The band will be travelling to a Big 10 college and will have the opportunity to showcase their talents in front of a stadium filled with people, as well as on TV.

One hundred and thirty students from the LZHS band will perform at the Northwestern men’s basketball game on December 20. This is the third year of the last four that the pep band has had the opportunity to play at this event.

“Mr. Thompson went to Northwestern and was a drum major there, so he has a lot of connections with the band program. We do other things with Northwestern occasionally, such as performing on Band Day during their football season,” Logan Ejupi, senior, said.

Though Band Day at Northwestern includes twelve different bands, the basketball game is just the Lake Zurich pep band performing in the stands.

“It’s the band’s break week at Northwestern… so they needed a little pep band to come out and perform at the basketball game. I’m not quite sure how we got the job but I have enjoyed performing there,” Ejupi said.

The band performs at home football games all season, but Ejupi says there’s something different about playing at Northwestern.

“It’s a different atmosphere than what we have at the high school, and though the high school is great, it’s a college basketball game. It’s really exciting to be in that college stadium and see the basketball game and the fans, and it is a really cool thing to be a part of,” Ejupi said.

The Northwestern basketball team will be playing Western Michigan, and the game will be televised on the Big Ten Network at 2 pm.