The Davis High marching band is one of, if not the largest, band in Utah and its successes are something to be proud of. They have worked diligently over the past year to get where they are today and have earned the opportunity to represent Utah at the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade.

The band director, Mr. Hendricks, is retiring this year and while he is sad to go he is very proud of his band and all of the kids in it.

“I feel like I have the best job anywhere and the best kids anywhere,” Band Director Mr. Hendricks said.

The kids are just as grateful for Mr. Hendricks as he is for them.

“I am very excited to [perform at Macy’s]. I think we have definitely worked for it and I think we definitely deserve it and it is all thanks to the people who have gotten us this far,” Drum Major Shanelle Sorensen said.

Davis High’s marching band is the second band from Utah to be invited to the Macy’s parade. Such an invitation is seen as a huge honor.

“Going to the Macy’s parade for a lot of schools is just a pipe dream, it is never going to happen. I tell the kids that 99.9% of the high school bands in the country will never have that opportunity, ever and that they ought to consider themselves extremely blessed and extremely lucky. When you think about the fact that we are going to be on international television for 90 seconds representing Davis High, Kaysville, and our state, I think it is really a cool thing,” Hendricks said.

However this opportunity is not only luck, many of the students in the band agree that they put in a lot of hard work to be as successful as they are.

“In the past few years we have always gotten second place in everything but we have improved a lot this year so I think by the hard work that we have put into it we have been very successful,” Sorensen said.

Members of the band put in 2-3 hours every Monday through Thursday and sometimes all day Saturday to prepare them for their competitions and performances. Such dedication is a long held tradition of the Davis High marching band.

“We are really excited to represent Davis High at Macy’s and represent three decades of achievement that got us to where we are, it is going to be awesome,” Senior Parker Collins said.

The marching band has competed in numerous competitions this year and has done well, it takes a lot of effort to get such a huge group to cooperate but they never seem to fail.

“When you consider that we are putting well over 300 kids on the field it takes a long time to get that many kids doing things well. So I would say it has been a very successful year,” Hendricks said.

Band members are very excited and grateful for the opportunity they have to represent at the Macy’s parade on Thanksgiving day.

“I think it is a really awesome opportunity and that we will be able to really show what we are actually made of and not worry about it being a competition,” Junior Sydney Burns said.