Bluffton middle school student, Courtney McLaughlin, apparently lacks stage fright.
 
She sang The National Anthem surrounded by over 14,000 persons prior to the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division I boys’ state final basketball contest in Columbus on March 19.
 
The performance was at the Schottenstein Center at The Ohio State University.
 
This wasn’t her first state tourney appearance. She also sang during the Division II semifinals last year. It doesn’t end there.
 
She has also performed The National Anthem at a minor league hockey Toledo Walleyes games and at minor league baseball Toledo Mud hen’s games.
 
She’ll sing for the Bluffton chamber on April 8
For Bluffton residents interested in hearing her sing The National Anthem, her next gig is during the Bluffton Area Chamber of Commerce breakfast on Friday, April 8.
 
Courtney, a Bluffton eighth grader, is the daughter of Jim and Lisa McLaughlin of Bluffton.
 
During Courtney’s Columbus visit, she also met the Lima Senior Spartan mascot as Lima Senior was in the state finals. And, she met Ethan Luginbuhl, BHS grad, who is an intern at OSU. See the photos at the bottom of this story.
 
Remember 2011?
Courtney’s performance is not the first time a Bluffton singer stood before a sold-out OSU gymnasium of basketball fans.
 
Kevin Gratz took “Shirt and Pants,” an extra-curricular male choir of 15 Bluffton High School boys to Columbus in 2011. Click here for that story and to watch a video of that performance.