Junior Riley Hunt is an athlete that has been singing the national anthem at badminton games since her freshman year. Some of Hunt’s friends were already on the badminton team and convinced her to try out also around the same time the national anthem auditions were being held, Hunt stated, “I like singing and it sounds fun so I went ahead and auditioned.” Hunt was given the choice to either sing at some flag football games or sing at all the home badminton games or she could do both. Hunt says, “I’ll just do the badminton ones and then ever since freshman year I’ve just been singing at the badminton matches.” 

Hunt trains at not only mandatory practice but she also trains with a group of her friends. Hunt will grab a group for her friends who are also on the team and two times a week her and her friends go to the gym and work on footwork, endurance and sets themselves or Hunt goes on Saturday because her gym holds weekend classes. At mandatory, Hunt’s coach lets the players choose what the team wants to work on. Hunt says, “We’re like we want to work on this because we’re not as good at it or we won’t want to work on this just to get better at it.” Hunt says, “So yeah, we have a lot of say in what we’re gonna do in practice, it’s really nice.”  

The way Hunt prepares performs is to sing it in her head to get the words and everything down. The team was a little stuffed puma that is named Phil. Hunt says, “I always get very nervous before singing so I hold Phil just to have something to put pressure on and put the focus somewhere else.”

A teammate of Hunt, Freshmen Kayden Mccoy has claimed, “She’s very skilled and she is the sweetest, I enjoy being around here.” Mccoy has started playing badminton this year and Hunt has been helping Mccoy and other players as Mccoy said, “She always helps everyone”. Mccoy has also stated “ she likes to talk to others, she’s always nice about it and she likes to be silly and stuff”.  Mccoy said “ she definitely takes her time in badminton”. Mccoy is there for every game she can so she has watched Hunt perform the anthem, Mccoy claims “ I think she’s the best person on the team with singing and I enjoy hearing her every day before the game”.