Student athletes at Yale University know the balancing act, the teamwork, the commitment, and dedication it takes for the payoff of success.
“It’s all these layers and parts working together and finding rhythm and flow,” said Sofia Garcia, a junior on the women’s crew team.
They also know the tradition -- not just in athletics or academics -- but the long history of artists, too. And there’s one group on campus that asked 'what if we could do all three?'
If you listen closely along Tower Parkway in New Haven some school nights, you’ll hear the answer. It’s the sounds of a rehearsal a bit unorthodox – it’s the Unorthojocks, the all-athlete a cappella group.
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“Student athletes singing, that's not something you really hear,” said Ashley Au, a senior of the women’s golf team and co-president of the Unorthojocks with Garcia.
Ask Garcia and Au to list the sports represented and it’s a tough task: there’s women’s crew, heavyweight crew, track and cross country, swim and dive, softball, and men’s and women’s soccer.
“By nature of coming to a school like this you already have to be able to balance the academics and the athletics,” said Garcia. So what’s one more commitment?
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“I really enjoy all three, so doing it is definitely rewarding,” said Au. Though the group has rehearsals twice a week, it bills itself as a place that accommodates the unique challenges of a student athlete’s schedule.
“All of us are people who have varying degrees of musical experience coming from classical backgrounds all the way to people who just happen to sing really well in the shower,” said Garcia. “Their roommates or their teammates in the locker room said 'you should go an audition' and we all wound up in the same place.”
It's a place where they know the balancing act, the teamwork, the commitment and dedication can sing in perfect harmony.
“I think just finishing a really great round all together and then comparing that to finishing a piece,” said Au. “It's just the satisfaction of it all. Like wow. All of the hours I put in and the final product was amazing.”
“Every single press against the blade has to be in sync and it's very similar in a cappella,” said Garcia. “It's all these layers, different parts, working together and finding that rhythm and flow that end up resulting in a piece of art.”
