Star-Spangled Spotlight

A behind-the-scenes look at high school senior Anika Sherman's remarkable journey to sing the national anthem before a recent Chicago Bears game.

Anika Sherman, who turns 18 today, isn’t the only American with a “complicated relationship” with The Star-Spangled Banner. The national anthem’s lyrics—capped by “land of the free and the home of the brave”—have always been aspirational, even when the United States has been at its imperfect best.

Lately, amid the glare of our shameful national leadership’s dumpster fire behavior, uttering those words can be one heck of a chore.

But for Anika, the talented daughter of friends here in Oak Park, proclaiming them became something else two Sundays ago: an opportunity to work though mixed emotions, to harness all of her vocal and musical training and, in the end, to deliver a memorable rendition of this song before the Chicago Bears’ game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

In front of about 60,000 fans at Soldier Field, she powerfully belted out the 80 words of the song’s first verse—it’s the only verse we ever hear of the four-verse composition penned in 1814 by Francis Scott Key.

I’ve known Anika her entire life—Jason and I are close friends—so my reaction upon seeing it for the first time was: “How absolutely amazing! How in the world did this come about?”

Before the game—and before her singing—Anika takes a moment with her parents, Jason and Victoria, at Soldier Field.

Then, about a week later, it hit me: if I’d be interested in this peek behind the curtain, maybe others would be, too. Let’s trace this remarkable journey...

Before

Anika has been singing since she was a little girl, first as a four- or five-year-old at church camp with her mom, Victoria Storm. Over the past 12 years, Anika has performed as a singer more than 50 times and been in nearly a dozen musical-theater productions.

During her sophomore and junior years at Oak Park and River Forest (OPRF) High School, she was the lead singer and songwriter in a four-person band, Siphonophore. In addition, for the past three seasons, Anika, now a senior, has played for OPRF’s varsity girls’ flag football team.

The Chicago Bears have been an instrumental force in the growth of girls’ flag football since 2021. A few months ago, the organization contacted every girls’ high school flag football team in Illinois with this request: As part of our inaugural Celebration of Women and Girls in Sports game, do you have any players who might have the chops to pull off the national anthem before a Bears game?

Head coach Jim Geovanes suggested she go for it, and after some guidance from her musical mom (Victoria is also a singer in the Oak Park band Kettlestrings), Anika submitted an audition video, along with a brief intro clip (see below).

When a month passed and Anika hadn’t heard back from the Bears, she figured it wasn’t meant to be. Then, on November 7^th, “Coach Geo” told her she’d been selected as a finalist. The next day, 15 days before the game, she got a phone call from Gustavo Silva, the Bears’ director of football development, notifying her that she’d been selected.

Amid a swirl of emotions — “shocked” and “baffled” and “grateful” are words Anika summoned when I asked about her response to Silva’s call — she reached out to her voice teacher. Sure, her initial rendition was enough to land the opportunity, but now it was time to really work on this 211-year-old piece.

“I wanted to try to get it perfected while allowing myself to have fun and give it my own sound,” Anika said. “There’s a difference between knowing a song and singing it really well.”

Next—because this wasn’t already dramatic and nerve-racking enough—at a time when she should have been practicing the song, Anika got really ill. “I couldn’t talk or sing. I was on vocal rest and stayed home from school for two days so I wouldn’t get any worse,” she says. “I was sick for an entire week and I only started feeling better about a day before the game.”

Her only chance to perform the song publicly had come the previous weekend inside a Taco John’s restaurant connected to a gas station in Indiana. With support from Hollyn Meadows, her best friend, and Hollyn’s parents, she overcame feelings of awkwardness to make her public debut in this unorthodox venue.

After she wrapped up, the 10 or so employees and customers gave her an ovation.

The Big Day

On November 23rd, along with her parents, Anika traveled the 13 miles to Soldier Field along Lake Michigan about 8 a.m., four hours before kickoff. They all had access to the field for Anika’s 9:30 a.m. on-field dress rehearsal. Jason took a zillion photos (the ones you see in this column are courtesy of his artistic eye), while Victoria provided steadying fellow-musician and mom support.

Now, with her parents along with an assortment of Bears staffers confirming all the technical and audio elements were set, Anika put all her preparation into action. Here’s a video of a portion of that warmup:

“I was way more nervous during the dress rehearsal than the actual thing,” Anika recalled. “It helped me get some nerves off, that first time singing on the field.”

The crucial rehearsal, before the mostly empty stadium, helped settle Anika’s nerves.

Nearly 2 ½ hours later, moments before the kickoff, the time had arrived. Included in her wardrobe was a Palestinian flag necklace the shape of Gaza and a LGBTQ flag pin—humble but firm declarations that Anika was determined to make in light of her “frustrated emotions” about our nation these days.

“Singing something that represents our nation without acknowledging what’s really going on right now—I didn’t feel comfortable doing that,” she said.

Anika was also buoyed by the encouragement of her neighbor Jim Mancuso, a sports/mental performance coach who helped her get grounded emotionally and mentally the night before. Her self-talk: “I know I can sing it; I know I can do this well.”

As you were about to start, I asked Anika, what was going through your mind?

“This is the moment,” she thought. “It’s time to do it.”

Did she ever. Watch it here:

Typical of Anika, she was quick to credit Bears staffers for their support, which made the morning run smoothly.

“Their confidence in me was so motivating,” she said. “One of them, Marisa Vasilevich, stood in front of me and said she’d make a hand motion for me to speed up if I needed to at any point, to make sure I finished in time for the military jets that flew over at the end. We were in sync, and I kept on track.”

Ever Since…

Over the past 13 days, from the moment she sang her last note to the roar of the crowd, the praise has been rolling in. It began with an ESPN Chicago radio announcer who immediately described it as a “unique and soulful” performance and has included many friends, family, acquaintances and high school faculty showering her with congratulations.

She’s also fielded questions, including the inevitable What’s your next act?

The answer: She’s working on an R&B album under the stage name Anika Hail (a play on her middle name, Haley), with plans to release her new singles in the next few months. The Soldier Field experience has helped fuel her passion for the project.

“Singing in front of over 60,000 people and seeing how everyone in my community has been so supportive, it really gives me the confidence to release my own music,” she said. “This is something I have been looking forward to and working on for years now.”

Regardless of what plays out in the future, Anika will forevermore have this extraordinary experience in her heart. So will her parents and other relatives and friends like me.

Speaking with her this week, I was struck by her poise, maturity and perspective as she reflected on this surreal path. One of my final questions: Right after you finished singing in front of all those people, what was going through your mind?

“Afterwards,” she replied, “I was just really, really proud of myself.”

Far from a boast—Anika has kept humble through this entire experience—this was a simple statement of fact. And though I cannot carry a tune to save my life, I find myself in the chorus when it comes to that sentiment.

I’m proud of you too, Anika!