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Nebraska State Bandmasters Association (NSBA) State Marching Contest
Nebraska State Bandmasters Association (NSBA) State Marching Contest
Nebraska's annual state-level competition for high school marching bands, it was first hosted entirely at Al Caniglia Field within the University of Nebraska at Omaha on October 22, 1983; all participants of all five classes (at the time—from largest to smallest—AA, A, B, C, D) were only given division ratings. Listed below are some relatively notable events that followed:
1985: Two separate host sites were used for the first time, due to the single-day contest's increase in participation.
1997: A snowstorm led to a one-week contest postponement (for some schools, it led to a cancelation of participation).
2001: Participants performed in support of the Seward High band, which was affected by a fatal bus crash a week prior to the NSBA State Marching Contest.
2010: Class-wide top-three rankings and caption awards premiered. Gradual changes then led to two festival sites and one, open-class competition site.
2017: Class D was removed from the classification system by the start of the season.
2020: Concerns surrounding COVID-19 led to the first cancelation of the contest's history.
2022: A new band classification system was introduced for the season, involving—from largest to smallest—5A, 4A, 3A, 2A, and 1A.
Below is an attempt to compile the very first publicly-available—of its scale/depth—known complete history of that state-level contest; this attempt involves compiling every rating of every band from every year of competition, along with competition dates, host sites, and other additional information. The "More Presentable Version" sheet contains information that is more "finalized" than that of the "Linked (Sourced) Version." The latter provides more of a foundation, changes more frequently, and is made to facilitate the construction of the "More Presentable Version;" all the links can also be used for verification and/or deeper research. Note that it may help to have a library account to access some of those links.
How You Could Help
How You Could Help
Feel free to email milesdivis@gmail.com if you would like to provide additional information or revision proposals, preferably accompanied with historical evidence (documents, photos, videos, etc.); any and all meaningful assistance will optimize the presentation, accessibility, and understanding of the history of the contest for the general public.
If you are looking for some of the biggest known ways you could contribute, the following may be very instrumental for the project:
Official video tapes/discs pertaining to the contest, such as (though potentially not limited to) those from Mr. Video, Moran Recordings, Box 5 Productions, and Mid-America Video Images.
Most helpful in verifying participation records, contest results, band classifications, potentially host locations, and potentially contest dates.
To contribute, send digitized videos; complete footage (from the actual start to finish of the original tapes/discs) are preferred.
School-owned trophies / participation certificates
Most helpful in verifying participation records and contest results.
To contribute, send photographs or scans of those awards. Ensure that all elements are within the image, and that all text is readable.
Marching contest schedules/programs
Most helpful in discovering potential participating schools, finding potential inconsistencies in contest results sources, and verifying band classifications.
To contribute, send scans of those programs (or at least, send photographs); scans of entire schedules/programs are preferred.
Clarifications and Additional Details:
With that being said, if you know about anything pertaining to such anomalies, feel free to send a message.
The point is that, within the project, a school's listed classification—if solely based on the NSBA classification system—should be taken with a grain of salt.
- Any text colored in red indicates an educated guess; it particularly applies to some listed host locations, where there is yet to be verification from sources from shortly after their given contests. This is in recognition that certain announcements or initial plans may not always be fulfilled.
- Links are applied to certain band names, mainly as a way of verifying that there is no other school bearing the same name, which may minimize confusion or concern over which school participated in which event. They are mainly meant to aid the historian leading the project.
- Certain anomalies spotted within sources include:
- One pertaining to the 1999 edition (where an Omaha World-Herald article lists "Millard North" twice; the historian theorizes that one of them could have been "Omaha North", though he has yet to obtain direct confirmation on that.)
- One pertaining to the 2008 edition (where the results of the Lexington marching band were not shown; so far, the historian has yet to find direct confirmation as to whether or not the band competed)
- A potentially more minor one, where results are listed relatively inconsistently for the 2013 edition (where the official website omits Papillion-La Vista, despite evidence from the Omaha World-Herald and Midwest Marching that the school competed that year, and where the same could be said with Lincoln Southeast, but with opposite effects within those sources).
With that being said, if you know about anything pertaining to such anomalies, feel free to send a message.
- If you are struggling to find the typed results within the archived 2013 results page of the official NSBA website, it is likely because the text completely blends in with the background; it helps to highlight it via cursor.
- While the NSBA has once presented a history of each band's history of participation within the contest (from the 1983 through 2004 editions), do take the information presented with a grain of salt, given at least the relative inconsistencies in presentation. For this project, a band is defined to have competed in a given year, at least if it is known to have obtained an award or performed in exhibition. The link to the aforementioned participation table is below:
- While many schools are indeed classified accurately by NSBA's classification system, there were at least several instances where a school competed under a different class within the NSBA State Marching Contest. The following are some examples of when the classification system was defied:
- For the 2011 edition, despite Chambers technically being a Class D band from classification system standards, it competed under Class C (The historian theorizes that it was done to prevent the events of the 2010 edition, where Chambers was the only school competing under Class D, which led it to undisputedly obtain the Class D state title and all available captions. Chambers would have been the only Class D school in competition again, if only the school followed the classification system for the 2011 contest.).
- Plus, for multiple years, Norris has competed within Class AA in NSBA State Marching Contests during the 2010s, despite having an enrollment that would place the school under Class A, even when the Competition portion of the contest became an open-class event.
The point is that, within the project, a school's listed classification—if solely based on the NSBA classification system—should be taken with a grain of salt.
Below is a list of contest editions which feature incomplete ratings results; those results are not featured in the spreadsheet. In an effort to prevent confusion, the spreadsheet only includes years where the results documented are considered by the historian to be at or relatively near completetion.
Below is a list of contest editions which feature incomplete ratings results; those results are not featured in the spreadsheet. In an effort to prevent confusion, the spreadsheet only includes years where the results documented are considered by the historian to be at or relatively near completetion.
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