Prayers of a SUPERSTAR:
University of Mobile student Catherine Odom
rallies support to win Senior Bowl singing competition

Courtesy of the Press-Register 2008 © . All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.

By LAWRENCE SPECKER
Press-Register Entertainment Reporter

Looking at her fellow semifinalists, Catherine Odom thought she didn't have a chance of becoming the next Senior Bowl Superstar.

One was a nine-year-old girl. The other was a 29-year-old man whose faith and strength in overcoming physical handicaps she herself found inspiring. And she was just a college student from the tiny community of St. Stephens, not a place likely to flood the Internet with thousands of online votes.

But instead of thinking she didn't have a prayer, Odom decided that all she had was a prayer. She put the matter in God's hands, she said - and then worked diligently to get in every vote, mobilizing her hometown base of support and the community at her home away from home, the University of Mobile.

"Of course I personally rallied support at the university," she said. "But back home, every time somebody heard of it, they called my grandmother" to ask how to vote.

The upshot: The 19-year-old sophomore prevailed in the fifth annual Senior Bowl Superstar competition. On Saturday, she will sing the national anthem before kickoff of the 2008 Under Armour Senior Bowl. With the contest behind her, a new challenge has come into focus: Living up to the expectations of the people who backed her.

"I was amazed at how much support I got," she said. "It was humbling."
The competition is unusual in that exposure is its sole prize. Winners get no cash, no recording contract, no other prizes. They just get to sing in front of what's likely to be a capacity crowd of about 40,000 people at Ladd-Peebles Stadium. (According to the Senior Bowl, the anthem also will be broadcast this year as part of the NFL Network's pre-game coverage.)

Still, that's enough to draw scores of contestants to the opening round every year.
For Odom, as for most winners, it will be by far the biggest crowd she's sung for. Previously, her biggest audience was a crowd of about 5,600 people at a BayBears game.

Odom's winning campaign was hardly random. This was her third year to enter. In the first, she was one of 10 semifinalists, though she didn't make the first cut last year.

"I thought it would be a new stepping stone," she said, explaining her persistence.
As such, it's the latest step in a young career that has risen steadily.
Odom, the daughter of Frankie and Cathy Odom of St. Stephens, said her first musical memory is a family video of herself at age 3. In tights, tutu and curls, she practices for a competition in which she would sing the ABC song.

The next stage in her musical education came at church, she said. She found that she liked to use her talents to "help people out."

In her years at Leroy High School, this desire came into sharper focus, she said.
"Through high school it really became apparent to me that my piano and voice skills were not really mine," she said. "They were gifts meant to be shared" in the glory of God.

She arrived at the University of Mobile as a freshman interested in voice, piano, theater and education.
As a student in UM's Center for Performing Arts, she has been involved with numerous university ensembles, including Sounds of Mobile, the University Singers, the Opera Workshop, the Upper Room Dinner Theatre and the Ramalettes, a barbershop-style quartet.

Along the way, she decided that education was the best way to share her talents, in the long run. So she's narrowed her course of study down to music education, with a primary voice major and a piano minor.

Demoting piano to a minor wasn't an easy choice, she said. Especially since Carol Evers, her piano teacher for five years, is someone she considers "almost my grandmother figure at school."

Evers, an adjunct piano instructor at the University of Mobile, said she was just pleased to see a good student advancing in the world. Odom should do well in the Superstar spotlight, she said.

"She has a lot of stage presence and is a good performer playing piano or singing," Evers said. "She just lights up the stage."

What's next for Odom? Finishing school, obviously. She plans to pursue a master's degree and eventually a doctorate.

But first comes the Senior Bowl experience itself.
Odom said she had planned to attend the game anyway, for familial reasons. Her father has battled cancer in recent years, and college football has been a bonding experience for them. Despite her busy college life, she's spent many Saturdays at home with her dad, watching games, and they were looking forward to seeing many of the same players in person at the Senior Bowl.

Now, the experience takes on a different shine. Not only will they spend some quality family time together, her parents get to watch their daughter take a turn in the limelight.

For Odom, the real prize may be a sense of being true to her gifts.
"I've always really known music was my heart," she said.

UNDER ARMOUR SENIOR BOWL 2008
WHEN: Kickoff is at 3 p.m. Saturday. Pre-game show is set for 2:30 p.m.
WHERE: Ladd-Peebles Stadium
TICKETS: $12, $18 and $24, call 432-4109 or 888-736-2695
INFORMATION: 438-2276 or www.seniorbowl.com