The Nicolet High School dance team is ready for primetime.

The team will appear during tonight's halftime show of the Discover Orange Bowl. The game between the Virginia Tech Hokies and the Stanford Cardinal takes place in Miami Gardens, FL., and will air at 7 p.m. on ESPN.

Dance team coach Kathleen Fictum says the experience has been a bit surreal.

"I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited," she said.  "The Bowl Games of America actually called us. We were referred by an anonymous source to dance."

The halftime routine was choreographed by Bonnie Story, who has worked with Michael Jackson and on "High School Musical." "She put this together for all the teams recommended for a bowl game," Fictum said. "There will be 800 girls on the field, but they will all be in the same costume."

But that doesn't mean you won't be able to spot the Nicolet girls as their group of 11 was selected to perform separately, in front of the other 789 girls. They are: Alexis Block, Rebecca Johnson, Emily Eiseman, Samantha Shore, Sky Fox, Mary Donahue, Elizabeth Tavolier, Lana May, Megan Eisendrath, Adina Barrientos and Lindsey Carpenter.

"We were selected to be front and center," Fictum said proudly. "As you would imagine, the girls are going crazy with excitement."

International stars, the Goo Goo Dolls will be performing during the halftime show and the Nicolet squad will dance to two of their songs, "Slide" and "Not Broken."

"It's incredible down here," Fictum said by telephone from Miami. "They have lasers, 10-foot pyrotechnic devises. Everything you've seen on television, but were never able to see up close." 

Nicolet Athletic Director Kirk Krychowiak has nothing but praise for Fictum.

"I think it's an awesome opportunity for the dance team to experience something like this on such a big stage," Krychowiak said. "I'm sure they will remember this for the rest of their lives and I commend coach Fictum for organizing this for the students. Nicolet is very proud of the talent that our dance team shows, and we are excited for them."

"We'll perform for about seven minutes, but there will be commercials during our performance," Fictum said. 

So keep your eyes peeled.

Deb May is a parent of one of the dancers, sophomore Lana May. "We didn't know it'd be this exciting," May said.

Her elder daughter, Lilly, graduated from Nicolet and was a captain on the dance team last year. "She was on four years and it was great," May said. "I think part of the reason this team is so good is the expectations the older girls had of this team."

May confesses Lilly is a bit envious of her little sister's appearance on such a big stage. "Yes, no doubt about that," she said on the telephone from Miami. "The whole experience has been great."

May says Fictum is an incredible coach and a large part of why the girls are in Miami. "She's given them so much confidence and pushed them to their limits. She and her assistant Amy have shown the girls they're better than even they thought they were."