HAMPTON

Classes didn't start until Monday, but Hampton University's marching band has been on campus since last week getting ready for the biggest gig of their lives.

The excitement is palpable.

The Hampton University Marching Force, as it's known, began rehearsals Thursday for its appearance in President-elect Barack Obama's inaugural parade on Jan. 20 in Washington.

The young musicians will play four songs, including Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered," which became an Obama campaign theme song.

"These four numbers will be the most important numbers you play in your college career," assistant band director Rasan Holmes told the band. "The world will be watching us. I want you to be bombastic."

No problem there.

Even before many of the band's 144 musicians made it back to campus, the group mustered a fat, full, brassy sound that shook the rafters of Hampton University's convocation center, anchored by the booming oom-pahs of a 14-horn tuba section.

Among the record 1,382 applicants for the nation's 56th inaugural parade, three groups from Virginia were chosen: the Hampton University band, the Virginia Military Institute Corps of Cadets and the Army JROTC from T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria.

For Holmes and band director Al Davis, the biggest concerns are logistical. The band's normal entourage of 225 had to be pared to 175: the 144 musicians plus a flag corps and dance team.

"The biggest thing I'm worried about is just getting there," Holmes said.

It will be a very long day. The band will board buses for Washington shortly after midnight the day of the parade - just hours after some of the members will finish playing in the pep band

for a basketball game. They'll return to Hampton the same evening.

While in Washington, the band will have a military escort. Everyone will go through a security screening. If anyone becomes ill or strays out of formation along the 1.7-mile parade route, they'll be plucked out of the parade and taken to a "straggler tent."

But band members aren't worried. For them, it's all about being part of history.

"I never thought in this lifetime we'd have a black president," said Omar Williams, a graduate student from Durham, N.C., who plays trombone. "It means a lot to me. It's something I'll be able to tell my kids about."

What about nerves? Won't performing for the president and a crowd of millions

produce a major case of the jitters?

Nope, said Larry Marshall, a senior horn player from Pontiac, Mich. "Once I start playing, any nerves I have are gonna get wiped out."