LORENA, Texas — As preparations get underway for the 97th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, members of the Lorena Legacy Drill Team are preparing too.
Central Texas will be represented on the streets of New York City as nine members of the drill team will perform along with hundreds of dancers from across the country.
This is a first for the drill team, which restarted in 2018 and has been going strong ever since.
"I definitely think it will be a core memory that I'll carry with me for life," said Co-Captain Harper Smith. "I'm just so excited. It's going to feel so surreal being in the streets of NYC performing."
"Growing up as a kid I always wanted to go to New York. It's been my biggest dream ever. Now, getting to go and dance in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is the biggest thing ever," said Lt. Abigail Johnson.
Before the team left for New York, 6 news caught up with "Coach B" who said the group got invited to perform at the parade after scoring among the tops teams at competition last year.
"They are the hardest working team I've had yet and every year they just get better and better," said Drill Team Coach Joann Beheler.
The team knows their hometown will be rooting them on from Lorena.
"I watch Macy's every year," said Beheler. "You know, your mom's cooking in the kitchen and you have it on TV and the fact that I get to go to New York and share this with these girls I've watched grow up, that's the coolest part."
"I'm really proud to be from Lorena and I think our community is excited as well. I know everyone back home will be cheering us on and that makes me really happy," Smith added.
The team landed in New York over the weekend and have been sightseeing with the sisterhood as they call it.
"It's become a sisterhood to me. I look at all the girls as family and my sisters and we all just bonded together and I think they're all really amazing," Co-Captain Kyli Higginbotham said.
"I think it's going to be a really special moment for us," said Beheler.
You can watch full coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Channel 6 KCENTV starting on Thanksgiving morning at 8:30 a.m.
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