The 14th Annual “Jock Jams” was held Thursday, Jan. 22 at Pease Auditorium by the Student Athlete Advisory Council.
The teams that participated brought down the house with their hilarious dance moves and the proceeds of the event profited Ypsilanti Community Schools Foundation.
Julia Lombardi, the SAAC President and women’s soccer team member, thanked everyone coming to the event before it got rolling.
Athletic trainer Brad Watson, dietician Allison Mankowski and Sam Olson were the judges for the event and gave feedback to the overall performance for every team. Crazy Carl, a large EMU Football supporter even came to rally the audience and got a “Go Green, Go White” chant going, a rarity to Pease Auditorium.
The teams participating included softball, men’s track and field, women’s rowing, women’s track and field, men’s basketball, women’s swimming, football, men’s swimming, which were the defending champions, and women’s freshman soccer.
Each team had a melody and mixture of what songs they wanted to use, but the most common songs heard were “Uptown Funk” by Bruno Mars and “Anaconda” by Nicki Minaj. A common performance tactic for the men were shirtless performances while the women brought their dancing A-game.
The creativity of each team was different, but the notability came with acts like the women’s track and field and the EMU football team. Both teams told a story, with the women’s track and field setting up a mock MTV VMA’s award show while the EMU football team showed contrasting styles between both sides of the team – extremely goofy or extremely hard and tough.
In the end, the defending champs, the men’s swim team, dropped their pants and whipped off their shirts to show their speedos and physique, but the team lost first place to the EMU football team in the end.
Second place went to the softball team and the third to women’s track and field. The evening was full of laughs and the pictures of the event are even more entertaining.
