AMES, Iowa — Former Muscatine High School marching band member Allison Bailey doesn’t have her feet on the ground anymore.

Since becoming a drum major for the 2009 Iowa State Cyclone marching band, Bailey can be seen standing on a 2-foot-by-2-foot platform near the top of a 10-foot ladder as she conducts her band mates.

 Bailey, an Iowa State senior, said her classmate, Dan Hinz of Corning, was a drum major last year, and encouraged her to apply for the position.

Bailey was among 12 applicants, a pool that was narrowed to six.

Each of those six auditioned in both marching and conducting technique in front of the entire band, which includes more than 300 members.

 The band’s directors, Matt Smith and Natalie Steele, made the final selection using the band member’s ranking as one determining factor.

 Bailey, who played piccolo in the Iowa State Band, learned she was selected at an end-of-season meeting in late November 2008.

Hinz, a senior, returned as a drum major and Kevin Friedman of Des Plaines, Ill., rounds out the band’s trio of drum majors.

Bailey, a 2006 MHS graduate, was flute section leader her junior year in high school and drum major her senior year, along with Melissa Johnson and Kevin Hocke.

“Allison Bailey was an outstanding musician and member of our program,” said MHS director of bands Jeff Heid when he learned about Bailey’s recent accomplishment.

Allison’s parents are Lane and Peggy Bailey  of Muscatine. She has a sister, Rebecca Lucas, 27, of Dallas, and a brother, Alex, who is an Iowa State freshman.

Peggy Bailey said it was obvious Allison enjoyed being in band when she played flute with her fifth-grade class.

“There was no doubt she would continue,” she said.

Allison conducted at her first game last weekend when Iowa State hosted a home game against North Dakota State University.

This weekend, the University of Iowa football team is visiting Ames.

Bailey said all three drum majors stand on small platforms atop 10-foot-tall ladders to give the band a clear view of their direction.

“It was a little scary the first time,” said Bailey. “But I’m not afraid of heights.”

The drum majors often get their cues from the press box before directing the band to play a cheer.

“For instance, when our team gets a first down, we always play a cheer and the whole stadium goes, ‘Go Cyclones,’” said Bailey. “I have to be sure we are allowed to play at that time.”

While Bailey hopes to continue playing a musical instrument after college, she is focusing her career on marine biology.

She is majoring in biology and did an internship this summer in Key Largo, Fla.,  where she worked with dolphins.

Her project was to learn more about a dolphin’s thought processes through experiments with object identification.

“I have a much higher interest in working with dolphins now that I have gotten a taste of what that’s like,” said Bailey.