Questions?         Updated 11/21/2025
I get them a lot. But I am sure you have more so let's get down to it.
Q: Why is there sometimes a delay with scores being available on the site?
A: Go read the question "How do you get the scores".
Q: How often do you update the code for the site?
A: From time to time I receive feedback (via the feature request form) letting me know that some genius identified a bug in my site. While I assure you most of the time there are no bugs, some *may* slip through the cracks. When this happens I evaluate the problem, test to determine if it is a bug or an oversight, make adjustments and move on. This happens once every few months. Other than that, any updates performed are usually because a feature was requested that I can perform.
Q: Why did I make this site?
A: Why not? I honestly cannot understand why no one else has before. I've seen both parents and student racing online to check scores and then comes the back and forth of "oh who has the highest score so far in this division" or "which band received the highest score this season?" and yet it's so hard to figure that much out because of the way the scores are posted and available. SOOOOOOOOO.........
Q: Do I accept feature requests?
A: Yes, absolutely! PLEASE! Ideas are fantastic!
Q: If I submit a feature request, will you put it up?
A: If the request is reasonable and doable, yes.
Q: How did you make this site?
A: I wrote code. A lot of code.
Q: How do you get the scores?
A: I have trained carrier pigeons to fly over 400 miles to each competition and use ancient telegraph systems to radio in the scores in real-time to a squirrel who sits in a tree house waiting to fill in a scantron which is taken by a possum (a really slow one at that) who sneaks into a neighbors yard and while their dog is sleeping, uses the phone to log in and update the scores. Honestly if you believe that I have a few bridges to sell you.
Q: How long did it take you to make this site?
A: All in about 2 weeks on and off. Data acquisition was the hardest part. You can't easily find carrier pigeons nowadays without them assuming your name is Nikola and insisting you call them pretty all the time!
Q: Do you always use such bad humor?
A: Only when I run out of Good Humor. Creamsicle specifically.
Q: Are scores retrieved in real-time?
A: Yes and No. See the carrier pigeons hang out in nearby trees and on the flag poles. Each pigeon carries the score for each band to their ancient telegraph and remember they need to take turns. Then the receiving squirrel needs to finish the scantron for the event and pass it to the possum. The bottleneck comes from the possum. They're so lazy and careless but they know if they don't get it done in 15 minutes, then the neighbors dog will wake from their nap and start barking!
Q: Are you still maintaining the Google sheet leaderboard?
A: No. Why would I when I have this semi-automated process of birds, squirrels and possum?
Q: Seriously, what's with your sense of humor?
A: And yet here you are still reading this.
Q: Who do you think will win at Syracuse?
A: The winners usually are the ones who win the finals, but in this case I truly believe that every band, every participant and every coach, teacher and volunteer are winners no matter what!!!
Q: How do we submit a feature request?
A: Fill out this form here.

Q: May I share your site with my friends and family?
A: Like if I say no, would you listen? I wouldn't. Besides I put a cool little "share" like at the top of the page to make it easier for you all!
Q: Hey there was no link to submit a feature request! What gives?
A: I was checking to see if you were paying attention. Seriously, click here.
Q: I really appreciate what you've done here. Can I donate something in return?
A: COFFEE!!!!! LOTS OF COFFEE!!!!!!!
Q: The last question was serious. Is there anyt.....
A: SO WAS MY ANSWER! Coffee is very serious to me! Nespresso Vertuo (level 8 and above) and Illy Espresso please! If you really want to make me happy, Jablum Espresso!
Q: How do I use your scoreboard?
A: Good question actually. First select the season you wish to view from the dropdown. It will show you the current season to start. Then if you want to view a specific division (SS1, LS2, etc) select the division from the dropdown. The system automatically updates based on your filtered selections. You can click on the column header "Avg Score" to sort by the top average score in the season, "Last Score" to sort by the top score received in the last competition or "Top Score" to view the all-time top score of the season. If you click on a school name, tab 2 called "Band Season" becomes active and shows you the scores for that band for that season. When viewing the scores for that band, you can also click on "recap" to view the judges recap for the entire event. Other than that, there's really not much to it.
Q: I have noticed that some rows on the leaderboard are tan. Why?
A: Ok so since so many of you have told me that it is sometimes hard to follow the data provided (I don't know why you would think that), I decided to highlight specific rows of data. The highlights indicate that the band has received the highest score in their LAST event. This does NOT mean the championships, it means the BANDS last event. So if their last event was a month before the championships and they scored the highest in their division, then guess what? It gets highlighted!
Q: Why does your system only track ONE competition circuit?
A: I have not received any requests to follow other circuits. If you want the system to track another circuit, please make a feature request.
Q: You didn't make a feature I requested.
A: Did I say I would? Every feature request, if reasonable receives a response. Every one of them! Even some unreasonable ones will receive responses, but usually with my amazing sense of humor. If I didn't make the feature you requested, look for my response.
Q: You're funny!
A: I know.
Q: I think I'm funny and could write some really good Q's for your FAQ. How do I submit them?
A: First, you're probably not funny if you think you are. But if you insist on submitting something, use the feature link above. Again, you're probably not funny.
Q: Hey I take offense by you saying I'm not funny!
A: My FAQ, you're not funny :-)
Q: Were you in a marching band?
A: No. tl;dr, I hung with the metal bands. We had no marching band in my school.
Q: Can you change the theme of your site to look more steampunk?
A: While that WOULD be very cool, I'm not good with visual design. So no.
Q: What languages did you use to make the site?
A: HTML (not really a language but essential for web), Javascript, ASP and MS SQL Server (T-SQL) as well as PowerShell in order to transcribe the possum data.
Q: Why no Python?
A: It's not a real language, it has strong limitations, it's slow, it's memory overhead is huge. For a p-code(i) it's far from efficient. I get it, Python is popular and easy to use but so was BASIC. So now we replaced something inefficient (BASIC) with something more inefficient (Python) because it's newer? Nooooooooo.
Q: Do you like Javascript?
A: Love it! LOVE-IT!
Q: Which is the best browser to view your site?
A: The code used to create the site is HTML5 with Javascript ES6. Pretty much any modern browser should display the site just fine. IE cannot.
Q: Do you git? Where?
A: Yes.
Q: Can you add a feature for an automatic refresh every minute or so?
A: Done. Thanks for asking. To be clear, "or so" is a value I will arbitrarily decide :-)
Q: Can you add another tab (a feature) that shows all the events for the season which when you click on an event will popup the results? Thanks, -J.S.
A: Absolutely! Originato? Macchiato? How about Bustelo!
Q: I would like to see the last event date for a band displayed on the Leaderboard. When you click on the date a popup shows the event results. Is this possible?
A: I would like to see a winning lottery ticket with my name on it! But I guess I can do this for you.
Q: Can you have a link that let's us hear the judges notes?
A: Sorry, no can do.
Q: So I looked into your claim that you use carrier pigeons. I find this to be a bit far fetched. Can you prove that such a thing exists?
A: Oh yes! First we can look at implementation of RFC-1149 for IPoAC (Internet Protocol over Avian Carrier, or Carrier Pigeons). While this has a higher ratio of packet loss (hence some of the delays updating aside from the dang possums) we have also implemented RFC 2549 for QoS. I'm still waiting for my coffee btw.
Q: Your links in the previous Q are not working.
A: Turn off your ad/popup blocker. They work!
Q: I have noticed that at the beginning of every season your system does not have updated scores for at least a few weeks. What's up with that?
A: Blame the Squirrels! See at the start of Autumn Squirrels start scavenging everywhere for nuts. They confuse nuts for scores and bury the scores thinking they can eat them and instead of filling out the scantron with the scores, they corrupt the data by filling the scantron with information about what type and how many nuts they acquired. Being that the Possum are soooo slow, it takes them about a week to realize the data is no good, so then they go back to the Squirrels and say "heeeeeyyyyyy, what is going on with this mess?" (in a really slow monotone of course) and the Squirrels then have to dig up the scores and refill the scantrons. It's annoying, I know.
Q: Is your site made for mobile devices or desktop?
A: Yes. It's not optimized for either, it just is.
Q: I would like a feature where I can see/view/compare a bands' score for their first event of the season against scores with prior seasons first event. Is this possible?
A: Sure. I'll add a bonus as well. I'll add a feature that allows you to select which event number for comparison. You can find this feature by clicking on the LeaderBoard tab, then click on a band name and when the band information appears there is a new tab called Performance History. Simply click the even number dropdown box and compare. You can sort by Season as well as Score.
Q: Can you add a feature that notifies me either by text, dm, email, or something wwhenever new scores are posted?
A: Umm, no. I'll explain why. Seee if YOU want this feature and then OTHERS want this feature, this means I would have to find more forest critters to manage the notification system. As we have learned, squirrels are easily distracted, possum are slow and well, I just don't trust the pigeons sometimes (they watch me when I'm sleeping you know). So no, sorry not sorry, no can do.
Q: (HEAVILY edited from original wording) The NYSFBC recently (and unofficially) announced via a local newspaper that a specific band has been ranked #1 in New York for the 2026 season which has not yet happened since it's still 2025. The journalist published an article (found here/ and originally content found here ) states that the band leads a specific division based on the NYSFBC's official two-year average ranking system (never knew this existed), which combines championship and regular-season performances. Can you add a feature to verify these claims/statements so we can figure it out ourselves?
A: Ok so I read the article and ran the numbers and it appears that the original article (which seems to be a band director's press release) decided to skew some arbitrary numbers for the benefit of making themselves look better. Sadly this director is also in a position to claim it is true. The article mentions a "Two-Year Championship Competition Average" which is the average of the bands 2025 and 2024 (for example) scores from the Dome (the championships) and the other scoring method mentioned was the "Two-Year Season Average", which is the overall averages of all competitions for that band for 2 years, not including the championships at the Dome. After very careful research I was unable to find any validation for these methods anywhere on the NYSFBC website or anywhere else. I would even say in all of Marching Band, this is not a standard metric by any means. It's a "fluff" piece for the director and/or the band and a legitimate news publication should not have published it as it is blatently false. Not onlyis it false, the numbers shown are accurate but another band currently holds the "Two-Year Championship Competition Average" lead, not theirs.While I feel this request dives a bit into a bit of internal politics which I am not a fan of, I would be happy to fulfill this request. The last thing I want is to get involved into any political infighting. To use this new feature, simply click on the band you want to check out and it will show the current season. Click on the Championship History sub-tab and you can then view the most recent 2-year history. Take the last 2 years scores and get the average. That is the "Two-Year Championship Competition Average". Now head over to the Season Averages sub-tab (the new feature) and get the average for the most recent 2 years "Season Avg (w/o Championship)" and that will give you the "Two-Year Season Average".