Soon the lights will shine late into the night on Fridays around southeast Iowa but more than just football teams will be performing. Many marching bands are gearing up for another year of halftimes and contests. This year the Mid-Prairie Marching Golden Hawks are led by drum majors Jarrod Keller and Natali Miller. Recently, the pair shared with KCII News why they decided to take on the role. Keller says, “I just transferred here last year and I joined marching band, it’s my first time ever doing it. I really like this.” For Miller she says, “I wanted to do it because I want to major in music and figured this would be a good way to learn conducting skills and leadership skills.”

So far, the band has gone through a short marching band camp in the summer, early morning practices and worked on learning the music. This year’s show is titled the Tower of Power, featuring three songs: ‘What is Hip?’, ‘So Very Hard to Go’ and ‘Attitude Dance’. Keller and Miller share their favorite songs from the set. For Keller he says, “It’s ‘Attitude Dance’. I conduct that and one other song, it just sounds so cool when I’m up there conducting and all of the parts are coming together.” For Miller, “I like ‘So Very Hard To Go’. I have a solo in that song.”

The first performance for the Mid-Prairie Marching Band will be Friday, August 30th at halftime of Mid-Prairie’s season opening football game against Grinnell at Dwight G. Sattler Field in Wellman. Listen to live play-by-play coverage of the game on KCII.