Rock Hill band director to play sousaphone in the Rose Parade

ROCK HILL, S.C. — The Carolinas will be well-represented at the Rose Bowl on Saturday after a local band director was selected to participate in the annual Rose Parade.

James Turner, band director for South Pointe High School in Rock Hill, will fly across the country to march in the parade in California. Turner has been a band director for the South Pointe High School Band of Thunder for 16 years.

Turner and other band directors from all over the United States were selected to march in the parade. He will play a sousaphone, a 30 to 45-pound instrument in the same family as the tuba.

Turner told Channel 9 he has been practicing.

>>You can watch the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day at 11 a.m. on Channel 9.

“I’ve actually been walking on the treadmill and the other night, I got on the treadmill with my sousaphone on and did 5 miles playing and walking, so I think I’m prepared,” he said.

Turner said marching in the Rose Parade has been a dream of his since he was a band student. He said there is a lesson in this for his students -- they can do anything they put their minds to.

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