The Mascot Debacle of 1995 Part 1
The Mascot Debacle of 1995 Part 1
The Backstory
I started elementary school early. Which was great for my parents, but my immaturity stayed with me throughout graduation. Some of you can relate, but if you can’t, imagine being 15 years old as a Junior in High School. I took the ACT as a 15-year-old kid. Let that sink in. A significant portion of my college acceptance packet took place when I was 15. I retook that test at the much more mature age of 16; it didn’t help. My immaturity, sparkling personality, and nothing to lose attitude was put to good use in other ways. It was good enough to be the Mascot for two years at MVHS during their sports heyday.
Tryouts
To say that I wanted to be a mascot would be untrue. I really wanted to get out of class, attend lots of sporting events, and ride the bus with all of the cheerleaders.
I remember standing on the old blue cheerleading mats behind the old wooden bleachers with a number four pinned to my white gym shirt. I stood there with thirty cheerleaders and five other kids. It was a beautiful moment. I was the only boy at tryouts. Seriously, we had 2700 kids in our high school, and I was the only boy who showed up to mascot tryouts.
They selected two of us. One boy and one girl.
When selected as one of the mascots it was a dream come true, but for all of the wrong reasons.
Yes, of course, we practice
Practice? We are talking about practice. We had freaking practice. It was cheerleader practice, with some mascot suggestions sprinkled in. We had to learn some of the routines so that we could jump in and help get the crowd excited and help increase participation. Neither of us had a gymnast/ tumbling background, so the flips and tumbles didn’t happen… mainly when I was the mascot. I didn’t complain because I got to miss class and hang out with cheerleaders.
The T stand for “The,” Bueford (T)he Bruin.
One of my favorite responsibilities as the mascot was visiting our in school Pre-school and meeting all of the kids before the game. We hit the major sports, for both home and away games as well as middle school, and elementary events. It was time intensive and took a lot of effort and focus, to keep up the Mascot energy up for two hours three times a week. It was 40-50 events a year if you included region and state tournaments, fundraisers, and special events.
Being in a mascot costume is pretty much just like how you would imagine it to be. Sweaty, hot, stinky, itchy, and you feel like you are in a constant state of sensory loss. You can’t hear very well. Everything is muffled because of the fur and constant screaming and yelling. Depth perception and peripheral vision are limited because the eye holes are covered with thin black fabric. There were two straps that connected the headpiece to the body, and then a chin strip that kept the headpiece secure to our heads.
The Mountain View jersey and shorts stayed with the costume, as well as the gloves and foot covers. We wore regular tennis shoes underneath the foot covers and had to wear the gloves to keep up appearances. From a psychological standpoint, we always had to be on our A game. We were a public figure and had to act accordingly.
Um, I’m the Mascot
For the local games my mom would drop me off, (Orem, Pleasant Grove, American Fork) for the further away region games (Alta, Highland, Brighton) I would ride the cheerleader bus.
This was a magical time. This, referring to the 45-minute bus ride to and from games. My junior year there were four boys on the bus, and my senior year there were three of us. Imagine being a 15/16/17-year-old kid on a bus with 20+ cheerleaders. Magical is the best way that I can describe it.
The awkward part was explaining to the other school that I needed to change in the locker room, but that I wasn’t on the basketball or football team. “Um, I’m the mascot.” I got a lot of weird looks and spent some awkward moments changing into the uniform, while a custodian, administrator, or team manager waiting for me to finish getting dressed.
Like most bad ideas, it started as a good idea. It really did!
Part 2 tomorrow.