FRANKLIN -- A team of students at Franklin High School is going through their final preparations as they prepare to take the field on Friday nights this fall. But not one of them is going to buckle a chinstrap or lace up a pair of shoulder pads.
No, this is marching band season.
Director Allison Umhoefer has been putting her students through their paces for months leading up to this moment, picking music, arranging intricate choreography, and organizing dozens of rehearsals dating all the way back to January. That's when they picked their piece for this year: a marching band tribute to the 20th anniversary of Riverdance.
"We listened to a few different shows and students voted on it," says Umhoefer.
She's banking on three junior drum majors for help this year. Juniors Ethan Rocha, Rachel Elkins, and Bennett Dirksmeyer have risen through the ranks in the band, and now will help guide their fellow musicians through the season. Though they're experienced, they'll admit to being just as nervous as anyone else.
"It's a little bit nerve wracking, but once you sort of get in the groove, it's like all of your hard work just pays off," says Rocha.
Any anxiety that leads up to the performance, though, is worth it. Each of the three majors cites the tight bonds with the rest of the band as the best part of marching every year.
In fact, that's what drew Elkins to band in the first place.
"I was friends with a couple of upperclassmen going into my freshman year, and they told me that they'd had a lot of fun and made a lot of friends through band," says Elkins.
Since then, those relationships have only deepened, and coupling the family-like atmosphere of the band with the complex activities on the field and the Friday night performances, you could almost mistake this for another group that regularly performs under the lights in the fall.
But Franklin's band is looking to be more than just a halftime show. Dirksmeyer says they'll have competitions of their own, too.
"We're getting into the realm of competitive marching," he says. "That's where on a Saturday, we have a bunch of other bands from southeastern Wisconsin. We'll play our show, and judges will critique us."
But competition or not, he says marching band is the highlight of the fall.
"It's a lot of hard work, but also a lot of payoff. It's a great time."
So if you find yourself stationed on some chilly metal bleachers this fall, be sure to head to the concession stand before the horn blows for halftime. After all, you wouldn't want to miss the real show.
This story originally appeared on WTMJ.com.