Often high school students get summer jobs to pay for their wants and needs during the schools year. That's not the case with some of the members and former members of the American Fork High School Marching Band and Color Guard.

Skyler Carter was one AFHS grad who has marched in both the summers of 2007 and 2008. He was with the Phantom Regiment, based in Rockford, Ill. There are 150 members playing brass percussion and in the color guard.

"It is a high intensity marching group that plays a 12-minute show, while marching a drill," he said.

The group went from coast to coat and back again, logging about 15,000 miles during the summer. They spent the first five weeks in Rockford, in what they called "spring training." After that they hit the road.

"The most we stayed in one place was two or three days," he said.

John Miller, AFHS Director of Bands, said it was the most students participating in such groups at a time, and that Carter's group was one of two which became World Champions in their division. He said the competitions are often as close or closer in scoring than the Olympics. "They won by .025 points," he said.

Lindsay Vest, was a members of "Blue Devils B," based in Concord, Calif. She is a junior at AFHS this year, and a member of the color guard. She told about the daily schedule.

"You practice at a school and have a show at night, then you travel on the bus to the next location," she said. "You drag out your air mattress and sleep from maybe 6 to 8 or 9 a.m., then start over."

Terelyn Carter, Skyler's mother and a band booster, said the conditions are unusual for the students.

"They don't see a bed for about three months," she said.

"The students have to audition," she said. "They only take the best of the best."

Kerisa Devey, a senior at AFHS this year, performed with The Academy, from Tempe, Ariz. She summed up the way she got through the season.

"It is all just a mind game," she said. "You are in the heat. You have to nail everything and his all your checkpoints. You have to be completely focused."

Despite the rigorous schedule and demanding travel itinerary, all three students said they would do it again.

Other summer marchers included Mike Bingham, Chade Miller and James Boyer. They were not able to be interviewed.

John Miller said the experience was good not only for the students, but for the entire AFHS band program.

"From a selfish perspective, when you have kids that march at that level, they become our teachers," he said. "What the high school is trying to do on a smaller scale, they have done. We put them to work. It is a wonderful thing."

The students had added reasons to agree.

"They made a ton of friends, from all over the world," Teralyn Carter said.

""You act like siblings, but when you have to fly home, it is heart wrenching," Kerisa said.

They identified the best parts of the experience.

"Performing feels so good," Lindsay said. "They want to watch you and see what you can do."

"Being on the field during the last minute of the show, you have the entire audience on their feet," Kerisa said. "That is what they are watching."

"It is all about the people," Shane Carter said. "A lot of other groups do it for the points and the score. "We don't care if we get places. We just want to do the best we can to move the people in the best way."

They missed holidays, family members' birthdays, and other events. They marched in snow, cold, rain and near tornadoes. They got tired of casseroles provided by the food services and longed for fast food.

There was one thing they all mentioned as being a common consideration.

People could always tell drum corps people because of our white feet, they all said.