At school events, the Ranch Hands, cheerleaders, and the school mascot represent school spirit; although this year, our Ranger appears to be missing.

The 2014 – 2015 school year was the first year we had a mascot. Senior cheerleader Travis Reed was last year’s mascot.

Purchased from Harris Costumes in 2014, the base price of the Ranger costume was approximately $4,500. The school purchased it with donations from various organizations on campus.

Reed chose to be a cheerleader instead of taking the mascot role this year. The role for the mascot changes annually, with the process of tryouts.

After three weeks of morning and video announcements, mascot tryouts for this school year were held last March. Not a single student tried out for the role according to former cheer coach, Jennifer Hamzy.

“I think a lot of people don’t even think about it… wanting to be mascot until it’s almost too late to do it,” Hamzy said.

Current cheer coach, Ebony Love, plans to host mascot tryouts along with cheer tryouts in late February or early March.

“I think everybody really missed the mascot this year,” Love said, “I’ve had a lot of people ask me where the mascot is.”

On the other hand, Reed says he thinks the absence of the mascot may not be a negative.

“I know that a lot of people look forward to the mascot, but now I like to think that people look forward to seeing school spirit group as a whole; the cheerleaders, the ranch hands, charmers, etc.” Reed said, “I really think that for losing the mascot, we have gained something that is equal or superior [to what] we used to have.”