Athletes raise money for American Cancer Society

For the 2006 Jock Jams championships, football players Andre Kirkland (left) and Stevon Moss (right) lip sync and dance during their performance in front of hundreds last night at the Auditorium. The football team won for creativity, choreography, origina

Credit: Steve Schirra

Jock Jams kicked off Relay for Life last night in the Auditorium by raising money for the Akron Chapter of the American Cancer Society with lip synching and laughter.

Fourteen Kent State varsity athletic teams showed off their skills, but only three teams came out on top.

The women’s track team, Jock Jams 2005 winner, came in third. Men’s basketball moved up one spot from last year to place second, and the football team was declared the winner to a packed house of cheering fans.

The performances were judged on creativity, choreography, originality, time management and crowd involvement. The panel of judges included Andrea Bellas, income development specialist for the American Cancer Society; Christina Bostardi, president of ACPB; Greg Jarvie, dean of students; Beth Lott, clerical specialist for Kent State athletics; Don McFall, accounting professor from the College of Business and Catherine Zapytowski, accounting specialist for Kent State athletics.

The football team apparently not only has skills on the football field but on the dance floor as well. Freshman quarterback Anthony Magazu decided to join in on the fun this year.

“We practiced once every day for a week. Two and a half hours a night,” Magazu said.

Magazu wasn’t at Jock Jams last year, but heard all about the football team’s second-place loss.

“They felt like they were robbed last year,” Magazu said. “This year we just followed all of the requirements, and I knew we would come out on top.”

Jullian Sullinger of the men’s basketball team was not a sore loser.

“If I was to get second to anyone, I’m glad it was the football team,” the freshman forward said. “They did their thing.”

The basketball team also did its thing to an array of songs mixed by forward Mike Scott.

“Mike is really good with computers,” Sullinger said. “He mixed our whole tape in one day.”

Their performance had fans cracking up to a parody of the Jackson 5, and also a special duet for freshmen Mike McKee and Brandon Parks to the Offspring’s “Pretty Fly for a White Guy.”

The women’s track and field team, not alongside of the men’s track and field team this year, held it up all on their own.

Senior pole vaulter Jackie Rogers said she is proud of their third-place ranking.

“They spilt us up from the men because they were trying to do everything they could to keep us from winning,” Rogers joked. “We just had fun out there.”

The climax of the women’s track performance was their dance number to “Rhythm Nation” by Janet Jackson, Rogers said.

“One of the girl’s taught us the real dance from the video,” she said. “I thought it was really hot.”

Raising money for the American Cancer Society hit home for Rogers.

“All the money goes to the clinic that I work at in Akron, because I am one of the patients there,” Rogers said.

Rogers was diagnosed with a bicuspid aortic valve.

“It basically means that my valves are disintegrating,” Rogers said. “I can’t wait to go back to the clinic and tell everyone I helped raise money for them.”

Relay for Life starts April 29th at the track behind the DeWeese Health Center.

Contact sports correspondent Amanda Fulmer at [email protected].