Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Each KU sports team brought a different flavor of talent as they competed for bragging rights in the fourth annual JayRock, a talent competition for student-athletes.
Rivalries flared as the teams performed a total of 14 skits during the event, which The Student Athlete Advisory Committee, or SAAC, sponsors.
Volleyball junior setter Katie Martincich, center, leads the volleyball team in a dance during JayRock on Tuesday night in the Kansas Union Ballroom. JayRock is an annual talent competition put on by the athletics department.
“We just saw — how many skits — and all of them couldn’t have been more different, but all of them are fun in their own right,” said Mike Harrity, assistant athletics director for student-athlete development.
After winning the best overall performance in the first three years of JayRock, men’s track and field was the team to beat.
In the end, the swimming and diving team dethroned men’s track and field, taking home the best overall performance.
In its skit, “Eat to the Beat,” the swimming and diving team used a fusion of food-related songs to create a skit about a team that loved food.
Aside from choosing the best overall performance, three guest judges also selected winners and handed out awards for the funniest skit, most talented skit, and most entertaining skit.
The judges included Paul Hefferon, former track student-athlete and two-time JayRock champion, Gwen Perkins, who is the wife of Athletics Director Lew Perkins, and celebrity judge Jennifer Widerstrom, 2005 KU graduate and former track and field student-athlete. Widerstrom is now known as Phoenix on the NBC show “American Gladiators.”
Although JayRock is open only to student-athletes, coaches and administrators, Harrity said he wouldn’t rule out the possibility of it becoming an event open to campus in the future.
“The original vision for JayRock was to eventually get a quality show that you can open up to the public,” Harrity said. “I don’t know if the group is there yet, but this year is definitely a big step in that direction.”
Hannah McMacken, diver and chairwoman of the Big 12 Conference SAAC, said about 100 people attended the first JayRock, but that more than 300 athletes, coaches, and administrators attended last year’s JayRock.
“It’s a pretty big event for SAAC, and each year more people are coming,” McMacken said. “It’s a night celebrating hard work, athletics, the talents and relationships that we build.”
Matt Baysinger, chairman for the NCAA Division I SAAC and former KU track athlete, said JayRock was a great opportunity for student-athletes to spend time outside their sports and academics to relax and have a good time.
“We have so much time dedicated to the things we already do that it’s really easy to be narrow-minded as far as what your day is,” Baysinger said. “But when you realize that it’s all a part of a bigger picture and that KU Athletics is a part of a bigger community, then things like this are really great for everyone involved.”
JayRock began four years ago when SAAC wanted to create a camaraderie-building event for all of the athletic teams.
Harrity was inspired to create JayRock by a talent competition the SAAC at the University of Michigan sponsors. Michigan started the competition, Mock Rock, in 1999 and it has been a hit since.
Michigan’s SAAC donates the proceeds from Mock Rock to the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich.
The KU SAAC, which is known for participating in community outreach events such as the Special Olympics, is aiming to make JayRock a fundraiser and donate proceeds to charity in the future.
— — Edited by Brandy Entsminger
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