Thomas Moran | Arts and Life Editor
For the first time in the organization’s history, Kappa Chi Alpha sorority’s All-University Sing Act qualified for Pigskin Revue and earned third place among the 19 organizations that competed.
The show, called “Home Sweet Home,” opened with a sequence featuring candy canes and lollipops dancing and singing of their happiness in Candyland. After the opening sequence, the licorice entered the stage to overtake Candyland. After a confrontation between the two groups, the licorice changed its tune and the candy groups decided to live in harmony.
Baytown senior Abigail Gregorcyk performed as a lollipop in the act and said that, beyond the dancing and singing, Sing drew the group to a new level of closeness.
“It was honestly amazing,” Gregorcyk said. “Sing is just one of those opportunities, especially with the bond that KXA has with our foundation in Christ, to get to know everbody better. You create stronger friendships. It was really cool to create the sisterhood that we stand by. I’m now friends with people that I barely knew.”
Gregorcyk offered insight into the way Kappa Chi Alpha faces the challenges of Sing every year.
“We have a word that goes with each Sing act,” Gregorcyk said. “Last year, the word was ‘contender.’ Because we only had about 60 girls last year, we knew our chances for Pigskin were lower, but we just wanted to be contenders in the show and have people know who we are and just radiate the Lord. This year, we had 92 girls, so we were 92 strong and had the mindset of ‘competitor.”
Beyond this change of mindset, there was another quality that Gregorcyk said she believes set the group apart this year. Unlike the other sororities that competed in Sing, Kappa Chi Alpha is an explicitly Christian service sorority.
“The whole point of the show was to radiate joy and not only the joy of Sing, but the joy of the Lord” Gregorcyk said. “I think our colors and our songs and our positivity helped us to radiate that.”
After the final night of Sing, students from the various participating organizations piled into Waco hall and the Paul L. Foster Campus for Business and Innovation to hear the results. Among the students was Allen senior Sydney Symes, one of this year’s Kappa Chi Alpha Sing chairs and lead singers. They first announced the acts that qualified for Pigskin Revue, and with only one slot left, she feared the group hadn’t qualified.
“We had figured since there was only one spot left, that there wasn’t a huge chance that we were that last one,” Symes said. “We had kind of started trying to bring our hopes down.”
Despite their doubts, the announcer said Kappa Chi Alpha had earned the final spot in Pigskin Revue — something Symes described as surreal.
“It was zero to 60,” Symes said. “We went from thinking that we didn’t make Pigskin at all, but when we got on stage, while we were wrapping our brains around the fact that we got to go to Pigskin, she announced that we got third place. It was a very surreal moment.”
Kappa Chi Alpha had only qualified for Pigskin Revue once previously when they paired with Alpha Tau Omega in the 2005, making this not only the first time the group has placed, but also qualified as a single group. Maxcey Blaylock, one of the faculty advisers of Kappa Chi Alpha and alumna of the group, said the group’s historical win will provide hope to other smaller groups who participate in Sing.
“There are kind of traditional Sing powerhouses that always win and this is a little group that a few years ago, you never would have thought would have a shot to make it to Pigskin. They worked hard and can be that inspiration and can show other small groups that they can do it to. It is such an encouragement.”
The group will perform their act at Pigskin Revue during Baylor Homecoming 2019.
