Legacy High School to perform in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade | News

BROOMFIELD, Colo. -- Besides eating turkey, for some the next best thing on Thanksgiving is watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Legacy High School's band director Clay Stansberry continues to push his marching band student during the last few days of practice before their big moment in the national spot light.

"It doesn't seem like the nerves have hit yet, but it might when we see 6 million people in one place," said Paige Becker, a Junior in the marching band at Legacy High School.

The focus now is on timing and making sure the horns, the flutes, the drums and the color guard are all in sync.

"I'm really excited … it's a chance of a lifetime," said Casey Moore, the drum captain in Legacy High School's marching band.

Legacy High School is only the second high school in Colorado history to be chosen to perform in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Arapahoe High School in Littleton was the first in 1998.

Legacy's band director created a special arrangement just for the parade called Colorado winter wonderland using what the state's most noted for as his muse.

"We are going to have snowflakes on the flags and girls are spinning ski poles," said Stansberry.

The students also had to learn to march to an entirely new routine.

"For this we have had extra rehearsals on top of our normal marching band rehearsals," said Becker.

Part of their practice for the last 18 months has also been building up endurance because the band will have to march over two miles. To get into shape the group marched over 10 laps every Saturday around the school's track.

And all of the steps the band has taken will soon pay off when they march the streets of New York on Thanksgiving Day.

The students will leave on Sunday for New York City and they plan on seeing the sites before they march the streets in the parade.