Creston students perform in Outback Bowl halftime show

For two Creston Community High School students, the opportunity to perform in front of more than 40,000 people was “pretty grand.”

Seven students from Creston Community High School are members of the Southwest Iowa Honor Marching Band (SWIHMB). One New Years Eve, the students kicked off the event by performing in a pregame parade prior to the Outback Bowl in Tampa, Florida.

To participate, students auditioned for the honor band in May. For the audition students played music that was provided to them. After the auditions were complete, results from the auditions were posted on the SWIHMB website.

Students underwent intensive, week long rehearsals in July. The students met 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily for practice. During this time, they prepared to perform in the Iowa State Fair Parade.

“You have to get up early and we practiced all day and it was worth it,” said Jacob Zachary, a ninth grader at CCHS who plays the marching baritone.

Finally, on Dec. 27 the students loaded a bus at 3 a.m. for the long drive to Florida.

“It was a 26-hour bus ride but since we had our bus break down a couple times it took about 30 hours instead,” said Haley Simmons, a ninth grade percussionist at CCHS.

In the days leading up to their performances the students went to Universal Studios, the beach and Busch Gardens where they stayed to see fireworks at midnight on New Years Eve.

The honor band students practiced together in what Simmons referred to as the “massed band” which includes bands from all across the United States, to prepare for their performances in the Outback Bowl parade and halftime show. The halftime show included more than 3,500 performers, with more than 2,000 of them being young performers from 30 high schools across the country along with 300 dancers.

“It helps to go with friends. It’s a lot of fun and you also meet a lot of new people there that kind of share the same interests that you have,” said Zachary.

Simmons said performing in the Outback Bowl parade was a lot of fun and gave the students a chance to be judged. However, the students in the SWIHMB were not qualified to win anything because they are an honor band.

Then came time for the Outback Bowl game with over 40,000 people in attendance.

“It was pretty crazy. We had seats and they were like on the top of the stadium and we got to like see everything from above,” said Simmons.

This was Simmons’ and Zachary’s first experience performing in front of such a large group of people.

“We got to go completely to the bottom under the tunnels and got ready and when we walked out there was so many people,” said Simmons.

The students then were able to watch the Mississippi State and University of Iowa marching bands perform for they went onto the field for their own performance.

“It was pretty grand. I’d never done anything like that so just to perform in front of that many people and on TV,” said Zachary.