By JOHN WHARTON
Staff writer
Staff photos by EMILY BARNES
Kasey Staniszewski of Waldorf, Miss Maryland Teen USA, sings the national anthem during the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs baseball team's season opener at Regency Furniture Stadium.
Her spike high heels planted on a dirt warning track, Charles County teenager Kasey Staniszewski, also known as Miss Maryland Teen USA 2009, stood securely waiting for her call to go behind home plate.
She sang the national anthem moments later, at the April 23 opening night for the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs before a packed house at Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf.
She chatted and posed for pictures before and after her performance, among baseball legends Brooks Robinson and Earl Weaver, a local television news crew and photographers, before she rejoined her father who was seated for the moment in the front row. He's proud of his two daughters; Lindsay is Miss Southern Maryland.
"They just started everything when they were very young, and we just followed them," Greg Staniszewski said. "A lot of parents in the pageant industry pull the kids. We let the kids pull us."
Kasey, a 17-year-old senior at La Plata High School, has taken her abilities from early childhood theater and singing to statewide recognition, and a chance this summer at nationwide acclaim, as she volunteers in support of an array of charitable organizations.
Broadway songs remain her favorites, but she has now performed "The Star-Spangled Banner" in public about 50 times.
"The national anthem is a pretty difficult piece," she said as she sat at a Waldorf restaurant with her father an hour before the Blue Crabs game.
"I find that it tends to go up and down melodically. You really have to have a lot of breath support. I usually have a little vibrato in my voice. That can help with the higher notes."
If it's a difficult song to sing, it's also a very meaningful one to Staniszewski, who performed it at last year's Miss America pageant in Las Vegas and at Fort Meade early last month, as soldiers' families bid them farewell on a deployment to Iraq.
"It was really touching to see all of their support," she said. "The national anthem is one of my favorite songs, because it's such an honor to sing it."
When the two teams had finished assembling on the base paths before the Blue Crabs game, Staniszewski walked behind home plate, joined by the home team's on-field host John Roberts, and sang the national anthem.
A smattering of "Os" could be heard as she began the last verse, a tradition of Baltimore Orioles fans that Staniszewski said hasn't interfered with her delivery.
"It kind of varies," she said later of the provincial accompaniment. "People are more prone to doing it at baseball games. When I sang it in Las Vegas, nobody did it."
