Greeley West continues to be represented in the comminuty, as its own choir was selected to sing the national anthem at the Denver Nuggets game against the Washington Wizards last Thursday.
The exciting moment for the choir class started with an early trip to Denver (so their bus could run its afternoon route). The class was able to head to Denver near noon after grabbing some lunch from West. The group was able to spend some time downtown and were able to visit the 16th Street Mall.
After walking around Denver, they had to report to Ball Arena at 4 p.m. to head in and do their soundcheck. The choir is no stranger to big crowds, as last year they were able to perform the anthem at the local hockey team, the Colorado Eagles game.
Choir Teacher and Nuggets superfan Rosie O’Conner shared that apart from being able to conduct her choir, there were also a lot of surprises along the way that the Nuggets provided.
“I was really excited because they let us walk through the tunnel where the players walked through,” O’Connor explained. “After the sound check, the surprises didn’t end there at all as the people from the Nuggets also allowed us to go to the front three rows and we were able to cheer our favorite stars as they were able to walk out to warm up. We were able to stay the hour before we went up to perform the anthem.”
Senior Lorenzo Quintana who has been in the choir for all four years, was recommended to us to be interviewed by O’Connor as she stated he was jumping around the whole time out of excitement.Quintana was a victim of being starstruck as it was his 2nd time seeing his favorite NBA team. “I was really excited to see (Nikola) Jokic and Jamal (Murray). I had to make sure that I was able to see them and take advantage of us being able to witness their warmup,” Quintana stated. “I also had to continue my own legacy and inside joke of being able to take a picture with the cheerleaders, but I unfortunately wasn’t able to.”
Junior Leah Norton has been in choir all three years of her high school career but has 10 years experience stored up from when she was younger in other choirs.
Norton said she pioneered the idea of including all choirs to go together and really show what the Spartan pride is. “It wasn’t going to be everyone going. At first it was going to be Pegasus,” Norton explained.” I knew it was the chance to really show what we can do as a school and as a community at the big stage.”
Norton was also a victim of starstruck when she saw her personal favorite Aaron Gordon. “It was just amazing to see the one player I idolize live and up close you know? I was able to see how strong and handsome he was from like 20 feet away” Norton said.
O’Connor wanted to share some final statements that summed up the experience. “It’s a moment filled with memories that we’ll remember forever. It was also really nice that we were able to showcase it in front of a lot of AVID students as it was AVID night at the Ball Arena,” O’Connor said.
The Spartans continue to showcase their skills in the performing arts and it’s safe to say that they had a “ball.”
