Give me an M! Give me an A! Give me a S-C-O-T! The LHS mascot is back and ready to pump up LHS’s school spirit. A group of students from the LHS Leadership class, Aidan Bishop, Kayel Newland, Brianna Walker and Janin Hernandez, are in charge of bringing back the Blue Jay mascot. Mascot tryouts were on October 29 after school.

The LHS mascot was never taken away; it just hasn’t been used in the last couple of years.

“It wasn’t necessarily taken away, I don’t really know why, it just kind of ended,” sophomore Kayel Newland said. “There was a guy mascot and a girl mascot, at the football games and they incorporated it into their lip dub and it was big with school spirit. I don’t really know if it was taken away or if people didn’t want to do it.”

The group’s plan for the mascot is to create more school pride and excitement.

“Why not rejuvenate the Blue Jay? We are the Blue Jays and we should be proud of the school community we belong to,” teacher Jessica King said. “Our hope is that there is some excitement in the student body because this is student-led, not directed by administration or teachers.”

The hope is that the mascot will not only encourage students to attend more games, but persuade people from the community as well.
“I think it is going to have a really positive impact, hopefully get more people out to the games, not only people in our school, but people in the community, like younger students around the Liberty district,” junior Janin Hernandez said.

The Leadership class looked for certain qualities when choosing a mascot. If you’re thinking about becoming a mascot here are lots of tips to consider in addition to the following advice from the LHS Leadership group.

“Someone who is outgoing and really interested in our school and school spirit,” junior Brianna Walker said.

To be a mascot, there were some basic requirements. The Leadership group is hoping to find six different people to be mascots.

“The students auditioning to be the mascot have to have physicals on file because it’s an athletic thing. There has to be somebody in the suit and someone with them at all times,” Newland said. “So we’re trying to get, best scenario, six people to pull from and then each night we can have one person in the suit and one person helping them. We can switch it off so it’s not just totally on two people’s shoulders.”

The LHS mascot tryouts consist of many different tests.

“Were going to have them dance to’The Whip’ and ‘The Nae Nae’ and then we’re going to have questions like, what are you involved in?” Hernandez said. “Just so we don’t have people who are already busy because then they won’t be able to attend many games. So, just interview questions and then we’re going to look at the way they interact with new people and people they don’t know.”

The tests determine whether or not the students would be fit for the mascot job.

“After dancing to two songs we’re going to have them play the game heads up. Based off of that, we’re going to call a few more back and ask them questions,” Newland said. “We’re going to ask them what they think about spirit, why they want to be the mascot and we’re also going to ask some fun questions like chocolate or vanilla? Pepsi or coke? We want to get to know them and make sure their personality fits what we’re looking for.”

The mascot has one main goal.

“To really interact with our student section and the crowd and just really vamp up our student section with more spirit,” Walker said. “We want to have a Blue Jay “revealing” at one of the first basketball games.”

If you’re thinking becoming a mascot is in your future here are some tips on being a mascot.