About the Contest
About
Houston’s premiere independent marching band competition hosted by The Woodlands High School Band and Boosters.
The panel
Who judges
Lone Star Preview
Each year, Lone Star Preview is proud to present a panel of the finest adjudicators, educators, and performers from across the country to share their expertise through the evaluation of your program.
Dr. Chip Crotts
Acworth, GA
Director of Jazz Studies and Assistant Director of Bands – Georgia Tech University; Brass Caption Head and Advisor – Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps; DCI/WGI/BOA Adjudicator
Darrin Davis
Broken Arrow, OK
Executive Director of Fine Arts – Broken Arrow, OK Schools; 30+ year Director of Bands – Broken Arrow HS; 21 BOA Regional Champion; 4-time BOA Grand National Champion; Music for All Hall of Fame inductee; DCI/BOA Adjudicator
David Glyde
Diamond Bar, CA
Long-time Music Director – Blue Devils Drum and Bugle Corps; Winner of 13 DCI Championships; Composer/Arranger noted for innovating all marching arts music; Designed and coordinated music for 2 Olympic opening ceremonies; DCI Hall of Fame inductee
Josh Nelson
Old Hickory, TN
Executive Director – Music City Mystique – WGI Independent World Percussion ensemble; 8-time WGI Percussion World Champion
Colin McNutt
Amherst, MA
Director of Percussion for 2025 DCI World Champion Boston Crusaders Drum and Bugle Corps; Winner of 2025 Fred Sanford Award for Best Percussion Performance with a perfect score; Former Percussion Caption Supervisor/Head for Cadets Drum and Bugle Corps; Composes/arranges for marching bands in US and internationally
Kyle Miller
Las Vegas, NV
Consults and adjudicates pageantry arts throughout US, Europe, Thailand, and Japan; Served as Judge Liaison and Chief Judge in Illinois and Texas; Currently teaches English Language Arts, and advises Leadership, Publications, and the school's Forensics Team; DCI/WGI/BOA Adjudicator
Randy Nelson
Jacksonville, FL
Visual designer, consultant, clinician throughout the US and internationally; Served 20+ years as WGI President and Board of Directors; Former Director of Bands – Choctawhatchee High School (FL); Current visual designer – Jacksonville State University Marching Southerners, University of Central Florida (UCF) Marching Knights, and UCF Pegasus Winter Guard; WGI Hall of Fame inductee; DCI/WGI/BOA Adjudicator
Jim Sturgeon
Henderson, NV
25+ year visual designer and clinician in pageantry arts, including the Glassmen Drum and Bugle Corps and several US high school band and guard programs; currently Senior VP of Human Resources for Bloom Healthcare (Denver, CO); DCI/WGI/BOA Adjudicator
Adam Sage
Pompano Beach, FL
Current Artistic Director/designer for Flannigan High School (FL) and Yokohama Scouts Drum and Bugle Corps (Japan); Worked with numerous programs in southeast US; Long-time Director/designer for Kennesaw Mountain High School Color Guard (GA), and The Company Color Guard; Taught and designed for several drum corps and bugle corps; Nearly 30-year third-grade teacher in Boynton Beach, FL; BOA Adjudicator
Michael Raiford
Austin, TX
Directed, staged, designed and choreographed in DCI, BOA and WGI for 30+ years; Currently the Production Designer and Performance Coach for Monarch Percussion (TX), The Woodlands High School (TX), and the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps; Earned an MFA in Design at the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught for 10 years; Nationally and internationally acclaimed Scenic and Costume Designer for theatre, ballet and opera companies; BOA Adjudicator
Dena Anderson
Pearland, TX
Long-time Contest Director of Texas Color Guard Circuit; Respected advocate of marching arts in SE Texas; 25th year with the Lone Star Preview
Tradition
The retreat
Two ceremonies, and they are not the same. The prelims retreat belongs to the drum majors. The finals retreat belongs to everyone.
5:00 PM
Prelims retreat
Drum majors and captains only. They report to the staging area, are counted, and are lined up one yard apart along the front sideline. Class awards are presented, and the finalists are announced.
11:00 PM
Finals retreat
Every finalist band, on the field together. Bands stage behind the stands at the visitor-side gates and enter on the drumline cadence, drum majors leading single file down the sidelines. Drum majors and guard captains step forward into an interior arc for the awards.
26th Annual · Presented by The Woodlands H.S. Band Boosters
Twenty Six Years On One Field
Lone Star Preview began in 2000 as a way for The Woodlands High School Band Boosters to give area programs a real competitive read early in the season and get valuable feedback from world class judges. It has been held every October since (with one COVID exception).
The format has stayed close to what it started as. Bands compete in four classifications by enrollment, using the Bands of America sheets. Everyone performs in the morning and afternoon. The highest scores of the day come back at night for finals. The evening ends with every finalist band on the field together for the retreat, which is the part most people remember.
What has grown is the field and the panel. Bands now travel from across Texas and Louisiana, and the adjudicators are recruited nationally from the Bands of America, Drum Corps International and Winter Guard International lists. Directors get recorded commentary from every caption, which provides invaluable feedback on their show at an early stage of the competition season.
Run by volunteers
Lone Star Preview is put on by The Woodlands High School Band Booster Club, a 501(c)(3) volunteer organization. There is no promoter and no production company. Twenty three committees of parents put on a fourteen hour championship, and the proceeds directly support band and guard education.
It is also, deliberately, early. A band that competes here in October has a full set of caption commentary in hand before the championship season it is preparing for.