Western Band Association

Western Band Association (WBA) is a nonprofit organization that promotes high school music education in California, Arizona and Nevada. Specifically, the WBA organizes many marching band competitions for high school students.

In addition to marching band events, WBA also organizes concert band festivals and symposia, musical and leadership clinics. Annually, 12,000 students perform in WBA events and 110 bands participate in multiple competitions hosted throughout the state.

History

The Western Band Association was started in January 1979 by marching band directors from five Northern and Central California high schools: Mike Rubino (Live Oak High School), Ramiro Barrera (Lincoln High School), Dan Smith (Independence High School), Gary Runsten (Modesto High School) and Mel Stratton (Clovis High School).

In 1984, Gary Gilroy (Moreau High School) coined the name "WSMBC", which would later be shortened to WBA in 2002. The first WSMBC Championship was held in conjunction with the 1984 Music Bowl Prelims at James Logan High School. In 1995, John Hannan (Mission Viejo High School) helped expand the organization's efforts to include Southern California bands as well.

In recent years, bands have competed under the "WBA" banner from neighboring states like Washington, Oregon, and Nevada. The scoring system also grew to become a two-tiered criteria based curriculum designed for bands of various size memberships, assuring that the small band would have the same opportunity as the large band to achieve a high score measuring their unique orchestration and design options.

In 2006, the competition schedule has grown to offer consecutive contests in each of the three Regions (Northern, Central and Southern California) helping to alleviate the costs of travel for the bands.

Marching band circuit

The WBA organizes a marching band circuit with competitions held throughout October and November leading up to the circuit championship competition. The circuit currently has five divisions:
* Class A: Bands with up to 60 members
* Class AA: Bands with up to 80 members
* Class AAA: Bands with up to 100 members
* Class AAAA: Bands with up to 140 members
* Class AAAAA: Bands with any number of members
**Prior to 2004, there were only four divisions. The original Class AA was expanded to two classes, now AA and AAA. AAA and AAAA became the current AAAA and AAAAA classes. Prior to this (before 2000), WBA had A-60, A-90, AA, and AAA as the classifications.

During the season, the highest placing band in A, AA, AAA (combined) and then AAAA and AAAAA (combined) is awarded the "Sweepstakes" award, and whatever class that band is in, they are removed from that class, and the next band in placement is moved to "first place" and so on (only for that class). Each competition will have a A, AA, and AAA Sweepstakes winner, and a AAAA/AAAAA sweepstakes winner.

Class champions at the WBA Championships are determined at the conclusion of preliminary competition at championships. After prelims, the bands then move on to one of two finals competitions: the A/AA/AAA Championship and the AAAA/AAAAA Championship. The top 3 bands from each division move on to their respective championship and the remaining field will be filled by the next highest scoring bands.

Finals is determined by:

Top 3 bands from Class A, AA, and AAA, then the next highest 6 bands from those 3 classifications combined (regardless of class and score) for a total of 15 bands in finals.

Top 3 bands from AAAA, and AAAA, then the next highest 9 bands from those 2 classifications combined (regardless of class and score) for a total of 15 bands in finals.

Class Champions

External links

* [http://www.westernbands.org Official website]