By Ali Jenkins
Montgomery Advertiser
Ajenkins1@gannett.com
Talent shows. Softball. Auburn. The Highway. Team Opry.
To an outsider these five phrases look like categories on an episode of Saturday Night Live Jeopardy.
But each contributed to the success of singer-songwriter Donica Knight.
Knight is a country-rock singer from Prattville who decided to follow her heart instead of societal norms — and it's led her to receiving an opportunity to show her musical and athletic ability on center stage this week in Nashville.
"I always sang growing up," Knight said. "My dream was to be either a professional softball player or a singer. I always wanted to be a singer, but I never thought it would be a reality. I told myself two years ago if I don't try for it now, I'm going to regret it. I try to live with no regrets.
"I try to do what's right, what I want to do and what I feel the Lord wants me to do. I know that he's given me this talent, this natural ability, and I feel like I'm called to do this. I'm called to entertain. I'm called to sing. I realized that at an early age, I just didn't know it would be my career path."
Knight will be performing at the Outdoor CountryJam concert June 22 in Montgomery, a city she credits with helping get her to where she is today, but Knight was making headlines long before busting onto the music scene.
Three-sport athlete at Trinity
Knight was a three-sport athlete at Trinity before graduating in 2008. She played basketball, volleyball and softball, but the latter was undoubtedly her best sport.
"I started playing baseball because it was more competitive than softball," Knight said. "It was just me with a bunch of little boys, and I actually made the All-Star team. But my mother said, 'You're in fifth grade now, it's time to swap to softball.' So I swapped to softball."
It wasn't a fluke. Knight had shown real promise to become a top softball player, and in the spring of 2000 she was selected to the AUM youth All-Star team.
"We won the state championship two years in a row," Ponytail Fastpitch coach Pat Pittman said. "After we won the first one, we went all the way to the final game of the World Series, but with runners on we lost it in the last minute. We were runners-up in 2000, and in 2001 we won it. We spent the entire year working toward that, and when we went back we didn't lose a game.
"Just about every one of them, the ones that wanted to, went on to play college softball. Donica could have played with no problem. She was that good, but she chose music instead, which was a great choice for her and probably the better choice. Softball will end one day, but music you can have for the rest of your life. You can do that forever."
Knight said her background in sports has become an asset. She is no stranger to hard work, and, as family friend Perry O. Hooper Jr. said, that mentality was evident in high school.
"One of the things that I like about people besides their talent are those who are willing to pay the price," Hooper said. "There's no substitute for hard work. This is the little girl that I remember. Her senior year, the day before she was playing in a big softball tournament — she was an All-State shortstop — she took a softball to the mouth and it knocked out her two front teeth. She and her daddy went down the street to the dentist, and they somehow glued them back in, put a mouthpiece in, and she was ready to go the next day.
"You've heard some of the stories of Bear Bryant saying that a kid would get out to practice early? Well, that's Donica. She does that. She doesn't mind the hard work."
Always a performer
Knight's music career officially began in 2011 while at Auburn when she was invited to join the cover band Luckytown, but those close to her know the framework was laid years ago.
"She wasn't but 10, 11 years old, and the whole team would show up at a talent show to watch her perform," Pittman said. "She had a little self-produced CD back in those days, and of course we all got one. We knew she could be a star even back then. She was fearless on the field, but she was also fearless out on that stage. You could tell she really enjoyed what she was doing. There was no fear about getting up there and entertaining. It was about getting up there and doing something she really loved doing."
More than a decade later, Knight released her debut album "A Southern Heart." It didn't take long for people to recognize her talent, and before she knew it Knight's song "Girls Go Out" was being played on XM radio.
"I tend to sleep in a good bit, so I normally miss myself on the radio because a lot of times it would be in the morning," Knight said, then laughed. "I was driving down the interstate headed to a show, and I heard myself on Sirius XM's The Highway, channel 59. That's a big, big station. It's nationwide. All artists want to be on XM radio, and the fact that the first time I got to hear myself on the radio was on this idolized station was really cool. I had to pull over I was freaking out so much. It had my name on the radio station and the song title. I about peed my pants. I had to pull over, my body just shaking."
After just two years on the music scene full time, Knight has accomplished milestones some artists never approach. She's dropped an album, opened for Kenny Rogers and had her music played on nationwide radio.
She's also had opportunities to give back to the school she loves, singing the National Anthem on ESPN before the Florida-Auburn basketball game in February and having the video for her fight song, "It's Great to Be" shown on the Jumbotron during Auburn's spring game.
Center stage at City of Hope event
But come Saturday, Knight has an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to combine her two favorite things, softball and music, after earning a spot in the prestigious City of Hope Celebrity Softball Challenge in Nashville.
"I told my manager, 'Hey, isn't there a softball game during CMA Fest and how can I be a part of it? How can I get on the team?' So he researched it, and they had a contest that the two people who raised the most money through online concert events, through a website called StageIt.com, would end up getting a slot. I raised the second-most.
"I was really surprised because a lot of people don't know how to do a lot of things through online. They're more traditional and just getting to Google is tough for them, so in order for them to find StageIt, get their tickets and push the donate button, that can get hard. I had my old softball coach tune in and he was bidding. So I ended up raising the second-most, and I got a spot on Team Opry.
"Hopefully, I'll bring back some of my softball skills with me on the field, and maybe I can impress the Florida Georgia Line boys," she said jokingly. "Or a record label. That would be great. I'd love to impress a record label."
Team Opry and Team After Midnight will meet at Greer Stadium at 9 a.m. in the 23rd Annual Celebrity Softball Challenge. Over the years, the game has raised more than $2 million for City of Hope, an organization driven to find a cure and better treatments for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases.
While the game is for charity, the former All-Star shortstop is ready to bring a competitive edge to her team.
"I don't like to brag, but I know that softball really was my sport because I practiced all the time," Knight said. "I told my manager before I found out I had made it that I had to be on this team because I know I'm going to make a statement when I go because softball was my thing. I'm really good at it because I practiced a lot."
Thirteen years removed from their World Series victory, Pittman is confident Knight still has the ability to shock her teammates and the crowd like she shocked him more than a decade ago.
"The first time I saw Donica she was just tiny, kind of petite," Pittman said. "She was a cute little girl, but you wouldn't have thought of her as a ball player. She looked more like a girly-girl, not saying that girly-girls don't play softball, they do, and she was one of them. She would surprise you. You would look at her and you would never think she was a ball player, but she was just really good. She was really fast, real good mechanics, great hitter. She's just an all around five-tool player, someone who could play all positions. In fact, we used her like a utility player. She was good, and she probably hasn't lost much. She'll probably surprise a few people up there."
Trying to earn record label
While she praises her former youth softball coach for helping her raise support, Pittman says it's a culmination of Knight's hard work and God-given talent.
"We all just got together and supported her," Pittman said. "We believe in her that much. But the talent is all her. She earned her way there. I like to think I had a little bit to do with it, but that's not it. She earned it. She did what it took to get there. That's always been her approach. She will do the hard work to get there. She's done it her whole life. Whether it is ball, school or this whole competition to get into this softball game.
"She's going to do the hard work. She knows it doesn't come free. I think she's learned that from a young age, that if you want something you have to go out and get it. Hopefully, some of that determination that we tried to put in them when they were playing ball will come out. You know, life is a competition. Just about everything you do, whether it's a job, competing to get on the radio against all those other artists, you have to get in there and really fight for it. Work hard for it. And she's willing to do that. She's one of those rare people that get in there and never tires and just keeps fighting."
By winning the contest, Knight will also participate in her first showcase Tuesday night at Fiddle and Steel Guitar Bar in Nashville.
"It's just a show," Knight said. "You do your songs from your album. You may want to do a cover tune, and you show them who you are as an artist. You invite record labels and music industry folks out there. They'll come and if they like you, maybe you'll get signed. My ultimate goal is to get signed by a record label.
"I've been working for a very long time just to get to this point, so it's an exciting feeling. Who knows, we might end up having a little Carrie Underwood or Dolly Parton from the River Region area named Donica Knight."
city of hope celebrity softball challenge
Donica Knight
Birthday: April 24; Hometown: Prattville
College: Auburn University; Career: DonicaKnight.com
Performing: A Southern Heart, Auburn Fight Song
Tuesday — Fiddle and Steel Guitar Bar, Nashville 7 p.m.
Wednesday — Hard Rock Café, Nashville 7:45 p.m.
Saturday, June 15 — 2013 World Livestock Auctioneer Championship, Montgomery, 6 p.m.
Saturday, June 22 — In the Country Music Festival, Montgomery, noon
Notes: Parents: Ginger and Don Knight ... Siblings: older brother, Dustin ... Favorite artists: Bonnie Raitt, Shania Twain, Etta James ... Hobbies: Playing in a bowling league, going to the lake, riding 4wheelers, going to the batting cages, watching movies ... Drink: coffee ... Her family has owned and operated the same business, same location for more than 37 years. K bar K Boot Center and K bar K Camping off I-65 exit 179.
23rd annual City of Hope Celebrity Softball Challenge
When: 9 a.m. Saturday
Where: Greer Stadium, Nashville, Tenn.
Tickets: $20 and $50 on Ticketmaster
Website: cityofhope.org
As they have for 23 years, Country stars will step up to help City of Hope Strike Out Cancer. While last year's game between longtime rivals, Grand Ole Opry and AfterMidnight with Blair Garner, ended in a tie — both teams have something to prove and are eager to start raising funds.
Over the years, the game has raised over $2 million benefiting City of Hope's life-saving mission — finding cures and treatments for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases.
Team Opry — Ayla Brown, Brian Kelley (Florida Georgia Line), Chris Lucas (LoCash Cowboys) , Chuck Wicks, Craig Campbell, Jonathan Jackson, Kree Harrison, Maggie Rose, Phil Vassar, Scott Hamilton, Stu Grimson, Tyler Hubbard (Florida Georgia Line), Two Foot Fred. StageIt Concert Winner: Donica Knight
Team After Midnight — Aaron Lewis, Angie Johnson, Brett Eldredge, Chase Rice, David Nail, Greg Bates, J.P. Dumont, Krystal Keith, Lauren Alaina, Preston Brust (LoCash Cowboys), Scotty McCreery, Shane Tallant. Stagelt Concert Winner: SaraBeth
Caption:Prattville native Donica Knight was a standout player in volleyball (15), softball, left, and basketball (25) for Trinity. Advertiser file photos
Montgomery Advertiser
Ajenkins1@gannett.com
Talent shows. Softball. Auburn. The Highway. Team Opry.
To an outsider these five phrases look like categories on an episode of Saturday Night Live Jeopardy.
But each contributed to the success of singer-songwriter Donica Knight.
Knight is a country-rock singer from Prattville who decided to follow her heart instead of societal norms — and it's led her to receiving an opportunity to show her musical and athletic ability on center stage this week in Nashville.
"I always sang growing up," Knight said. "My dream was to be either a professional softball player or a singer. I always wanted to be a singer, but I never thought it would be a reality. I told myself two years ago if I don't try for it now, I'm going to regret it. I try to live with no regrets.
"I try to do what's right, what I want to do and what I feel the Lord wants me to do. I know that he's given me this talent, this natural ability, and I feel like I'm called to do this. I'm called to entertain. I'm called to sing. I realized that at an early age, I just didn't know it would be my career path."
Knight will be performing at the Outdoor CountryJam concert June 22 in Montgomery, a city she credits with helping get her to where she is today, but Knight was making headlines long before busting onto the music scene.
Three-sport athlete at Trinity
Knight was a three-sport athlete at Trinity before graduating in 2008. She played basketball, volleyball and softball, but the latter was undoubtedly her best sport.
"I started playing baseball because it was more competitive than softball," Knight said. "It was just me with a bunch of little boys, and I actually made the All-Star team. But my mother said, 'You're in fifth grade now, it's time to swap to softball.' So I swapped to softball."
It wasn't a fluke. Knight had shown real promise to become a top softball player, and in the spring of 2000 she was selected to the AUM youth All-Star team.
"We won the state championship two years in a row," Ponytail Fastpitch coach Pat Pittman said. "After we won the first one, we went all the way to the final game of the World Series, but with runners on we lost it in the last minute. We were runners-up in 2000, and in 2001 we won it. We spent the entire year working toward that, and when we went back we didn't lose a game.
"Just about every one of them, the ones that wanted to, went on to play college softball. Donica could have played with no problem. She was that good, but she chose music instead, which was a great choice for her and probably the better choice. Softball will end one day, but music you can have for the rest of your life. You can do that forever."
Knight said her background in sports has become an asset. She is no stranger to hard work, and, as family friend Perry O. Hooper Jr. said, that mentality was evident in high school.
"One of the things that I like about people besides their talent are those who are willing to pay the price," Hooper said. "There's no substitute for hard work. This is the little girl that I remember. Her senior year, the day before she was playing in a big softball tournament — she was an All-State shortstop — she took a softball to the mouth and it knocked out her two front teeth. She and her daddy went down the street to the dentist, and they somehow glued them back in, put a mouthpiece in, and she was ready to go the next day.
"You've heard some of the stories of Bear Bryant saying that a kid would get out to practice early? Well, that's Donica. She does that. She doesn't mind the hard work."
Always a performer
Knight's music career officially began in 2011 while at Auburn when she was invited to join the cover band Luckytown, but those close to her know the framework was laid years ago.
"She wasn't but 10, 11 years old, and the whole team would show up at a talent show to watch her perform," Pittman said. "She had a little self-produced CD back in those days, and of course we all got one. We knew she could be a star even back then. She was fearless on the field, but she was also fearless out on that stage. You could tell she really enjoyed what she was doing. There was no fear about getting up there and entertaining. It was about getting up there and doing something she really loved doing."
More than a decade later, Knight released her debut album "A Southern Heart." It didn't take long for people to recognize her talent, and before she knew it Knight's song "Girls Go Out" was being played on XM radio.
"I tend to sleep in a good bit, so I normally miss myself on the radio because a lot of times it would be in the morning," Knight said, then laughed. "I was driving down the interstate headed to a show, and I heard myself on Sirius XM's The Highway, channel 59. That's a big, big station. It's nationwide. All artists want to be on XM radio, and the fact that the first time I got to hear myself on the radio was on this idolized station was really cool. I had to pull over I was freaking out so much. It had my name on the radio station and the song title. I about peed my pants. I had to pull over, my body just shaking."
After just two years on the music scene full time, Knight has accomplished milestones some artists never approach. She's dropped an album, opened for Kenny Rogers and had her music played on nationwide radio.
She's also had opportunities to give back to the school she loves, singing the National Anthem on ESPN before the Florida-Auburn basketball game in February and having the video for her fight song, "It's Great to Be" shown on the Jumbotron during Auburn's spring game.
Center stage at City of Hope event
But come Saturday, Knight has an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to combine her two favorite things, softball and music, after earning a spot in the prestigious City of Hope Celebrity Softball Challenge in Nashville.
"I told my manager, 'Hey, isn't there a softball game during CMA Fest and how can I be a part of it? How can I get on the team?' So he researched it, and they had a contest that the two people who raised the most money through online concert events, through a website called StageIt.com, would end up getting a slot. I raised the second-most.
"I was really surprised because a lot of people don't know how to do a lot of things through online. They're more traditional and just getting to Google is tough for them, so in order for them to find StageIt, get their tickets and push the donate button, that can get hard. I had my old softball coach tune in and he was bidding. So I ended up raising the second-most, and I got a spot on Team Opry.
"Hopefully, I'll bring back some of my softball skills with me on the field, and maybe I can impress the Florida Georgia Line boys," she said jokingly. "Or a record label. That would be great. I'd love to impress a record label."
Team Opry and Team After Midnight will meet at Greer Stadium at 9 a.m. in the 23rd Annual Celebrity Softball Challenge. Over the years, the game has raised more than $2 million for City of Hope, an organization driven to find a cure and better treatments for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases.
While the game is for charity, the former All-Star shortstop is ready to bring a competitive edge to her team.
"I don't like to brag, but I know that softball really was my sport because I practiced all the time," Knight said. "I told my manager before I found out I had made it that I had to be on this team because I know I'm going to make a statement when I go because softball was my thing. I'm really good at it because I practiced a lot."
Thirteen years removed from their World Series victory, Pittman is confident Knight still has the ability to shock her teammates and the crowd like she shocked him more than a decade ago.
"The first time I saw Donica she was just tiny, kind of petite," Pittman said. "She was a cute little girl, but you wouldn't have thought of her as a ball player. She looked more like a girly-girl, not saying that girly-girls don't play softball, they do, and she was one of them. She would surprise you. You would look at her and you would never think she was a ball player, but she was just really good. She was really fast, real good mechanics, great hitter. She's just an all around five-tool player, someone who could play all positions. In fact, we used her like a utility player. She was good, and she probably hasn't lost much. She'll probably surprise a few people up there."
Trying to earn record label
While she praises her former youth softball coach for helping her raise support, Pittman says it's a culmination of Knight's hard work and God-given talent.
"We all just got together and supported her," Pittman said. "We believe in her that much. But the talent is all her. She earned her way there. I like to think I had a little bit to do with it, but that's not it. She earned it. She did what it took to get there. That's always been her approach. She will do the hard work to get there. She's done it her whole life. Whether it is ball, school or this whole competition to get into this softball game.
"She's going to do the hard work. She knows it doesn't come free. I think she's learned that from a young age, that if you want something you have to go out and get it. Hopefully, some of that determination that we tried to put in them when they were playing ball will come out. You know, life is a competition. Just about everything you do, whether it's a job, competing to get on the radio against all those other artists, you have to get in there and really fight for it. Work hard for it. And she's willing to do that. She's one of those rare people that get in there and never tires and just keeps fighting."
By winning the contest, Knight will also participate in her first showcase Tuesday night at Fiddle and Steel Guitar Bar in Nashville.
"It's just a show," Knight said. "You do your songs from your album. You may want to do a cover tune, and you show them who you are as an artist. You invite record labels and music industry folks out there. They'll come and if they like you, maybe you'll get signed. My ultimate goal is to get signed by a record label.
"I've been working for a very long time just to get to this point, so it's an exciting feeling. Who knows, we might end up having a little Carrie Underwood or Dolly Parton from the River Region area named Donica Knight."
city of hope celebrity softball challenge
Donica Knight
Birthday: April 24; Hometown: Prattville
College: Auburn University; Career: DonicaKnight.com
Performing: A Southern Heart, Auburn Fight Song
Tuesday — Fiddle and Steel Guitar Bar, Nashville 7 p.m.
Wednesday — Hard Rock Café, Nashville 7:45 p.m.
Saturday, June 15 — 2013 World Livestock Auctioneer Championship, Montgomery, 6 p.m.
Saturday, June 22 — In the Country Music Festival, Montgomery, noon
Notes: Parents: Ginger and Don Knight ... Siblings: older brother, Dustin ... Favorite artists: Bonnie Raitt, Shania Twain, Etta James ... Hobbies: Playing in a bowling league, going to the lake, riding 4wheelers, going to the batting cages, watching movies ... Drink: coffee ... Her family has owned and operated the same business, same location for more than 37 years. K bar K Boot Center and K bar K Camping off I-65 exit 179.
23rd annual City of Hope Celebrity Softball Challenge
When: 9 a.m. Saturday
Where: Greer Stadium, Nashville, Tenn.
Tickets: $20 and $50 on Ticketmaster
Website: cityofhope.org
As they have for 23 years, Country stars will step up to help City of Hope Strike Out Cancer. While last year's game between longtime rivals, Grand Ole Opry and AfterMidnight with Blair Garner, ended in a tie — both teams have something to prove and are eager to start raising funds.
Over the years, the game has raised over $2 million benefiting City of Hope's life-saving mission — finding cures and treatments for cancer, diabetes and other life-threatening diseases.
Team Opry — Ayla Brown, Brian Kelley (Florida Georgia Line), Chris Lucas (LoCash Cowboys) , Chuck Wicks, Craig Campbell, Jonathan Jackson, Kree Harrison, Maggie Rose, Phil Vassar, Scott Hamilton, Stu Grimson, Tyler Hubbard (Florida Georgia Line), Two Foot Fred. StageIt Concert Winner: Donica Knight
Team After Midnight — Aaron Lewis, Angie Johnson, Brett Eldredge, Chase Rice, David Nail, Greg Bates, J.P. Dumont, Krystal Keith, Lauren Alaina, Preston Brust (LoCash Cowboys), Scotty McCreery, Shane Tallant. Stagelt Concert Winner: SaraBeth
Caption:Prattville native Donica Knight was a standout player in volleyball (15), softball, left, and basketball (25) for Trinity. Advertiser file photos
