University of Minnesota Athletics
Jesse Moravec: The Music Man
3/29/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Gymnastics
By Jennie Clark
Athletic Communications Assistant
The Gopher men's gymnastics team celebrated Senior Night two weeks ago, sending off six seniors. That night, as a gift to the seniors, freshman Jesse Moravec sang the national anthem prior to the night of competition at the Sports Pavilion.
The Gophers finished the meet recording their best yet score of the year and setting a school record. Although Moravec has been injured this season, he was excited to find a way to contribute to the Gopher squad in their final home meet.
"I wasn't sure if I was going to do it," Moravec said. "But Dre (senior Andre Berry) really wanted me to do it for their Senior Night. I had a lot of fun doing it."
Moravec is a freshman from Rochester, Minn. He is not only a member of the Gopher gymnastics team, he also is a part of the Bluegrass band "Sawtooth" back in Rochester.
Moravec didn't always know how great his musical talent was. His interest in music all started with one of his first exposures to bluegrass music. Eventually, that experience led to the creation of Sawtooth.
"I saw the Bluegrass band Minnow Crossing perform and I decided to start taking instrument lessons," Moravec said. "The guy I was taking lessons from got me together with a couple other guys. For fun, my instructor asked me to sing a song, and he was like 'wow you can really sing.' After that, he guided us a little bit and got us started performing and we evolved into a band."
The band has now been together for four years and still tries to find time to perform.
"It's a little hard to perform during the school year because of our busy schedules and me with gymnastics," Moravec said. "But during the summer we perform a lot. We already have a lot of shows booked."
The members of the Gopher gymnastics team are very supportive of their teammate and have even found time to go out and watch Moravec and Sawtooth perform.
"My teammates did come out to see me at a show in Minneapolis," Moravec said. "It was a lot of fun."
Head Coach Mike Burns was surprised to find out about the musical talent of Moravec when the freshmen were asked to sing the rouser this past fall.
"At the beginning of every year we have the freshmen doing the rouser one at a time," Burns said. "They have to do it on their own. When Jesse did it, we were all sitting there going 'So that's how it's supposed to sound.' He is great."
Moravec has always dreamed of competing for the Gopher Gymnastics team even before he dreamed of being a musician. His gymnastics career started back when he was seven years old doing hand stands with his dad, which evolved into competing in one of Minnesota's strongest clubs -- Great Northern Gymnastics.
"I went to a place called Great Northern Gymnastics where Ron Hill was my coach," Moravec said. "I started to improve. I always had the dream to be on the Minnesota Gymnastics team and here I am."
As for that national anthem earlier this season, Moravec is the first student-athlete Coach Burns has had sing the Star Spangled Banner prior to a meet.
"Jesse is probably the first guy in the 30 years I've been coaching that I've known to be able to do that," Burns said.
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Players Mentioned
