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All hail Yale March 14: John Walters finds the roots of college a cappella at Yale University, where singing truly becomes an athletic endeavor.

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"Oh, entirely," says Gooding, whose parents met at Allegheny College as chorus members in a campus production of "Kiss Me, Kate" (Gooding's wife is named Kate; talk about karma). "I visited my sister at Yale when I was in high school and saw the Alley Cats and Baker's Dozen perform. I told myself, If Yale accepts me, I'm going here."

Gooding, a lifelong a cappella devotee -- his 7th-grade classmates made him sing Osmond Brothers and Jackson Five tunes, beating him up if he refused -- went to Yale and caught on with the SOBs (Sons of Orpheus and Bacchus). He claims that it was his freshman roommate who inspired the formation of the Singing Group Council.

"Johnson Flucker, he was a 6-foot-6 counter tenor," Gooding recalls. "There were violations involving his recruitment. The SOBs got him to commit before Tap Night."

It was not exactly "The Courting of Marcus Dupree", but the scandal compelled Yale's a cappella community to form the SGC. To abide by agreed-upon rules, one of which is that the date of Tap Night remain a secret until the day of. But even that sacrosanct rule is often obviated. Hey, these students were not accepted here on SAT scores alone.

"As I said," reiterates Weiss, "it can be very political."

For all of the on campus fervor, only one a cappella group regularly competes in the ICCA. And this winter that group, the Duke's Men, pulled out of the competition less than a week before their quarterfinal in Hartford.

"It was definitely a contentious decision," says Duke's Men manager Elliot Watts, a former prep football standout who chose the stage over the gridiron upon arriving in New Haven. "Some of us really wanted to do it, others were apathetic."

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Kjeldgaard contends that, with so many a cappella groups on campus, the talent pool is diluted. "It wouldn't be a true representation of Yale's best," he says.

And while the Whiffs might come closest to hitting that note, they have no plans, at present, to conform to ICCA convention. The Whiffs have no beat boxer, waste no time on choreography and would never be caught dead performing a tune by The Fray or Coldplay.

"The prestige of the Whiffs derives from my grandparents' generation," says Kjeldgaard, who actually has his own off-campus office, affectionately known as "Whiffspace". "I don't think the Whiffs feel the need to be that relevant."

Besides, if you are already universally acknowledged as the most prestigious college a cappella group there is, what have you got to win by entering the ICCA?

Next autumn, assuming that his and his mates' travels go smoothly this summer, Kjeldgaard will return to Yale. He will be a senior, but no longer an active Whiff. The future, and the sobering reality of a career that does not include four-part harmony and the performance of such standards as "Steppin' Out With My Baby" await.

What are Kjeldgaard's plans?

"I originally was looking to work for the State Department," he says, "but that was in part because I wanted to see the world. After this, though, I'm thinking of going into business."

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