We played this with The Corpus Christi Wind Symphony for this past concert. I've played it once before I think with an honor band when I was in high school... (been a few years ago now!) Our conductor was out and I had to fill in for conducting it at the last minute when the planned sub was out. It was my first time working through it with the score. My gut feeling is that there are a lot more pieces at that level that are probably a better bet for you to go with. It is an amazing piece of music, but I think you need to really be able/willing to dive into a level of detail that takes a varsity level of thinking. Maybe you do have that kind of group in that large of a school, but I would be leery. It's not a 'modern' piece, so there are some old-school writing traps you'll have to contend with.

If you're really serious about it, consider reaching out to Bill Cason down here in region 14 who's the region secretary. He plays in our group and afterward spoke with me about the piece with a ton of passion. (He should have been the one up there conducting it!) He had figured out a lot of places where you could teach something to multiple sections that are just repeated fragments and such.

I would recommend if you're going to do it you really dive into score study. I was amazed how much was in there, and a lot of cool little hidden tidbits here and there.

But seriously, if you have this many people saying - avoid it, play it for a spring concert and find something that's a little safer for UIL.