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Meet the Miss South Carolina 2016 contestants
Tuesday night, 117 young women in high heels and big hair will get on the Township Auditorium stage in Columbia, kicking off five days of competition that will culminate in the crowning of Miss South Carolina.
You probably know how it goes: swimsuit (or physical fitness for teens), talent, evening gown and the dreaded on-stage question. What you probably don't know is what goes on backstage, in the interview room and in the months before the curtain rises on the massive production, or why Miss Hilton Head Island is actually from Greer. Don't worry — we've got you covered. By the time 54 Miss contestants and 63 Teen contestants start their opening number Tuesday, you'll know everything you need to know.
Pageant titles
Most pageants that lead to the Miss South Carolina stage are open, meaning any high school student or unmarried woman who lives, works or attends school in South Carolina can compete for whatever local title they desire. That's how Miss Columbia, Sydney Ford, is from Gaffney and Miss Spartanburg, Anna Mills Polatty, lives in Columbia.
Contestants choose different titles for different reasons. They might want to represent their hometown, or the city where they attend college. They may want to win a pageant that is run by someone who can help them perfect their swimsuit walk or drill them on interview questions. Or, they may just need to compete in pageant after pageant before finally winning.
Kate McKinney won the title of Miss Hilton Head Island in 2015 and represented the coastal city in last year's pageant. She lives in Columbia and works as a producer and host of "Symphonies and Soundscapes," a daily classical music show on South Carolina Public Radio. She chose the Miss Hilton Head Island pageant because its directors, Jeremy and Harry Culpepper, had asked her to compete before.
Anna Catherine English, currently Ms. South Carolina United States, competed in Miss South Carolina three times and Miss South Carolina Teen once. The Greenville native has been Miss Fountain Inn, Miss Wade Hampton Taylors, Miss Piedmont and Miss Lake Wylie Teen. While her sash never said "Miss Greenville," she wanted to represent the Upstate each time she competed for the state crown.
What the judges want
The Miss America pageant, which Miss South Carolina competes in, started out as a bathing beauty pageant, but the judging criteria have shifted away from just beauty as the pageant has modernized. Contestants still have to strut their stuff in a swimsuit and sky-high heels, but they're primarily judged on their physical fitness, poise and confidence. When swimsuit winners are announced at the end of preliminary competition each night, they are often those who have toned, even athletic frames. Daja Dial, the current Miss South Carolina, won a preliminary swimsuit award when she competed at Miss America, likely due to the muscular body she built as a Clemson cheerleader for three years.
Almost as important as fitness is the mastery of stomping across the stage in impossibly high heels. McKinney would practice for hours on end in the Culpeppers' living room to get her walk just right.
"There was one weekend a couple weeks before the pageant when it was just four hours of walking to music," McKinney said. "It's just getting comfortable in that environment with just a few people who are staring at you while you walk around in a bikini and heels."
What can sometimes be even more intimidating for contestants is the private interview. For 15 minutes, five judges can ask each contestant whatever they want. Nothing is off limits.
"They can throw anything at you. Anything is fair game," McKinney said. "They can talk about your personal history, your platform, or they can throw foreign policy at you."
Contestants often prepare by consuming as much news as possible and drilling themselves on current events. Others go to interview coaches like former Greenville City Councilwoman Deb Sofield, who charges $75 per hour and has produced multiple Miss South Carolina and Miss South Carolina Teen winners.
Unique talents
Most contestants sing or dance for their talent, but others get a little more creative.
This year, Sarah Beth Moody, Miss Metropolitan Teen will perform a magic routine for her talent. Miss Summerville, Alacey German, will paint. A 2013 contestant did a ballet mime routine, and in 2014, another performed a karate routine set to music.
"That’s the beauty of the Miss America Organization," English said. "If your talent is doing a magic trick for 90 seconds, that's your talent. If you want to do martial arts, that's your talent. All you have to do is make it entertaining"
Consolation prizes
Regardless of whether a contestant wins, every one will go home with a scholarship. The minimum scholarship award for contestants is $500, but top winners can take home more than $15,000. McKinney was second runner-up at last year's pageant and won a preliminary talent award and the Quality of Life scholarship for her work on Project Opera Camp, a non-profit organization she founded to teach opera to underprivileged children.
After adding all those awards up, she took home $13,000 in scholarships. She's already graduated from the University of South Carolina and paid off most of her debt, but she said she's hoping to use the large scholarship for a master's degree in the future. Other contestants have used their pageant scholarships to pay for most or all of their studies, McKinney said.
But it's not just the scholarships that can soften the blow of not taking home the crown. After the hosts call the top 15 contestants during Saturday night's finals, the non-finalists go back to the Township Auditorium basement to find a spread of pizza and cupcakes.
"Every year when you don't make the finals, there's a huge spread of food waiting for you. Pizza, cupcakes, everything you probably haven't eaten in months because you've been preparing. The girls who don't make the top 10 and come down after swimsuit are always mad because the food is already gone by then," English said. "Don't worry about the girls who don't make the top 15. They are truly happy downstairs with a plethora of food waiting for them. While the other girls are upstairs hoping to become Miss South Carolina, we are very happy downstairs with our cupcakes and our Papa John's."
http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/2016/06/20/what-you-should-know-miss-south-carolina-pageant/86134696/
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