Rutgers basketball: Inspired by Tom Izzo, a full-circle moment for national anthem singer
In March 2016, as Rutgers basketball was winding down a dreary season with a visit from second-ranked Michigan State, Emma Jonas was gearing up for her big moment.
The fifth-grader, whose father Seth Jonas is a 1991 Rutgers grad and avid Scarlet Knights fan, had been coming to games for years. This one was different. This time, Emma was going to sing The Star-Spangled Banner.
She’d sung it at a Rutgers women’s hoops game the year before, but this time the sound-check got scratched and she was feeling nervous as 5,000 fans gathered at the RAC. Then Michigan State coach Tom Izzo walked by.
“I said, ‘Hey coach, my daughter is singing the anthem and she’s really nervous,’” Seth Jonas said. “He stopped and started giving her this pep talk: ‘Don’t worry about the crowd. You’ll be just great.’”
A few minutes later he walked by again and told the 11-year-old, “I’m rooting for you kid.”
Emma didn’t know anything about Izzo, but his counsel worked.
“Getting the encouragement really settled me down,” she recalled. “I believe I nailed it, because if I didn’t nail it, I would remember it to this day and it wound haunt me.”
Fast-forward eight years. On Saturday Emma, now a freshman at the University of Michigan, is singing the anthem prior to the Wolverines’ home basketball game against Rutgers (4 p.m., Big Ten Network).
It’s quite the full-circle moment. Her father and brother will be there, too.
“I’m obviously going to root for Michigan, but it’s hard for me to put down Rutgers,” Emma said. “I really grew up with Rutgers basketball and it still holds a special place in my heart – even though I am a die-hard Wolverine.”
Her anthem experience at Rutgers led to bigger things – singing it at a New York Knicks game in Madison Square Garden as a ninth-grader, and a passion for musical theater that continues to this day. This semester she’s involved in a musical version of the hit movie “Catch Me If You Can” with a University of Michigan theater company.
“Being able to sing the anthem at a bunch of different venues really got rid of stage fright for me,” she said.
Any singer will tell you: The Star-Spangled Banner is one of the hardest numbers to perform.
“It goes through all different parts of your voice and it’s a really big range for a song,” Emma said.
She remains grateful for Izzo’s assist, but as a Wolverine, her feelings about Michigan State have evolved.
“At Michigan we really do have such a superiority complex over them,” she said. “Knowing I have that great memory of Tom Izzo, I’m always going to differentiate that from my hatred for MSU.”
Jerry Carino has covered the New Jersey sports scene since 1996 and the college basketball beat since 2003. He is an Associated Press Top 25 voter. Contact him at jcarino@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Rutgers basketball: Emma Jones, Michigan anthem singer, at full circle
