ELKHART — Jimtown High School’s marching band is taking steps to one day compete in band contests.

The marching Jimmies will participate this year in the Indiana State School Music Association’s festival class events. The festival class allows bands to experience marching band contests and receive feedback from judges, but not compete for placings against other bands.

The 22 students in Jimtown’s marching band will have their first public performance — outside of football game shows — during the invitational today, Sept. 15, at Concord High School.

Jimtown’s show, called “Heroes,” includes music from TV or film versions of “Captain America,” “Iron Man” and “The Avengers.”

“They’re really excited,” Lambright said, especially since “a lot of them have seen other competitive marching bands before.”

They’re also a little nervous, she said, since it is a new experience for the students.

Jimtown re-started its marching band program last year, after not having the program since 1987. At the beginning of this school year, Lambright asked the students if they wanted to participate in festival class. They were very excited about it, she said.

Lambright is hoping to build the band program.

She’d like to add a color guard next year, she said, and a budget. School administrators have been very supportive of Lambright developing the band program and advocating for a marching band budget, Lambright explained.

Her goal is for the band to compete in four years, but that really depends on how ready they are and what the kids want to do, she said.

“If we’re ready in two years,” she said, “we’ll go in two years.”

Besides today’s introduction to competing at a formal event, the Jimmies will participate in ISSMA’s Festival Marching Band event Oct. 6. Jimtown will be one of 15 festival class bands performing at Jackson Intermediate Center’s Jackson Field in South Bend.

“Things are going really well,” Lambright said about the band’s progress.

Lambright said she had to start the year by teaching the fundamentals of marching — how to move correctly forward or backward, for example.

“It was very new to them, but they’re really ready for it,” she said.