"It's not an easy thing," said Kristen Muche, 16, of La Crescenta.
"A lot of people mistake us for geeks, but we work hard."
And not just the students are rolling up their sleeves for the band.
Mathew Schick, the band director for Crescenta Valley High School, went above and beyond in finding material for the marches.
Music from Danny Elfman's score of the 2005 film, "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" was Schick's pick for the band to play.
Five hundred dollars was shelled out to buy the rights to make marching band arrangements from the score. Even though it cost a pretty penny, Schick said it was worth it.
"It's a show that no one else has," he said.
"So we're really excited about it."
For most of the kids, fun is a priority, but marching band can also be serious business, Schick said. Some of the students don't even get their first choice of instrument.
One of those students is Ianko Gueorguiev, 14, of Glendale, the only boy in the flute section.
"It was actually my second choice," Ianko said.
"I was going to go with the trombone but my old school teacher said he had enough trombones so he stuck me with the flute."
That was four years ago.
Although the choices of instruments might not always seem fair, the marching band serves as a social equalizer.
Everyone, regardless of age or grade, who is in their first year in marching band is known as a freshman, Schick said.
Despite the marching band hierarchy, the heat of competition and the intensive training the students go through, band camp camaraderie runs deep.
Esther Moon, 16, of La Crescenta, worked her way up to the coveted title of drum major through a year of training.
Now she has the job of keeping the nine sections of musicians from bumping into each other and playing off-key.
