On Friday, Wittenberg’s athletic trainers and Founders Pub played host to a lip sync battle for members of the Wittenberg community in celebration of Athletic Training Month.
Before the battle began, the event was kicked off by assistant athletic trainer Molly Hopkins teaching the audience a brief lesson about the Athletic Trainers Association and the history of Wittenberg’s athletic training. Hopkins talked about the new athletic facility and how it’s going to change the game regarding sports medicine on Wittenberg’s campus. With the help of Timothy Kremchek and new equipment, such as underwater treadmills and dunk tanks, Wittenberg’s athletes will be receiving the same care and treatment as the Cincinnati Reds, with whom Kremchek works.
However, the audience only had one thing on their minds, and that was the lip sync battle.
“Quiet down, this is class and there will be an exam at the end of the night,” Hopkins jokingly said to a restless audience.
The idea behind the lip sync battle came from “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” where each participant takes turns performing their best lip sync from a wide array of songs. With 10 different performances taking place, there were songs from every genre. Whether you’re a fan of hit songs like “Jessie’s Girl,” “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” “Fat Bottomed Girls” or “Shake It Off,” there was something that everyone was able to let loose and sing along to.
Once it was time for the lip sync battle to begin, Hopkins opened up the stage to anyone who was brave enough to go first. The person to answer the call was Thaddeus Snodgrass, ‘18, who performed the song “Let Em’ Know” by Bryson Tiller. Snodgrass set the tone for the event in a great way by getting the audience involved for the entire song. Whether it was when he danced through the crowd or when he pulled members from the audience onto the stage with him, his performance left everyone in amazement.
“That was great,” Courtney Huck, ‘17, said. “Good for him. There’s no way I could have got on stage and do what he did.”
Next it was student workers in the athletic training room’s turn to show the packed Founders what they had in store for everyone. The trio of Megan Leache, ‘17, Joe Casedonte, ‘18 and Neo Mos, ‘18, performed Toto’s popular song “Africa.” However, the trainers couldn’t let their student workers have all the fun, so Hopkins had to take her turn on the stage to perform “Fat Bottomed Girls” by Queen, causing the audience to break out in synchronized clapping for the chorus.
“Seeing Molly get up on stage and lip sync was amazing,” Megan Leache, ‘17, said. “She’s always super professional at work and it was awesome to see her let loose and have some fun.”
Whether on stage performing or watching the show from the crowd, the event was well received by the 150 plus students and faculty who came out to support the Wittenberg athletic trainers and to distress from their week by taking part in their version of “The Tonight Show’s” lip sync battle.
