On Jan. 26, the North Carolina A&T State University Blue and Gold Marching Machine marched the last step of a historic season in the Georgia Dome at the Honda Battle of the Bands.

“We’ve had an amazing year,” trombone section leader Alex Revelle said. “I’ve been so blessed to be a part of so many great performances.”

The Marching Machine was one of eight bands chosen by popular vote to perform at the invitational showcase of marching bands from historically black colleges or universities. Just two months after making history at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, the band closed the show of what one of Revelle’s band mates called “the Super Bowl of HBCU bands.”

“Coming off the Macy’s performance and with all the shows we’d done this season, there was a lot of buzz in the band world about whether or not we could close out the show,” Revelle said. “I think we did really well.”

The band was allotted 12 minutes to perform a show and the auxiliary dance team, Golden Delight, also participated in the competition’s first dance off.

“It was an amazing feeling – totally different from marching in the Macy’s. Both were great but the parade is constant movement. With the Battle of the Bands, people are sitting there anticipating your performance,” Revelle said.

“You could see and hear people’s reactions. Performing in front of 60,000 people, a lot of them from schools different from yours who are cheering for you, it was an experience of a lifetime.”

One of those people, Roosevelt Pratt Jr., is an alumnus and a former drum major for the Marching Machine said he would not have missed the performance for anything.

“This is our 10th year coming to this and being that I’m an Aggie, if they’re present, I’m present.”

Pratt graduated from N.C. A&T in 1989 and is now the band director of the E.E. Smith High School Magnificent Marching Machine in Fayetteville, N.C. He made the trip with about 44 parents and students for two reasons.

“One of the drum majors, Juan Ventura, is my former drum major and I wanted to see him,” Pratt said. “I also feel it’s important for my current band members to see how far their talents and dedication can take them.”

Ventura isn’t Pratt’s only student who has transitioned into being a leader of a college band. He has also trained leaders who have been drum majors at Shaw University, Morehouse College, Fayetteville State University and others.

“We developed our band in such a way that we kept developing leaders and it’s all the things that I learned as a drum major at A&T,” Pratt said.
In addition to Pratt, other Aggie alumni made long treks to support the band. But it's the members of the Atlanta Alumni chapter that made this trip a little sweeter for Revelle.

“There’s no warmer feeling when you have alumni walk up to you with open arms to hug you and tell you how much they love you and how proud they are of you,” he said.

“It let us know that people really appreciate what we do and they show it. Seeing them support us that way helps us keep pushing.”