Before you even grab your backpack to get out of your car, you can already hear them rehearsing in the parking lot.

After rehearsing for eight to nine hours a week during the school year, the Knight marching band has been conditioning to get their blood pumping for this season.

Since the summer, they’ve been outside facing the blazing sun each morning to prepare for their performances.

“During the summer, we run and do this thing called breathing block. Where we run in time and breath in time,” said Senior Heather Birdsong. “Last year I lost 20 pounds just from marching.”

With all their conditioning, they also receive a physical education credit during the fall semester.

“I agree we deserve the P.E credit because it takes a lot of muscle control for us to go out there and make it look easy,” said Senior Brianna Hegney.

Our band has been able to create many natural bonds. Since they spend so much time with each other.

“Coming from three high schools and five middle schools they did a great job to build an Independence band family,” said Director Christopher Cansler. “Most of the times they will spend more time with their classmates than they do with their own siblings.”

But with all the time they spend with each other, it also leads to many different challenges.

“Just physically challenging there is a lot of that and it does take up some time so it requires time management with the kids and their other activities,” said Cansler.

Our marching band has been conditioning in hopes of attending state this year.

But for now, they will be practicing their show Metamorphosis every day to give a performance you will never forget.