Dr. Alexander Treviño’s office in the Diehn Fine and Performing Arts Center at Old Dominion University serves many functions: storeroom, office, de facto conductor’s chambers (where Treviño does his seamstress work), and military-style recruitment and operations center. It also has the only blue door in the building.

“We haven’t come up with a placard for the door yet,” said Treviño, the school’s first ever marching band director. “So I told them to paint it blue.”

Such is the life of a man who is trying to turn what he called “a sandbox” into a fully-functioning, 150-player, big-time football marching band.

As ODU enters the world of Division 1-AA football this coming fall, it will be Treviño’s band that gives the team its marching orders. The band will also be responsible for the half-time show, a spectacle of music, dancing, and formations of people like pixels in a football field-sized moving picture.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do yet,” said Treviño, who has seven months until kick-off to figure it out. But he does have a goal.

“The administration won’t like hearing this,” he said, “but we want to see half-time concession sales drop.”

Treviño was hired in July of 2007. At 37 he carries a presence of certitude beyond his year. Treviño’s official duties are to form and run the marching band, lead the basketball pep band, and teach music education. But those responsibilities do not begin to cover the total scope of his task. Since taking the position, Treviño has had to design the uniforms, create the band blazon, write two new school fight songs, turn the alma mater into a march, recruit the entire band, run clinics at local high schools, squeeze some more brass into the pep band, and figure out a practice schedule and location for a band without an official practice field.

“We had to practice in front of the student dorms,” said Alexandra Borza, a sophomore mellophone player. “I’ve had a few people tell me they were screaming out the window for us.”

Borza didn’t mention if the students were shouting for them to stop or turn up the funk. Judging by the 7 a.m. start time, one might guess the former.

Despite some bumps in the road, Borza said the band is “progressing awesomely.” She believes in Treviño, who she said gets so excited about new ideas for the band he sometimes calls her on her cell phone.

“He’s very supportive and enthusiastic and keeps us grounded and makes sure everything is going smoothly,” she said. “ODU is definitely pulling through.”

According to Treviño, a marching band history buff, football marching bands are the evolution of military signal corps which got the troops moving during the Civil War. Given the band’s charge to motivate both the crowd and team, not much has changed.

“I know the excitement level a good marching band brings to a college football game,” said Bobby Wilder, ODU’s head football coach.  “Alex will bring that excitement level to the campus of Old Dominion.”

It started with a blue door, but Treviño is trying to build a tradition that will last, something on par with the renowned band of his alma mater, the University of Texas. He thinks that ODU has a good start.

“Next to ‘The Eyes of Texas’,” he said, speaking of the song Texas’ band made famous, “ODU’s is the best school song I’ve ever heard. It’s a joy to play.”

And should Coach Wilder ever take a page from history and let Treviño call a play with the marching band?

“I’d go with the long ball,” he said. “Every time.”