Pitch Please’s journey to the ICCAs

Delaney Wetjen remembers booking her flight to participate in the Varsity Vocals International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) semifinals in 2023 after advancing as a top team.

“When it was announced that we won we literally all hopped onto the Omaha Eppley airfield website, figured out what plane ticket we were gonna get, and just made it work because my sophomore year we drove 20 hours to Arizona straight through,” Wetjen, the president of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln all-gender a cappella group, Pitch Please, said.

The a cappella groups at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln compete in the ICCAs each learn with their yearly preparations beginning in the fall semester. For Pitch Please, that means the group is in the middle of preparing to learn choreography and music before their first competitive performance of the 2023-2024 school year.

The story of Pitch Please’s travels to Arizona is a pattern for the group as they prepare for the ICCAs throughout the school year. Wetjen said part of the group’s preparation comes from the showcases and gigs they have throughout the school year.

“[Performing] gives us practice on how to engage with an audience and how we can interact with each other while we're performing and while we're on stage,” Wetjen said. “So, it's nice to have lots of gigs because then we get experience in front of other people, and it helps us loosen up a little bit while we perform.”

While Pitch Please practices two times a week for their various shows, Wetjen will begin preparing the choreography with Emily Arnold, the assistant music director, and Trey Frazier, the internal vice president before the entire group begins practicing.

Arnold said that the best part of her position as she prepares for the ICCAs is coming up with the group’s theme for the competition.

“ think the best part about it was when it all clicked because at first, it's kind of a beast like coming up with a like cohesive theme and also coming up with or finding three songs that actually go along with it,” Arnold said.

Arnold described the process of finding songs that mesh well together as a kind of challenge, but when it is completed it is the best part of her role.

“I think I've had the show since January of this year. I remember just finding a song that works perfectly with that show, and also for our closer this year, it's a mash-up of two songs,” Arnold said. “So when it clicked that like ‘oh my god, these two songs will go perfectly together,’ it was just so amazing. It can be a little overwhelming at first, but when it clicks that's my favorite part."

Once the members finish their finals for the fall semester, the entire group will have a 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. boot camp to learn their choreography and vocals to prepare for their first competition.

Bootcamp, though, isn’t a time for only intensity from learning the choreography and the music, it is a time for bonding, according to Arnold.

“Boot camp is always really fun because it's just when, like, the whole group clicks, where, we just get so much closer, and it feels like it just works from then on,” Arnold said.

As Pitch Please continues to prepare for the season, the group will continue to have performers at various venues before the ICCA Quarterfinals on Feb. 17 at the Bourbon Theatre.