FIU Idol

Many thanks to Pete Pelegrin for sharing this story. If you aren’t familiar with Pelegrin’s blog, The Prowl, check it out today. You’ll be glad you did.

FIU volleyball freshman Jessica Wilkie had a secret and she was ready to reveal it just before the national anthem at the Panthers’ home match against Middle Tennessee on Oct. 15. While the Panthers held hands as the national anthem was about to be played at U.S. Century Bank Arena, Wilkie left her teammates and walked to midcourt.

Jessica Wilkie (front, left) surprised her teammates when she stepped up to perform "The Star-Spangled Banner" before a game on Oct. 15.

When senior Natalia Valentin saw what Wilkie was doing, she told the freshman to get back in line with her teammates and hold hands until the anthem was finished. Wilkie ignored Valentin and grabbed the microphone to sing.

“We were like, ‘Wilkie, you are singing? Oh, my God this is going to be embarrassing,'” Valentin recalled. “But then she pulled through and did a great job. Everyone then stood up and gave her an ovation. Wow, what a voice.”

That voice has been singing all kinds of music since Wilkie was 3. It’s just that Wilkie never performed in front of a crowd. Still, it didn’t matter much because Wilkie feels so at ease when she’s singing.

“I don’t get nervous when I sing, because it is so natural to me,” Wilkie said. “Everyone should have this and if they don’t have this, they should find this: singing is like that place where I can be myself no matter what. I don’t have to think twice about what I’m doing when I’m singing.”

Earlier this summer, Wilkie did have to think twice of whether she wanted to pursue an opportunity to tryout for American Idol or for the FIU volleyball team. Two weeks before the Panthers’ volleyball tryouts, Wilkie had to make a decision. She wanted to go to the Idol tryouts in Orlando or New Orleans, but it just so happened that the Idol tryout was on the same day as the FIU volleyball tryout.

“I figured I can sing my whole life,” Wilkie said. “But I only have one opportunity to play volleyball. If I make the team this year, then I don’t think Coach would mind if I went to try out for Idol next year.”

Wilkie certainly had the talent to make the Panther squad. At Calvary Christian High her senior year, Wilkie led Broward County in assists. However, as is the case in walk-on tryouts for any sport, a roster spot is not guaranteed, but Wilkie sure was eager to continue playing volleyball in college.

“She’s been so persistent,” FIU Head Coach Danijela Tomic said. “She contacted us in the spring because she wanted to play college volleyball real badly. She did really well in the tryout. The kid really wanted to be here. After the first day I told her, we made a decision and we want you on the team. Your tryout is over.”

As a walk-on, Wilkie has not seen much playing time having played in just four sets thus far. Undeterred, Wilkie does whatever she can to help the team and the defensive specialist saw her first career start come this past weekend versus ULM.

At a recent practice, Tomic needed a middle blocker, because of injuries to the position. Usually, a middle blocker needs to be close to six feet tall to play the position properly. Wilkie stands at 5’2″. Tomic didn’t want to stop practice, because there were no middle blockers available so she asked Wilkie to play the position.

“I said, ‘Wilkie you have to play middle. Are you ready? By the way, how tall are you?’ ” Tomic recalled. “She said, ‘Coach, I’m six feet tall right here [Wilkie points to her heart].’ That tells you everything you need to know about this kid. I said to her, ‘You know what, you are. You are 6-4 in your heart.’ That’s how she practices. That’s how she plays.”

Wilkie also plays off the court, as her plan with junior teammate Angelina Colon revealed on that mid-October night.

At the start of the season, Wilkie and Colon went to lunch. She mentioned to Colon that she could sing. Colon didn’t believe Wilkie, but after the freshman sang “Sunday Morning” by Maroon 5, Colon was convinced and hatched a plan.

“I was really shocked, because she was amazing,” Colon said. “I was like, ‘What are you doing? You have to sing the National Anthem at a home game.’ ”

Wilkie has wanted to sing the anthem at a game since she arrived at FIU, but out of respect for her teammates and her being a freshman, Wilkie hesitated to volunteer. Colon contacted Tomic about the idea and the coach arranged it so that Wilkie would make her FIU singing debut before the match against the Blue Raiders.

Until then, Colon, Wilkie and Tomic made sure to keep the singing talent a secret. On purpose, Wilkie would sing off-key in front of her teammates. On road trips, teammates would tell Wilkie to be quiet because she had an awful voice.

“For a long time, [Colon] and I had an inside joke that I would sing badly on purpose in front of the team,” Wilkie said. “On one of our road trips, one of the girls on the team said to me, ‘Wilkie you can’t sing to save your life. Stop singing.’ ”

Then came that night when the rest of the Panthers and those in attendance at U.S. Century Bank Arena discovered the voice.

“It was a real shock to the entire team,” Colon said. “We were real proud of her. When she sang that first time all eyes were glued on her. We could not believe that such a big, wonderful voice was coming out of her. Having her do that before the game added a lot of energy to the team and really motivated us to go out and beat Middle Tennessee.”

The Panthers would beat the defending Sun Belt Champion Blue Raiders, 3-1, handing Middle Tennessee its first Sun Belt Conference loss of the season and snapping the Blue Raiders’ 14-match win streak.

“The day that I sang the anthem here was the best feeling in the world, because the faces of my teammates really made my night,” Wilkie said. “It really pumped them up and for me not having a chance to play in the game, it gave me a feeling that I did my part by pumping my team up.”

Tomic hopes to make a habit of Wilkie’s pre-game singing.

“All the girls were shocked when they saw Jessica step forward to sing,” Tomic said. “She sang the anthem again the next day and I’m going to ask her to sing it at another home match. She’s very, very good.”