I suspect too many people are judging still this year that aren't actively teaching. If you aren't in the trenches this year you truly don't have a chance of really understanding what's going on. Even in my school that forced everyone back face-to-face in the fall we've seen a massive change in what we've been able to do just because of the winter storm hitting us. And that's with us being as close to normal as possible!

At marching contest we had one judge on the panel that legitimately called the contest correct for a normal year. (I probably would have been nicer on one band in a normal year) Unfortunately he didn't have a clue of the fact that honestly a 'one' to me was not a 'one' of last year.

We'll see how it goes for us next week. Lost a great kid to protocol today... I lose many more and I may be hurting.