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Sweat dripped from their faces as the Lakota West Pit Crew parents arranged more than 200 instrument cases, their red T-shirts standing out against a sea of black and gray cases in the parking lot.

First, the front line percussion pieces and the sousaphones were arranged, then big cases followed the small ones.

It was Sept. 22, and their mission was twofold — to get band members and their equipment to a competition in Springfield, and to get a final count of cases and their size before making arrangements to transport the more than 1,600 cubic feet of freight to the 2008 Rose Bowl Parade.

"It's just like a well-oiled machine," said Brian Millard as he watched the procession take place.

Since its pre-season meeting, the pit crew front line leader has been training parent volunteers and students to know where and how to arrange each instrument to allow for the most efficient loading and unloading process. Each week, Millard times the process to see how well his team does in packing the hundreds of instruments into the trailers. When there is a time crunch, the team has been known to unload in 10 minutes.

"I can't get this out of my blood," he said.

Four years ago, Millard said he got run over by the band's trailer. After unloading the rest of the equipment, he said he allowed the paramedics to look at his separated shoulder, broken collarbone, torn bicep muscle, torn rotator cuff and labrum in his left shoulder.

"Pit crew members are tough," he said.

It is worth the long hours and intense labor, said second-year member Susan Chain as she hefted another large case into one of the waiting 24-foot trailers shared by the Lakota bands.

"You are kind of sore tomorrow," she said, but "the fellowship, the friendships — that's been really special."

About 50 parents take turns hauling equipment, making food and chaperoning students as they travel to competitions and away games. They have specific instructions on how to handle the instruments.

But their duties do not stop there.

The crew needed a vehicle to move the equipment at football games and competitions. The wishing pools at Bass Pro Shops in Cincinnati Mills are filled with both fish and coins, but the coins have slowly been poisoning the fish. So 15 pit crew parents stood outside the tanks as two waded in with the fish and then handed out the money to be sorted and cleaned, Millard said. After recovering $3,100 for Bass Pro Shops, the company donated a 2007 Arctic Cat All Terrain Vehicle to the pit crew.

"We took out the coins, but left all the wishes," Millard said.

Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5067 or lhilty@coxohio.com.