The marching band from Sioux City Bishop Heelan High School will perform at halftime of the Peach Bowl in Atlanta on Saturday. Jeana Larson is the school’s band director. “To be a national stage in front of like 90,000 people will be such a big deal for them,” Larson says. “They’ve worked really hard and have certainly earned this opportunity.” The Peach Bowl’s music festival committee sends representatives to marching band competitions around the country to scout for bands. Larson says she got a letter LAST December, inviting the band to perform in this year’s Peach Bowl. “You look at it and you go: ‘Is this legit?’ Larson says., laughing. “You’re not sure, so you ask people and you call around and you find out that, yes, it’s a real opportunity.”

Yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon, 62 students and 20 adults boarded buses and left Sioux City, bound for Georgia. Larson says before the bowl game itself, there’s a competition for the invited bands. “Our show that we did this fall, we will be performing that at the field show competition, which will be a really neat opportunity because it’s with these other bands from across the country,” Larson says. “just to see how we stack up.”

Cahill Kirkpatrick is the drum major for the marching band. “I’m excited and being with nine or 10 other bands from the across the nation and knowing you can go in there and beat them, but still have to work together a couple of times — it’ll be fun.”

All the invited bands will be on the field during pregame on Saturday and there will be a mass performance of the National Anthem. The game itself features teams from the Big Ten and the S-E-C — 10th ranked Penn State and Ole Miss, which is ranked 11th. Kirkpatrick says band members have been advised to cheer for the Big Ten’s Nitany Lions. “Some of them don’t know football and it’s like: ‘Who do we cheer for?'” Kirkpatrick says. “You cheer for the ones in blue and white, not blue and red.”

Bishop Heelan’s concert band and jazz band are performing at other Peach Bowl related events.