Different music fills the locker rooms of each Syracuse Athletics locker room. Below is a list from various beat writers on who plays the music and what each team is listening to.

Field Hockey

DJ: Borg van der Velde

Go-to music: van der Velde typically tries to feel the mood of the team to decide what to play but a remixed version of “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” originally by John Denver, is one song that hypes up the locker room.

“Borg, for sure, 100 percent. She controls our pre-game music,” Caroline Cady said.

Apart from the locker room DJ, there’s a pregame mix that plays during warm-ups. This season it was Jamie Martin’s job to put that together — she took requests from different players to build a mashup that includes parts of “Everytime We Touch” by Cascada, a trap remix of “The Backyardigans” theme song, and “7 Things” by Miley Cyrus. Cady is the one who picked Miley Cyrus music for the pregame playlist.

“Jamie made our playlist, but Borg is in control,” Cady said.

Football

DJ: Sean Riley

Go-to music: Anything West Coast, specifically YG and E-40

Riley, otherwise known as DJ Riley, is actually a trained DJ, not just the person who gets the aux cord in the locker room. He started training during his freshman year of high school after he started playing around with turntables at his friend’s house.

“I just couldn’t stop messing with it,” Riley said. “I saved up some money and I bought my own. And that was my side job in California.”

For the remainder of high school, Riley was widely popular in his neighborhood of Harbor City, Los Angeles. He performed at family functions for people in his neighborhood as well as school-sponsored events at Narbonne High School. And while he doesn’t perform at events at Syracuse, he still mixes music when he’s hanging out with teammates and friends. He has even taught other teammates to play. Ravian Pierce picked it up very quickly, Riley said, and is now good. But not everyone is a huge fan of Riley’s DJing.

“I ain’t giving him the aux,” Nykeim Johnson said.

Riley plays mostly West Coast music whenever he mixes, which really frustrates teammates Jamal Custis and Aaron Roberts, Riley said. It’s an East Coast-West Coast rivalry.

“A lot of guys can’t do the things he can do,” Custis said. “(But) we want to hear some other stuff besides West Coast, more than just YG.”

Still, Custis wants Riley to teach him to DJ. He had never seen someone that he knew take it so seriously. He was fascinated by all of Riley’s equipment and his ability to mix music. As long as he’s not playing YG, Custis said, he’s great.

Men’s Soccer

DJ: Djimon Johnson, Ryan Raposo, Hugo Delhommelle

Go-to music: Hip-Hop/Rap such as Drake, A Boogie wit da Hoodie, Kodak Black

Djimon (DJ) Johnson and Ryan Raposo are the main DJs in the men’s soccer locker room, typically playing hip-hop and rap. Sometimes, French midfielder Hugo Delhommelle will take the aux and play French songs. His teammates don’t understand the lyrics but enjoy it nonetheless.

“Hugo usually plays his French music, but we all like it,” Raposo said. “Upbeat and stuff. DJ and I usually play the same time of music, rap … It depends if its game day or just training, just Drake, A-Boogie, kind of local artists that DJ knows, that type of stuff … (Drake’s most recent album) “Scorpion” is alright. I’m a huge Drake fan but I don’t think it’s his best project.”

Jonathan Hagman, a senior from Sweden, is stuck in the past when it comes to music. He hasn’t grown accustomed to his teammates’ hip-hop and rap just yet.

“Not my kind of music, to be honest,” Hagman said. “I’m stuck in the 90s, 80s. It’s a lot of rap and hip-hop, but that’s not my type … I’m stuck in rock, pop, and punk from the 80s, 90s … Right now, it’s been a lot of Ramones, the Clash, back in the days. It’s been weird, sometimes I’ve found the Beatles, don’t really like it but it’s culture, you have to know about them. It’s weird. Right now it’s a lot of AC/DC on game days.”

Volleyball

DJ: Kendra Lukacs, Santita Ebangwese

Go-to music: It depends on the mood. Sometimes it’s recent music, sometimes it’s 2000s throwbacks, but it’s always some sort of hip-hop.

Everybody has their own personal favorite DJs, Amber Witherspoon said — hers are Kendra Lukacs and Santita Ebangwese, whose energy on the court transfers over to their DJing in the locker room.

“It kind of changes, it depends on our mood,” said Ebangwese, of her music. “I can kind of gauge it from how we’re feeling, if it’s like more pop, more rap, more like, I don’t know, not like animalistic, but you know what I’m saying.”

When asked if she ever took over the aux, Witherspoon laughed, and said, “People don’t like my music, but (if I did) it would definitely be Drake, definitely be Migos. Anything that I know the words to, and anything that’s going to get me hyped and going. Sometimes Cardi B’s my mood … I go back and forth.”

Women’s Soccer

DJ: Jordan Harris, Kailee Coonan

Go-to music: In the locker room, Harris plays classic “pump-up tunes.” For the pregame playlist, Coonan gathered teammates’ recommendations over the summer and mixed them.

Their pregame playlist music includes “Slow Hands – Basic Tape remix” by Niall Horan and Basic Tape, “Forever” by Chris Brown, “Do You Remember” by Jay Sean, “All Night” by Big Boi, T.I.’s “Bring Em Out,” “Rock that Body” by The Black Eyed Peas, “Shower” by Becky G, “Crank That (Soulja Boy),” by Soulja Boy and “300 Violin Orchestra” by Jorge Quintero.

“This year, our game playlist that they play at home, Kailee did,” forward Kate Donovan said. “(She) worked really hard on it this summer. She took basically everyone’s ideas for it and generated it all in, cut some of it to make it flow together really nicely.”

“In the locker room Jordan does a lot of the music. (And) Syd (Brackett),” Donovan said. “Them two the most, but we kind of listen to everything. A lot of rap, a lot of more pump-up music closer to the game, but we do listen to country sometimes.”

“I think it depends on the vibe. Kailee Coonan actually,” Brackett said. “She did it for our home game and did a fantastic job of it. The whole team actually got to pick the songs that they wanted.”

“Also Jordan she’s definitely always on aux. I’ve taken the aux a few times. I think it’s a collaborative effort. It’s good. We have a good spirit in the locker room and during pregame.”

Published on October 8, 2018 at 11:19 pm