SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — How would you describe what a marching band contributes at a football stadium?

“We take the energy that the team and the student section gives us, we put it in a blender and amplify it and then we shoot it back at them, and then it’s just this back and forth… It makes the game so much more fun for everyone,” Augustana University junior Max Outland said.

He is drum major for the Viking Marching Band. It’s the first time in almost 50 years that the school has had a marching band.

“It’s really, really exciting, because the university couldn’t have been more welcoming and more open to the idea of having a marching band again after 47 years, and the atmosphere at the games is so different now that we have the marching band to change that,” Outland said.

For marching band member and Augustana freshman Abby Scott, if sounds like these aren’t happening, she would have rather studied elsewhere.

“I actually chose a college for the marching band, and so I was very hesitant on Augie ’cause they didn’t have one, and then when I found out they were having a marching band for the first time this year, I was really excited,” Scott said.

The band’s director Andrew Hayward says he is hearing evidence of the welcomed return of these instruments.

“I’ve been told probably a hundred times by now that we have changed the game day experience with the addition of the marching band here at Augustana,” Hayward said.

“Nearly 50 years, it’s been a long, long time, and we’re super excited to have it back,” Outland said.