Half-time history: UTRGV Marching Band gets ready for first-ever season
EDINBURG — Fall of 2025 is set to be a historic semester for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
From the university celebrating ten years, to having its first football season, another historic first set to take place is the inaugural season of the UTRGV Marching Band.
Practicing marching drills in the morning to avoid the harsh heat and South Texas afternoon sun, the UTRGV students are still met with bright sunny skies and humidity that requires frequent water breaks.
Athletics Band director Dustin Ferguson — a Florida native — is no stranger to the heat.
Coming from the University of Hawaii, Ferguson said it’s hotter and less windy in the Valley.
Speaking a week before band camp at the Edinburg campus, he said he was hoping for around 150 students to sign up. Getting closer and closer each day before camp, that expectation was exceeded, with about just under 200 students on the field Wednesday morning.
Paul Farris, the head drum major, said he’s been with the marching band program since 2023 when there were only 40 students.
“It just goes to show how excited people are for it by how many people want to show up and be part of it,” Farris said. “It’s pretty exciting to not just play at the football games but represent the school and represent the Valley, musically and hype-wise.”
Ferguson, the director, took the position for two reasons. To be closer to family and the idea of building something completely from the ground up.
“What I noticed from the start is the support and hunger for something to be started and for something to be incredible,” he said. “I have the full support of pretty much everybody I’ve interacted with since I got here. All the way from the top to people on the street to people in coffee shops. Everybody is ready for football and they’re ready for marching band to be just a part of the fabric of the university.”
Ferguson also said he is eager to provide meaningful experiences that he’s had while marching or directing to UTRGV students.
Graduating with his bachelors and masters from the University of Florida, he would then go on to teach at a public high school in South Florida.
Ferguson would also spend time at Ohio State.
One experience from his time in South Florida that he hopes to give to UTRGV students is participating in big events such as the Macy’s Day Parade.
“That’s a long-term goal for us that I would love our students to have the opportunity to go do that,” he said.
Understanding the competitiveness in marching band in the Valley, Ferguson said college marching is more about putting on high-quality, entertaining shows.
“We’re after our own identity and it’s going to take us some time to figure that out,” Ferguson said.
Most high school bands perform one or two shows that they practice all year. At UTRGV, he said the band is aiming to do four different shows, with a pregame show for the first game.
“A lot of them love marching, and they love the physical piece,” Ferguson said. “We’re still able to offer that, but we just do it at a faster pace, because we’re doing more shows than just one so that’s a lot of activity for them. And so I think a lot of them are going to enjoy that.”
Experiencing some highs and lows while in the marching band, Ferguson said he had a fun experience through his school’s championship games and a Sugar Bowl.
No matter how well or bad the football team is doing, he said the marching band has to give the full support of the team and focus no matter what is happening.
“We can’t control what happens on the field, we can’t control the other team,” Ferguson said. “We have to focus on what we can control, which is the music that we play and how well we do it, or the shows that we perform and how well we do it. To make sure that we’re bringing an atmosphere that is conducive to what we’re looking for to be as energetic and as high-powered as possible.”
The first football game will feature two shows from the marching band, a pregame and half-time show.
Farris is excited for the first show since it’s Hispanic themed and features lots of shapes.
“We have a wide range of music that we’re going to play so I’m pretty excited for that,” he said.
Not wanting to spoil the songs, he said they are catchy and will be recognizable to the Valley crowd.
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