Local woman wins over Osprey crowd

Danielle Switalski

Susan Schroedel charmed the crowd at a talent competition during a break at last Monday’s Missoula Osprey game.  While attending the game with her husband, Schroedel soon found out it was Gong Show Night, meaning members of the audience can volunteer to display their talent.  If contestants aren’t booed off the stage within the first 45 seconds of showcasing their talent, a panel of three judges then awards points to each remaining competitor.

With encouragement from her husband, Schroedel took the stage, thinking to herself “sure, what the heck? Sounds like fun” and sang the bluesy tune, “Hit the Road Jack,” to which she received much applause from the crowd. 

“When all was said and done, the judges scored me a 9.9 and I won,” said Schroedel who beat out five contestants for the win. 

To her surprise, Schroedel not only won a large prize package with an autographed baseball signed by all the members of the Missoula Osprey, a Louisville Slugger baseball bat, an Osprey t-shirt and hat and season tickets to the 2010 season for both her and her husband, but was invited back on stage to sing one more song.  Schroedel sang “America the Beautiful” for her second round on stage.