Student athletes representing the football team, volleyball team, men’s and women’s basketball teams and several others, took off their uniforms and left the playing field to take to the stage and exhibit their talent beyond athletic ability Monday night.
The event, which the Student Athlete Advisory Council organized, was held to benefit the Frankie Lemmon School and Developmental Center — a center that provides education for children with developmental disabilities.
The idea originated with Brandon Costner, a redshirt sophomore on the men’s basketball team, and Ronnie Bouemboue, a junior on the men’s soccer team.
“We always wanted another outlet for the athletes to express ourselves,” Costner, co-emcee, said. “In our free time, we all just sit around and mess around with music, so we just figured we’d throw a talent show for charity.”
According to Stephen Mellor, co-emcee of the event and a redshirt junior on the men’s swimming team, the SAAC planned the event for almost a year but worked the hardest during the past few months to pull it off.
Representatives from each sport on the SAAC worked to line up the participants in the talent show.
“We really pleaded with them to be a part of the show,” Mellor said. “Some people couldn’t do it and some did, but it comes down to that it was all about the charity, and I think it went really well.”
The audience laughed and cheered as the men’s swimming team performed the “Men in Tights” dance from the “Robin Hood, Men in Tights” movie, and as other teams such as the softball and women’s track teams performed together.
Although most of the participants were student-athletes, the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity took part in the show with a step routine.
Jason Zinser, a redshirt sophomore on the baseball team, played a role in the talent show line-up as he provided music before the show on the piano and then performed twice by singing and playing the guitar, once solo and once with freshman volleyball player Carlee Fowler.
“It’s a good opportunity to get out and support a worthy cause and have a little fun while you’re doing it,” Zinser said. “Also, with the pride we have here in N.C. State athletics, it’s a good opportunity to go out and represent your team in a different way. When all the teams come together, it’s a special thing and it’s a part of why we have a very special athletic program.”
Costner and Mellor expressed their opinions on the performances throughout the show, but a panel of four judges watched each of the 13 performances to evaluate and hand out titles for the Most Entertaining and Best Performance.
In the end, they chose the men’s swimming team’s performance as Most Entertaining. They awarded Nicole Huber, a freshman on the volleyball team, the award for Best Performance for her rendition of Aretha Franklin’s “Natural Woman.”
“It was really great and I had a lot of support from my teammates, so that made me feel really comfortable on stage, so I could give all I had,” Huber said. “I’ve always had a passion for singing and [the talent show] finally gave me the opportunity to show something different that has always been a part of me.”
At the end of the show, Mellor announced the show helped to raise more than $1,500 through donations for the Frankie Lemmon School and Developmental Center, who had representatives in the audience.
Costner said he felt the event was a great success and supported a good cause as well as allowed the athletes to show a side of them most people never see.
“We really didn’t think this many people would show up, so we’re really happy about that,” Costner said. “I’m happy the people got to see the athletes doing something other than what we normally do.”
