Five bands from Hockley and Cochran County competed at the Region 16 Marching Band Contest at Lowrey Field in Lubbock this past Saturday with four advancing.
Bands performed for three judges - Jon Kraemer, Jim Bode and Jesus Perez - in hopes of earning scores to move them forward with their eye on the state competition. Judges evaluate both music and visual performance.
Beyond the Region level, UIL shifts to a competitive ranking system using a panel of five judges for 1A, 2A, and 3A (three music and two visual visual).Conferences 4A, 5A, and 6A use seven judges (four music, two visual, and one contest and design).
Whiteface competed in Conference 1A, earning perfect scores of 1, 1, 1, with a final score of 1, advancing the band to the state preliminary round scheduled for Nov. 3 at the Alamodome in San Antonio. The 1A finals are later that evening. The Whiteface band is under the direction of Nikki Moore and Will Moncrief.
The 1A conference has only three rounds including region, state preliminary round and state contest.
In Conference 2A, Ropes and Sundown bands advanced with perfect scores among 13 competing bands. Ropes band is under the direction of Nora Brazil, Heather Scoggins and Jay Sedberry, and the Sundown band is directed by Justin Mauldin, Daniel Lander and Michael Watts.
Both bands competed at state in 2025, with Ropes earning a state runner-up title and Sundown placing third.
Other 2A bands earning a Final score of 1 were Abernathy, Bovina, Floydada, Hale Center, Lockney, New Deal, Plains, Post, Seagraves and Tahoka.
Levelland competed among five bands in Conference 4A. Levelland earned scores of 1, 2, 1, with a final score of 1, advancing them to the area competition.
Other bands punching their ticket to area include Lubbock Cooper, Plainview and Seminole.
UIL advancement for 2A and 4A includes five rounds including Region, Area preliminary, Area final round, State preliminary and State contest final round. In cases where there are less than 10 bands at the area contest there will be only four rounds, with the area final round being eliminated.
According to UIL, the 2A band area competition will be held at Lowery Field in Lubbock on Oct. 31. The 4A area competition is scheduled for Oct. 31 at Bivens Stadium in Amarillo.
The 2A bands that advance out of area will compete in the state preliminaries on Nov. 10, with the finals in the evening on the same day. The 4A bands competing at state are scheduled for Nov. 11 with preliminaries in the morning and finals in the evening. All state marching band competitions are held at the Alamodome.
To view the state contest online, the National Association of State High School Associations (NFHS) Network has contracted with UIL to provide live streaming for the event.