NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Sometimes hard work and practice leads right to a major opportunity. Sometimes unexpected circumstances take that opportunity away. A group at Belmont can tell you: don't give up.
A group of guys makes their performance look easy, but it's not. Eighteen people balancing vocals and choreography has been rehearsed to perfection.
"Just once or twice before you came in, I think," laughed Chris Wiper.
"We are The Pitchmen," said Andrew Holkomb.
"A lot of talented people," added Sean Murphy.
"We are an all-male a capella group at Belmont University," said Jake Mangel.
Chris, Jake, Andrew, and Sean are the group seniors.
"I feel super lucky to be part of this group," said Chris.
"We're all best friends," Jake continued. "The amount of drive and talent that's in the room, you can just feel it when we're performing."
Back when these four seniors were all freshmen, they were competing in what's called the ICCAs.
"It is the International Championships of Collegiate A capella," Chris said. "If you've seen 'Pitch Perfect,' the ICCAs, that's what they go to. We won our semifinal round which meant we were gonna get to advance to our final round."
It was a huge deal, hard work paying off. The Pitchmen were ready to fly to New York to compete in the ICCA finals. However, that was 2020.
"COVID took it away from us," said Andrew.
"The whole thing got canceled," Jake said.
The music hit pause. Countless hours of work on campus was just over.
"It was incredibly deflating," Chris remembered.
"To have that taken away from us was heartbreaking," Jake added.
"There was definitely a three-day period of complete denial," Andrew said.
"Devastated," Sean said with a nod.
The Pitchmen, of course, eventually started performing together again, but there was the question of if they could manage to get to the ICCA finals again.
"That group from 2020 was just lightning in a bottle that we couldn't make happen again," Chris said.
Or maybe they could. The Pitchmen have won the ICCA semi-finals again and are heading to the finals this month in New York. What Chris, Jake, Andrew, and Sean had taken away as freshmen, they will have as seniors.
"We're ready to finish what we started," Jake smiled.
"I feel really, really lucky to be here with these guys right here, right now," said Sean.
"2020 wasn't a fluke," said Jake. "The Pitchmen are here to stay. We're here to show the world what we got."
The ICCA finals are at Town Hall Theater in Times Square on April 29.
A GoFundMe link to help all 18 guys travel to New York can be found here.
