless my ears deceived me, you are playing one of my favorite pieces for part of your show (Lincoln Portrait), so I fully expect to love this show by the end of the season.

7) Ben Davis (Last Week: 6)

They dropped a spot this week because I was a little disappointed with the results from BOA Louisville (not that third is bad, but was expecting a little more). I can’t rank them ahead of Center Grove yet because of Center Grove’s win in week 2. They’re very capable of passing the two groups in front of them and maybe even some of the four at the top.

These seven groups I feel extremely confident about being at State Finals this year. However, after these seven groups, I think Class A is as wide open as it’s been in a long, long time. I spent a lot of time on the bottom half of my Class A poll this week, and while I’m happy with my rankings, I have a feeling the final results could be very different.

8) Lawrence North (Last Week: 10)

While I have a very hard time buying into the legitimacy of the win over Lawrence Central, given the performance times being 8 hours apart, the interesting judging panel, and what I believe to be poor numbers management, nobody else has that kind of win on their resume this year. The week 2 video was very impressive and proved that you were going to be a player this year.

9) Carroll (Last Week: 11)

While Snider did beat them this week at Penn, I took into consideration the prior two weeks that Carroll was ahead, plus my own opinion that Carroll has more room to grow with their show, and ultimately it was that potential that made me put them ahead this week, but I did flip-flop the two groups on a couple occasions while working on my poll.

10) Snider (Last Week: 13)

This is a strong show for Snider, and easily in the mix for a spot at State. If they continue to stay ahead of Carroll, they’ll assuredly move up the rankings, but there are a couple groups behind them that will be right on their tail.

11) Castle (Last Week: 8)

Since they won’t see any other Class A bands until Regionals, with Castle I’m mostly just using video comparison. I do think they’re in the same vicinity as the rest of these groups, but being two points behind Forest Park (yes, Forest Park is REALLY good) I felt they needed to drop a little bit this week.

12) Penn (Last Week: 9)

Saturday’s performance just wasn’t a good performance. I’m sure they all know this and are working hard this week to improve upon that. Once they start to round back into Penn form, they’ll move back into the top 10, but this week they had to drop.

13) Lafayette Jefferson (Last Week: 12)

They’re kind of in the same boat as Castle in that they don’t see any other Class A groups until later in the season. This year we’ll be waiting until the Homestead Fall Festival of Bands to see where they really fit in the mix. I did see them live in week 2, and it’s another good show this year, but for now they’re in this spot because I just couldn’t find room for them above.

14) Fishers (Last Week: 14)

They weren’t too far behind Lawrence North in week 2, so I think they’re certainly in the picture for a spot at State Finals. They have beaten last year’s Finalist, Franklin Central, twice now, and that counts for something in my eyes.

15) Hamilton Southeastern (Last Week: Unranked)

I didn’t really have anything to go on this week on why to give them a vote (no video, exhibition performance at their own show). They got the last spot over Franklin Central because I’m just not buying into Franklin Central (who had my 15th spot last week) right now. Depending what they get at Districts this week, they could either move up or back off the poll next week.

I did consider quite a few other groups this week (some more than others), but settled on the 15 listed above. The other groups I considered were Franklin Central, Warren Central, Columbus North, Terre Haute North, Brownsburg, LaPorte, and Decatur Central.

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Closing Thoughts

Even while writing this article, I’ve second guessed myself on multiple picks. That just shows how hard it is to rank so many great bands each week. Please keep in mind, that in the end, this poll is still just the opinions of 22 individuals who share a love and also teach in this outstanding activity. We do our best to recognize as many groups as possible, but there are so many outstanding groups out there that don’t get recognized at all, so I hope everyone will continue to push themselves to get the most out of their marching careers and not get too caught up in the polls and the scores. Yes, competition can be a great tool to maximize your abilities and I encourage everyone to put everything you have into your performances, but memories last longer than rankings and trophies, so cherish the memories you make, because eventually you’ll move on to other things.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief look into the poll process. Maybe someday one or two of you will be helping us here at IndianaMarching.com, and you’ll get to experience the poll voting process for yourself. Until then, I hope you’re all participating in the Fan Poll that we offer on the front page so you can get your own little taste of the process.

I welcome any comments you may have, and you can send them to me personally at seth@indianamarching.com.

Hate mail can be sent to moe@indianamarching.com.