Notre Dame tennis coach Pershard Owens displaying another talent in offseason

Most people in this region are probably familiar with Pershard Owens, the Notre Dame tennis coach.

What some people might not know is that Owens possesses another talent.

Owens is an independent artist that gets the opportunity to sing the national anthem at St. Louis Blues games, Kansas City Royals games and even some tennis tournaments around the country.

For Owens, singing has always been a part of his life.

“Singing has always been in my blood,” Owens said. “Both sides of my family sing so I started out singing in the church and then it kind of continued to grow from there.”

On top of singing the national anthem at professional sporting events, Owens had the opportunity to go on the Kelly Clarkson Show back in 2022.

“She was wanting to find some up and coming artists who didn’t have major backing,” Owens said. “She went around the country to four cities but she also had some (auditions) on Tik Tok where you could just post yourself singing along with her. I did it and then a couple of days later I got an email from the producers.”

Becoming an anthem singer was something Owens thought of because of his love for tennis.

“What better way to enjoy tennis than also singing,” Owens said. “I just reached out to see if they need anthem singers and the first one that I did was the Atlanta Open. From there my name just kind of got passed around and more opportunities came.”

No matter what opportunity Owens gets with singing, he knows to never take them for granted.

“I don’t take anything for granted because at any point it can be taken away,” Owens said. “If you’re close enough and you look at my hands, they’re always shaking. It doesn’t matter how many times I’ve done it, I still have those nerves. If I don’t get nervous it means I don’t care so my nerves are a way of telling me I still care and I still want to perform at my best. I’ve always said that once those nerves stop, that’s when I’ll quit.”

Owens even sees a similarity between the way he prepared for tennis matches as a player and singing.

“There’s definitely a parallel,” Owens said. “You warm up for both, you practice for both and then with both you have to make sure you’re staying focused. It’s very easy to get thrown off so you have to stay focused.”