They call them Super Regionals for a reason. When they roll around on the schedule, every year, the Bands of America season seems to kick into a new gear.
The first four weeks of this year’s BOA slate featured plenty of intriguing
But when you get 62 bands in one place, including a defending Grand National champion and new all-time record score holder, it’s just different.
Here are three takeaways from the Bands of America St. Louis Super Regional Championship
1. Broken ArroWWWWWWWWW
Okay, we’re not going to bury the lede any further on this one. Broken Arrow won.
If you’re not familiar with or are new to the BOA scene, Broken Arrow is an annual headliner amongst BOA circles. 2022’s Grand National champion, based out of the Tulsa, Oklahoma area, as of Saturday, October 15, Broken Arrow has won nine consecutive St. Louis Super Regionals dating back to 2013.
Obviously, subjective scores aren’t exactly a directly comparable statistic on a one-to-one basis from year-to-year. That being said, it’s worth noting that Broken Arrow’s winning tally of 92.425 falls right smack in the middle of its recent winning marks. In 2021, when Broken Arrow ended the year in first, it scored 92.650 in St. Louis.
2018, its last appearance at Grand Nationals, saw Broken Arrow score 92.350 in St. Louis, en route to a final Indianapolis tally of 95.450. Ultimately, there’s not much correlation there. Ultimately, that has a lot to do with what other top ensembles put out in comparison, and that’s a statistical conversation for another month.
But what we can say — and this isn’t any hot take, as proven by a near-decades long streak — Broken Arrow is, once again, Broken Arrow. The numbers, as they stand following last weekend’s St. Louis event, point to another top-three-or-four finish, at minimum, when the dust settles.
2. Blue Springs deserves its moment in the Sun
As someone who enjoys watching competition unfold through a season in any sport or activity — not for the sake of winners and losers, but for the sake of interesting statistics and exciting movements — I always find myself wishing there was a way every band in the country could compete in one place in November and let all the numbers fall as they may.
That’s impossible, I get it. But Blue Springs’ St. Louis output is a prime example of why that’s the case.
Blue Springs isn’t a new face; the Missouri-based band has appeared near the top of the Grand Nationals scoreboard multiple times in recent memory, including a third-place finish in 2018 — ahead of Broken Arrow.
This year, they won’t be appearing at the season-ending event in Indy. And that’s no negative mark on their season. In fact, it’s all the more reason to celebrate and commemorate their eye-catching St. Louis finish.
Blue Springs finished second, cracking 92 points and finishing within 0.45 points of Broken Arrow. For reference, in Broken Arrow’s nine-year streak of St. Louis wins, Blue Springs has competed at all of them, and taken second at all but one — the lone outlier, 2015, saw Blue Springs take third.
In that stretch of St. Louis appearances, 2022’s was: 1) Blue Springs’ highest score, 2) tied for its closest finish to Broken Arrow ever, and 3) its first time owning sole possession of a caption award.
As such — hats off to Blue Springs on a very memorable and noteworthy competitive achievement.
3. As close as it gets
It’s always fun to try and extrapolate a little bit off of major marching events and what they might mean for the future of the season.
As such, how about the close finish between O’Fallon Township and Mustang? This is a pair of bands that has contended for spots the BOA Grand Nationals Top 12 finalist pool in recent years; O’Fallon earned that designation in 2018, earning 12th. while Mustang came relatively close to the cutoff a year ago, earning 19th in Semifinals.
Odds are, they’ll both be looking to do the same this year, as they’re both set to appear in Indianapolis once again. If their close finish in St. Louis is any indication, we may have some close finishes near the top waiting for us at Grand Nats.
Digging deeper into the numbers, Mustang and O’Fallon Township nearly tied in general effect — which accounts for 60 out of 100 total points on BOA recaps, so it often exists as the biggest difference-maker in close races — with O’Fallon ahead by just one tenth. O’Fallon also led by one tenth in visual performance. Further, they actually did tie in music performance.
That’s about as close a race as it gets. For those who enjoy exciting competitive finishes, here’s hoping it’s this close come November.
