On April 12, 2025, Atkins A Cappella won the NCASA A Cappella state championship, making it the fourth year in a row the Atkins team has finished as state champion or runner-up. The group earned a superior ranking with a score of 92.33/100 and was the only group to earn a superior rating at the competition this year.
The group performed various songs such as “Dancing In The Dark” by Bruce Springstein (arranged by Rob Dietz), with the soloist part going to Aurora March. Next up was “Dancing On My Own” by Robyn (arranged by Bryan Sharpe), featuring soloist Camryn Lau. Their set finished out with Mae Bramer soloing on “Dancing Queen” by ABBA, (arranged by Emily Drum and Maryanne Muglia). All three songs featured Saul Becerra on vocal percussion and Zech Duke-Graves on bass mic.
Coach Valerie Mayhew remarked, “I found myself in the audience smiling and genuinely enjoying watching their set even though I had seen it a million times. I wasn't shocked that their solid performance was reflected in the scoring.” This sense of happiness and pride over the performance extended to the students and parents as well. One of the performers, Atkins senior Ella Bergeron noted, “I do believe we deserved to win; we had overall better reactions from the audience and judges, and our set was executed much cleaner compared to the other groups.”
Atkins’ performance was elevated in the competition due to the attention to detail and the showmanship of all the participants. “Our kids are very detail-oriented and spent a lot of time making sure chords were tuned and choreography was tight,” explained Mayhew. She also emphasized the friendship and “close-knit nature” between the participants of the group that “shines through on stage.” In the audience you could feel the tight spirit and sense of trust that each individual person had for the others they worked with.
Earlier in the year, Deke Sharon, music producer of the Pitch Perfect movies and considered the “Godfather of A Cappella,” visited the Atkins program and gave some advice to students that they held very close to them while performing. He told them that while competing it is more important to be in the moment than to be wrapped up in worrying over whether or not you will win. You have to enjoy the experience on stage and focus on communicating the message of the song to the audience. If you are able to achieve this, you will likely achieve your goal of success anyways.
Preparations for the competition commenced in November during A Cappella classes, and starting in the second semester they added rehearsals about twice a month after school, as well, in order to better prepare. According to Mayhew, the biggest challenge they faced while preparing for competition was the immense size of the group. The after school rehearsals allowed students in different class periods during the school day to combine and practice all together.
At the start of the year the songs they performed for concerts had about four vocal parts. On the other hand, in their competition set one of the songs had an astounding eleven vocal parts. Mayhew reflected, “For me to be able to select such difficult music for them and watch them rise to the challenge has been extremely rewarding and has made me very proud.”
This is the third time that Atkins A Cappella has won the NCASA state championship. They aspire to keep building the community they have built from the ground up and fostering the chorus department here at Atkins. In addition, Mayhew would love to expand past the school community by performing at local events and more places around WSFCS.
Atkins performers also won many individual awards; Saul Becerra won best vocal percussionist, Anderson Williams and Mae Bramer won individual showmanship awards, and the group was also awarded Best Choreography.
Overall, Golden Girls and Maroon 13 did a mind-blowing job working together and meticulously performing incredibly difficult pieces. The culmination of choreography, singing, teamwork, and excitement was a spectacular thing for all to witness. The students having the ability to watch their work pay off was extremely rewarding. Some students said that the competition performance was not the scariest part, but rather waiting for the results to see if they had won. Thanks to Mayhew and all the performers, the news that came back was everything they had hoped for. Congratulations to Atkins A Cappella!