Virginia State University’s Trojan Explosion has grown beyond 200 members while once again opening the Red Lobster Band of the Year season at the top of the Division II rankings.|
For Virginia State director of bands Dr. Taylor Whitehead, however, the size of the band may not be the most important part of the story.
The bigger story is how the program got there — and how far Whitehead believes it can still go.
Virginia State entered the 2026 Red Lobster Band of the Year rankings at No. 1 among Division II HBCU bands, continuing a run that has made the Trojan Explosion one of the competition’s most consistent programs.
Whitehead believes that consistency starts with understanding exactly what the competition measures.
“A lot of times a lot of people question the rankings,” Whitehead told HBCU Gameday. “They see certain groups, they don’t understand it.”
He pointed out that fans often evaluate HBCU bands based on what happens in the stands, band battles or fifth-quarter performances.
The Red Lobster Band of the Year evaluation, however, centers heavily on what bands put on the field during halftime.
“One of the biggest things for me is I’ve always put a lot of effort in halftime entertainment,” Whitehead said.
That approach has helped Virginia State establish itself as a regular contender. The Trojan Explosion participated in the inaugural Band of the Year event against Florida Memorial and returned the following year against Miles College.
Virginia State spent much of last season ranked No. 1 but did not return to the championship event. Whitehead hasn’t forgotten it.
“We’re just going to keep pushing again and hope that that opportunity comes back,” he said. “We’ve always said that we were the number one band in the CIAA. Well, we want people to see what we believe is that we’re the number one D2 band in the country.”
Virginia State band grows from 17 members to more than 200
The current size of the Virginia State marching band represents a dramatic transformation when viewed through the program’s history. Whitehead recalled that during the 1960s and 1970s, the band was known as the Marching 110 before later becoming the Sounds of Distinction.
The modern Trojan Explosion identity arrived in 1984 when Professor Harold J. Horton Sr. came to Virginia State from Jackson State.
“When he first got here, the band was just 17 members,” Whitehead said.
The program grew substantially in the decades that followed, including nine consecutive appearances at the Honda Battle of the Bands during the tenure of Dr. Mark Phillips. There were challenges, too.
Whitehead said the program experienced a decline roughly a decade ago before COVID-19 created even more uncertainty around what college marching bands would look like after the pandemic.
When Whitehead took over the program, he attacked the problem through recruiting.
“I just hit the ground running, doing a lot of recruitment initiatives, traveling the country,” he said.
Virginia State also began selling recruits on something larger than just the Trojan Explosion. Whitehead pointed toward growth throughout the university’s music department, including its wind symphony, percussion ensemble, chamber groups and jazz band.
Those opportunities helped Virginia State reach students who previously might not have considered the university.
“We started to really attract students that did not have us on their radar at first,” Whitehead said. “And since that point in time, the program is just growing.”
That growth has now pushed the Trojan Explosion past 200 members. Whitehead doesn’t expect 200 to be the ceiling.
“If we hit 200 this year, we’re going to grow past this because we have a pretty young band,” he said. “Most of this band is freshmen and sophomores.”
A DJ mentality shapes the Trojan Explosion halftime show
Numbers alone don’t explain why Virginia State continues to score well in the Red Lobster Band of the Year rankings. Whitehead believes presentation matters just as much, and part of his philosophy comes from an unexpected place: his background as a DJ.
“As a DJ, you wanted to always keep the music going,” Whitehead said. “The party could never stop.”
That mentality now shapes the way he constructs Virginia State’s halftime performances. Rather than presenting a series of disconnected segments, Whitehead wants the Trojan Explosion’s show to flow continuously, keeping the audience engaged from beginning to end.
“I like consistent shows where from the first whistle to the last one is consistent entertainment,” he said. “I don’t want it to stop. I don’t want all these long pauses. I want people to be entertained.”
Virginia State also has another element that helps distinguish its presentation. Whitehead said the Trojan Explosion is one of the relatively few HBCU bands featuring three auxiliary units, and instead of having all of them competing for attention throughout the show, he works to give each group moments to be featured while maintaining the feel of one cohesive production.
That balance carries across every part of the performance. Virginia State isn’t trying to dominate one category and hope it carries the overall score; Whitehead’s goal is to be consistently strong in music, marching, percussion, drum majors and auxiliary performance.
“For us, we try to score well in each of the areas — music, marching, percussion, drum majors, auxiliary, everything about what we do,” Whitehead said.
Trojan Explosion takes HBCU band experience beyond Virginia State
Whitehead also sees the growth of the program as an opportunity to expose Virginia State students to places and experiences they might not otherwise encounter. Since he took over the program in 2021, the Trojan Explosion has traveled extensively and appeared on some of the largest stages available to HBCU bands.
Virginia State has participated in the Honda Battle of the Bands and National Battle of the Bands.
The program has appeared at the White House and on NBC’s Today. It has has traveled to states including Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Ohio, New York and South Carolina, along with Washington, D.C.
The Trojan Explosion is also scheduled for an ESPN First Take appearance this season. For Whitehead, those opportunities serve two purposes.
They expose a larger audience to Virginia State. They also expose Virginia State students to a larger world.
“Letting people see the greatness of what’s happening here, but also exposing the students to opportunities that they would have never seen before,” Whitehead said.
The schedule remains demanding. Virginia State was preparing to travel to New York for the Trojans’ football game against Lincoln University before heading to Maryland the following day for the Capital Battle of the Bands.
It would mark the Trojan Explosion’s third band battle of the season.
Virginia State believes its best HBCU band performances are still ahead
Perhaps the most intriguing part of Virginia State’s No. 1 start is Whitehead’s belief that the Trojan Explosion isn’t performing at its best yet.
With so many freshmen and sophomores in the program, the 2026 band remains young.
Whitehead said his teams have sometimes started slowly before reaching their best performances around the middle of the season. The previous year’s group developed differently.
“Last year we were strong very soon out the gate,” Whitehead said. “But because we had so many new students this year, it’s taking a little bit longer for us to get to that point where we are.”
His standard is straightforward. Get one percent better every day. That leaves an interesting possibility for the rest of the Red Lobster Band of the Year season.
Virginia State has already grown beyond 200 members. The Trojan Explosion has already earned the No. 1 Division II ranking. And Whitehead believes the youngest members of the band are still learning how good they can become.
“I just know it’s going to get better from here,” Whitehead said.
Then he made his expectations for the rest of 2026 clear.
“So we started at the top. I plan on finishing at the top.”