Girls hoop coach intimidates opponents by singing amazing renditions of Star-Spangled Banner

We thought we'd heard everything when it comes to throwing foes off their game -- including the Little Giants using acid indigestion pills to foam at the mouth on the defensive line -- but singing the National Anthem too beautifully is a new one.

(Side note: Is that the second Little Giants reference of the week? Yes, yes it is.)

Westview (Portland, Ore.) High girls basketball coach Lindsay Strothers sings The Star-Spangled Banner before every home game, and the result has been a 3-0 record in their own gym. Coincidence? We think not.

This is nothing new for Strothers, who began the tradition as an assistant for Portland's St. Mary's Academy in the early 1980s, according to an Oregonian feature. He led that school to back-to-back state championships in 1985 and 1986. Results don't lie.

“It gave us kind of an advantage,” Strothers told the paper. “They would turn around and look at me and they were like, ‘wow.’ After a couple of minutes, we had a 10-point lead, and there was no looking back.”

[Also: See SDSU forward's dunk-of-the-year candidate]

Since then, he's performed during head coaching stops at Oak Park (Calif.) High and California's NCAA Division II Chapman University as well as assistant coaching roles at USC and Cal State Northridge. In addition to singing the National Anthem in front of NBA crowds for both the Blazers and Lakers, he made the second round of auditions on Simon Cowell's TV show "The X Factor," the Oregonian said.

“In the very beginning, (Westview athletic director) Mike (Sanderson) didn’t know that I sang, so he had lined up a couple of kids from the choir,” added Strothers. “But once I did it, he said, ‘Oh no, we’re not having anyone else. You’re doing it.’”

And the rest is history, just like Westview's home opponents. Stunning renditions of The Star-Spangled Banner weren't on Mike Tyson's lengthy list of intimidation tactics, but maybe they should be, based on Iron Mike's version of In the Air Tonight in The Hangover.

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