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Essentials in
Collegiate Quartet Contest
Catfish Bend Wins College Crown
Meet the 2002 MBNA America Collegiate Quartet Contest gold medalist!
Updated: 9/5/2002 4:53:00 PM
Catfish Bend: (clockwise from left) tenor Noah Campbell , bass Armando H. Linares , lead J.R. Muth , baritone Jim Koenig
Bowling Green fields yet another collegiate champion
A dream come true. That is the only way to express how Catfish Bend feels about being the 2002 MBNA America Collegiate Barbershop Quartet champion. Coming from Bowling Green State University (BGSU), a school rich in barbershop history, these four young men met the first of their many goals this summer in Portland, Oregon, where they received the collegiate gold medal.
The collegiate contest is one of the annual competitions held by the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America, Inc., the world’s largest all-male singing organization.
As to that barbershop tradition at BGSU, consider this: Several members of the Rapscallions, Interstate Rivals, Acoustix, The Ritz, Marquis, and Yesteryear, all past champions in the regular international quartet competition, attended Bowling Green. Further, Catfish Bend is now the third collegiate champion to come from Bowling Green in the ten-year existence of the contest. The Real Deal and Stop The Presses won in 1994 and 1995, respectively. Plus, five Bowling Green quartets have had silver-medal finishes in the collegiate competition. And Bowling Green is knocking on the door again as half of the members of Uptown Sound, the 2002 international silver medalists in SPEBSQSA’s main competition, also attended BGSU.
Catfish Bend started in the summer of 2000. Friends for years, Jim and J.R. finally had an opportunity to put a quartet together. J.R. called Noah, his friend from college who he knew was interested in barbershop. J.R. invited Noah to go with him and Jim to Middlebass Island in Lake Erie for a barbershop get-together that the SPEBSQSA’s Johnny Appleseed District (JAD) sponsors every August. The three of them found a nice lock between them. J.R. and Jim agreed that they wanted Noah in the group. Noah agreed, and the search was on for a bass. The following weekend, Noah served as a counselor at the Buckeye Harmony Camp, where he met Armando Linares, a freshman at Bowling Green. (Lucky?) The weekend after the camp, J.R. and Jim came up to BG to audition Armando. After an hour or two of singing, the boys knew they had found something special. Armando agreed to join the group, and Catfish Bend was born.
Over the past two years, Catfish Bend has sung on the "Harmony in the Air" show, was twice named JAD collegiate champion, was the 2001 international collegiate silver medalist, and, of course, captured the gold in Portland. Next they hope to qualify in the spring for SPEBSQSA’s next competition to be held in Montreal the first week in July.
Noah is in his final semester in college. He is student teaching until November and will graduate with a degree in Early Childhood Education in December. J.R. has had a big year. Besides winning the gold this summer, he graduated last winter, got a teaching job, and got married to his beautiful wife, Ali. Jim has kept busy as well. He is an HVAC contractor in Cleveland, and he and his fiance, Michele, will be married next July. (Not the first week...don’t worry.) Armando is in his third year at Bowling Green where he is studying voice, and is also a resident advisor for his dorm.
It was a long, but fun road to the gold medal for these four men. They worked their tails off for the last two years because they knew they had to. Coaching was a regular occurrence, as was attending JAD’s Apple Corps in 2001 and 2002. They feel that the college quartets competing now are simply spectacular, and didn’t make winning a very easy thing to do. Catfish Bend wants to thank every single college guy who competed this year in Portland. "You were all excellent quartets, and even better people. We can’t wait to hand four of you the gold next year."
Catfish Bend also sends special thanks to their coaches, Gary Lewis, Dr. Ben Ayling, R.D. Mathey, Dave Calland, (and all of Uptown Sound), Chad Guyton, and Cindy Hansen. There were many more too. "Without all of your generosity and time, we would not have accomplished what we did."
Lastly, Catfish Bend thanks the Barbershop Harmony Society, the JAD, and their families for all of their help and support. Without all of you, the journey would not have been possible. "We promise to be worthy champions, and to spread the joy of barbershop music to as many people as we can."
Check out the Catfish Bend Web site!
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