I am a numbers nerd, so please forgive my transgressions.

Looking for ways to properly quantify what the Mineola High School marching band program has accomplished with its fourth state championship this year, I turned to something called the Leaderboard on the website of the University Interscholastic League. That’s the governing body for many of the Texas high school musical competitions.

It’s a fascinating look (at least to me) at the history of Texas high school marching bands, which have competed for state championships since 1979.

One the most prominent points this exercise makes is that, like any other championship, it is difficult to get to, and stay at, the top level.

The Leaderboard has 634 entries, without yet being updated to include 2024. That’s 26 pages with 25 entries per page. The UIL lists almost 1,500 high schools in Texas, so more than half have never been to state (though many smaller schools do not have marching bands).

The oldest entries are from that first year in 1979, listing those bands which made it to state, but did not advance to the finals, and have never made it back.

There are six full pages (about 150 entries) of bands that have made it just once, not including this year’s entries.

Working from back to front, there are 15 pages of bands (about 375) who made it to state but not to the finals.

Two of those bands made it to state 11 times without advancing to the finals.

Then you get to schools whose bands made it to state and made the finals, but did not win.

That gets you all the way back to the middle of the third page.

So of the 634 bands who have been to the state contest, 66 have actually won, or barely 10%. They have earned 153 titles combined (before 2024). All six bands that won this year are repeat champions.

Thirty of the 66 winners have won it once. Two of those added a second one this year.

The three bands with the most appearances without a win are all in the same category as Mineola this year. They advanced again this time. Two have made 20 appearances at state with 13 finals appearances, and another has been 18 times with 12 finals. But no wins.

The record for state trips is held by Sundown with 29 (of a possible 32), including 27 finals and eight titles.

Sundown and Cedar Park each won their eighth title this year to tie Argyle for the lead.

Argyle won its titles while the school was growing from 3A to 4A. Now that they are in 5A with all those successful bands from Leander ISD, they are still working on that first title in 5A, having placed 7th this year.

Mineola’s 4th title ties them for 10th all-time with Canton and Denver City. Canton last won in 2018. It moved Mineola ahead of some highly-successful 3A programs that each have three: Whitesboro, Queen City, Holliday and Howe. All were at state again this year.

Should Mineola gain a 5th title, they could move into 6th place all-time.

One interesting note, of the bands with three or more championships, Mineola has the fewest appearances with six. As has been well-documented, they have advanced to state in the last six contests, made the finals all six times and came home with a medal each time, with one bronze (2015), one silver (’23) and those four titles (’17, ’19, ’21 and this year).

With the return to an annual contest (which was abandoned in 1991), the Leaderboard will become a lot more fluid than it was for the 32 years that bands could advance only every other year.

But has been consistently demonstrated, the top bands work hard to remain top bands and return year after year.

Cracking that top tier takes tremendous dedication and hard work.

It’s going to be interesting to see what develops in the years to come.