Photo by Samantha Davis Marshall High School junior marching band students Mickensy Monsen (left) and Christian Ramirez have been selected to join the Bands of America Honor Band for this year’s Rose Bowl parade in California on New Year’s Day.

MARSHALL — A pair of Marshall High School junior marching band students have been selected to join the Bands of America Honor Band to take on the streets of Pasadena, California, for this year’s 137th annual Rose Parade.

Mickensy Monsen and Christian Ramirez will travel to the West Coast to represent Marshall in the popular ensemble composed of students from across the country.

“It was like a shock in a way,” Ramirez said of his reaction finding out about the selection. “Because, you look at it, and you think of all the people that probably applied.”

Monsen plays the clarinet, while Ramirez plays the tenor saxophone.

The Bands of America Honor Band is a 300-person ensemble that combines winds, percussion and color guard. The Rose Parade has become a traditionally well-known and celebrated New Year’s Day event that kicks off the famous Rose Bowl Gameday, the college football playoff quarterfinals that will host two top-12 teams.

The parade will take place in the morning of Jan. 1 prior to the 112th Rose Bowl Game, and will travel five and a half miles along Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena.

“I was just really happy,” Monsen said upon finding out. “I’m looking forward to the overall experience and feel of being with a much bigger band, and marching down the street with a big audience.”

This year’s Rose Parade theme is “The Magic in Teamwork,” according to the parade’s website, and will celebrate the “sense of accomplishment in knowing that by working together, we can collectively achieve outcomes so much richer than we can ever experience as individuals.”

Students from nearly all 50 states across the country will come together in a few short weeks to begin rehearsing for the parade, and went through an application process to submit for a spot selection in the band.

“Mr. (Larry) Peterson (Marshall band director) sent out people an email, and I just thought it would be a really cool opportunity to go down to California and do that,” Monsen said regarding how they heard of the occasion.

Along with marching bands, the parade will also feature a variety of floral-designed floats and horse units.

Being selected for the honor band also presents a homecoming opportunity for Ramirez.

“I grew up in California. I saw the opportunity to be able to march and I decided it’d be an amazing opportunity to go back to visit, and do what I like doing (which is) marching band,” Ramirez said. “I visited already a couple times, but now with my family knowing that I’m going to be going back there to do something like that, they are really happy and excited.”

Both Ramirez and Monsen noted the excitement about being able to represent the school and city of Marshall on a national stage.

“A small town going to Pasadena, California (is cool),” Monsen said.

“(It’s) like a town you’ve never heard of, and it’s going to be popping up (when we’re there),” Ramirez added.

Honor Band students will first arrive in southern California on Dec. 27 to begin rehearsals, and will also be able to attend performances at the Tournament of Roses Bandfest and participate in other ongoing festivities before parade day.

Richard Saucedo is the director of the 2026 Bands of America Honor Band, who was a longtime composer and conductor of the national champion Carmel High School marching band in Indiana. Dr. Melissa Gustafson-Hinds will assist, who is the band director at O’Fallon Township High School in Illinois.

“I’m looking forward to working with all the other players and nationally-recognized directors, and just getting the opportunity to work with them while I’m over there,” Ramirez said.

The Rose Parade will be broadcast live on New Year’s Day around the United States on several networks, beginning at 10 a.m. central time, such as on ABC and NBC along with local channels.

The Bands of America Honor Band has marched in the Rose Parade previously in 2005, 2009, 2013, 2017 and 2022.