Apparently there is a black cloud over ISSMA. It's being widely reported that a judge deliberately lowered the 5x Grand Champion Roncalli (small group mixed division) scores so much that it was noticed by another judge and effectively reported. The end result cost Roncalli their 6th Championship and a state title. So far there has been no action taken that we know of on this matter. They are probably trying to sweep this under the rug and move past it. As for large groups and the complains of Center Grove and Carmel not competing... after hearing about this, I don't blame them for not competing at this competition. This is a disgrace to the show choir community! ISSMA should try to practice ethical standards that they preach in their Bylaws.
How judges at state judge is not my strongest knowledge area, but to the best of my knowledge, at state, judges can change scores after they have seen all of the groups based off of what groups they have seen later in the day. This makes sense because Roncalli performed 3rd. I do agree it is strange that one judge lowered their score by a large margin, but we cannot fully determine why they did that. Judges for state are pulled from out of state(I believe) so there is no bias towards any of the groups. If they changed their score for a certain group, they must have believed that another group did better in that area.
As for another thing; multiple GC titles does not mean that a group necessarily will win state. Roncalli has a killer show this year, as does Northridge and Huntington, but both Huntington and Northridge received less GC titles this year, because of the caliber of competitions that they attended/groups they competed against. Both Northridge and Huntington North competed against large groups at many competitions, giving them less GC titles, but that does not diminish the qualities of their shows.
In summary, I do agree that something may have happened, but I think Roncalli, Northridge and Huntington all should have deserved a GC title, but we can only give one winner out.
There has been some mistakes in the past at state, such as last year, when scores were mixed up between groups, when the judges didn't remember which show was what. I think that ISSMA does need some reform in order to correctly judge this groups, but we cannot take away a GC title from one group and give it to another. Show choir will live on next year and (hopefully) some changes will be made
Thanks for your feedback Nick. The worst part is Indiana schools pay ISSMA to be a part of their organization. I think it's time to wipe that slate clean and start over. Sounds like they can't manage their way out of a paper bag. Of course they don't want us to bring up history and facts, sweep it under the rug and hope nobody is looking... We deserve better from them!
What has happened has happened. No need to comment this! It is clear that who won deserved it and that doesn’t mean that Roncalli isn’t amazing. Just because Roncalli won so many times does not mean they should have won state over any other group that qualified. The judges clearly placed them where they thought they should be placed. There is nothing that will be done and yes it sucks to work so hard to not win but 2nd place is still killer. All these groups did a phenomenal job and I do not think that is fair to take the very well deserved win away from Northridge show choirs!!
I don't think it's really placing that's the issue. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the point margin between GC and 1st runner up was fairly substantial. I think there ought to be some sort of accountability when it comes to judging. I understand that subjectivity is in the nature of show choir, but the top 5 groups are pretty well matched. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to say this, but I know for a fact one of the judges had HN in 8th place for choreography. I don't know if they were watching the band or what, but come on... really? Again, taking nothing away from the placements, congrats to all groups.
If anyone is interested in a show choir podcast, I’m currently hosting one called “Midwest Sound” that covers all things show choir in Indiana! In the most recent episode, I cover this competition and the large state finals! Here is the link: Podcast Link
There have been conflicting posts here in the comments about the small mixed placements, so just to clarify: what's listed above for small mixed is correct.
It appears as though ISSMA changed their rules this year and only formally announced top 4 placements instead of celebrating the placements of all of their finalist choirs like they have in years past. Instead they simply announced the other choirs with state finalist participation trophies. This seemed to cause confusion and then as a result different choirs/directors shared their placement to their students/parents/fans anyways. I'm not interested in diving into the logistics of ISSMA, but just to say on SCC we simply want to accurately represent every choir.
Small mixed results:
4th: new castle
3rd: Huntington north
Best instrumental: northridge
Best vocal: northridge
Best visual: Pendleton heights
2nd: Roncali
GC: northridge
Indiana State Small School Finals 2023
