Every high school here has one. There are some that are more like college bands in that they don't go to competitions, just play popular pop songs at football games. Ours would go to competitions, some out of the state and we did quite well (we were the grand champion of more than one contest).
What happens is, for the first part of a school year (August to November) there is marching season. The rest of the year is concert season. You cannot do just one or the other (unless you quit after marching season). We also had 2 jazz bands, which were only for people interested in them, as well as smaller ensembles during concert season which went to a separate contest, and percussion actually had a concert for all of theirs.
Marching percussion is quite a bit different. The snare drums are very deep but tuned extremely tightly to get a very cutting 'crack!', and the toms (generically called tenors, or by the number of drums trios, quads, quints, sextets) are very different-sounding as well, think up in the higher timbale / snare range. The highest tom is generally only 6" or 8" and is tuned similar in pitch to a lower rock cowbell. The bass drums come in sets of at least 3, more commonly 4-6 and are almost always played 1 per person. They are tuned melodically and the parts are written so that the entire line sounds like one person playing with many parts split between all members of the bassline. The cymbals are the same as concert crash cymbals, 2 cymbals held by straps and crashed together. However, marching cymbals often require many more playing techniques as well as visual effects and the cymbals are generally heavier so they can cut through the band.
Most bands also have a front ensemble, or pit, which has things like marimba, xylophone, vibraphone, glockenspiel, timpani, tubular bells (church bells/chimes), and concert / world percussion. More recently many schools are including synthesizers, electric guitar, bass and drum set. We had synthesizer all 4 years I was there, as well as an electric guitar one year and numerous set-ups very similar to a drum set.
The music is, at least for the higher-level competing bands, very challenging and the style of percussion writing is also much different than most drum set playing (though you could definitely add marching band stuff to your other drumming activities later, as I often do). Look up DCI if you want an idea. High school marching bands also have woodwinds, and DCI is even more challenging but this is a great place to get an idea. Check out the Bluecoats and Cavaliers, they generally seem to have the biggest variety of show ideas and great drum features.
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