Musical therapy

Everyone wants entrance music. But students don’t get to hear their favorite song blaring out of the speakers when they enter a classroom to take a test. USU softball players have their own entrance music. It might not be before a stats exam, but every time Aggie batters head to the plate, they do it with their hand-picked song ringing in their ears. “When you go to the plate hearing that song that you pick, that you choose, that has personal motivating factors,” junior infielder Aubrie Stroman said. “For me, it gets me in a mentality that makes me want to hit and succeed.” The practice of letting players pick their song is common in Major League Baseball, as well as college baseball and softball. The idea may not be unique to USU, but each song is-the tunes are picked by a player for a specific reason. Junior pitcher Lindsey Benson said some players pick their songs for the lyrics, some for the beat and others for the feeling it inspires in them. Benson goes for whatever gets her upbeat, which means Paramore’s “Misery Business” this season and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ “Dani California” last year. Stroman has two songs this season-Kelly Rowland’s “Like This” and Twisted Sister’s “I Wanna Rock.” “It makes me want to rock the plate, rock the ball, rock everything,” she said of her ’80s hair metal anthem. Music isn’t just a big part of the moments before each batter steps into the box. Each player picks a few songs for the pregame mix that fills LaRee and LeGrand Johnson Field while the Aggies are getting ready for a game. Softball isn’t the only USU team that gets to pick their music, though. Most Aggie athletes get a say in what’s played before their games. The football team has some input in what fans hear before kickoff in Romney Stadium. Aggie volleyball, gymnastics and men’s and women’s basketball pick songs that resound inside the Spectrum. Benson said the athletes submit songs for the pregame mix, which are approved and edited for content-she said they have to “keep it PG,” with no damns or hells, even-before fans hear them when they go watch their favorite USU team play. The use of music in softball is different than it might be in basketball, football or volleyball, where athletes use it to get blood moving, get pumped up to play. USU head coach Candi Letts said with softball it’s less about getting pumped, and more about focusing on hitting a softball, which is a very difficult task. But the use of music by athletes is a personal thing. “Music’s just really involved in a pregame preset,” Stroman said. “Some people don’t like to listen to it at all because they don’t like that distraction. But for me, personally, it clears my head.” Benson uses different types of music to adjust her mood. Sometimes she needs to get pumped, but Benson said there are other times she doesn’t want to get too revved up-for those occasions she takes it easy with The Eagles. For Stroman-who was making music from age 8 to 13 when she competed in fiddle competitions-the pregame music the team listens to pumps her up and helps with her nerves. The pregame mix includes everything from Billy Idol and Kid Rock to Kenny Chesney and some hip-hop-no fiddle, though. Stroman said the songs, which tend to be more rock than rap, are tunes everyone knows and can sing along to-fans and players alike. Letts said she thinks the pregame music is mostly for the fans to give them something to stave off boredom while waiting for the game. And the players seem to at least be a little cognisant of their fans when selecting songs, Stroman said. For the most part, Letts said the music doesn’t bother her that much, but added she never really got the opportunity to listen to music before games when she played collegiate softball. She said it was “like pulling teeth” to get her coach to let them have music for pregame. Letts may never have got the chance to pick songs for her pregame mix, but she has a good idea which ones she’d pick now. “I would definitely pick much better music than they pick,” she said. Letts would throw some Bruce Springsteen, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Rick James and Pat Benatar on the pregame mix if it was up to her. Benson, who says she likes older rock music, wouldn’t be that bothered if the coaches and people in USU’s Athletic Department got to pick the songs, but she said some songs might be outdated. “It’s a new generation,” Letts said. “The music is a big deal in any high school and college athletics scene … the kids like it, they think it motivates them. Whether that’s true or not, who knows, but I think it’s good if it helps them find rhythm and gets them going.” – da.bake@aggiemail.usu.edu