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BY MATT BLEIMAN

In print | Published March 27, 2008

A competition will be held this weekend to choose the first students to become Swarthmore’s new official mascot. The public event will be held this Saturday at 7 p.m. on the main stage of LPAC.

Mascot Selection Committee member and Coordinator of Residential Life Liz Derickson ’01 explained that it was necessary for the competition to be open to the public. “We felt like with the spirit of Swarthmore we should let it be an open event and let anyone audition. Some places do closed and private auditions but that did not feel like Swat,” she said. She said that it is not hard to get students at Swarthmore to come out and participate in events like these.

Derickson said that the auditions are the final stage of the two and a half year process that the Mascot Selection Committee has gone through.

“It’s full steam ahead. We are really ready to have a mascot on this campus and the last step is getting actual students on board,” she said.

There will be three sections to the show: a talent section, an athletics section and a pep section. In the talent section, contestants will be able to do anything they want and are expected to perform a variety of talents.

After this, they will have to navigate a timed obstacle course with contestants weaving through cones, jumping over hurdles and doing star jumps among other feats.

Finally, the pep section will give the contestants a chance to bring in any of their own props and perform to their own music completely non-verbally, as the mascot will be mute.

Kyle White ’08 and Claire Melin ’08 will be the emcees for the contest and the show will feature two guest performances by campus groups. Sixteen Feet will be performing twice during the show and Rhythm N Motion will perform as well.

The selection committee is still working out who will be on the judging panel. The panel will consist of Registrar Martin Warner, Associate Dean for Student Life Myrt Westphal, two students who have not yet been announced and assistant track and field coach Tom Reynolds, a former mascot.

Another judge will be Dave Raymond, the original Philly Phanatic who helped construct and first wore the suit for the Philadelphia Phillies. He now owns a creative marketing firm and helped construct and market Swarthmore’s new mascot. In addition, there will be two student judges who have yet to be announced.

The selection committee is offering a reward for anyone willing to try-out to become the mascot. “For even just signing up and getting the chance to perform they are getting gift certificates to their choice of either Pei Wei, Target, Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts,” White said.

After the open try-out on Saturday, the committee will hold a closed-door try-out on Sunday. White said that Saturday’s event is more of a preliminary try-out.

There then will be finalists selected to take part in Sunday’s audition. “Sunday is going to be a blind audition with the contestants actually dressing up in the suit and performing a list of activities because we don’t want to have the bias of seeing someone we might have seen the night before and have that influence our decision,” White said.

The committee will be selecting more than one mascot. “What we are really trying to emphasize with people is that there is going to be a big team aspect to it. We are going to have more that one mascot because we realize that the person that is filling the suit is going to have a time commitment somewhere else,” White said.

He hopes to pick two or three final mascots. In addition to the mascots, there will be a mascot team that will be modeled after the Party Associate system and headed by Assistant Director of Student Life Kelly Wilcox ’97.

The team will be headed by a mascot coordinator who will assist the mascot and make sure he or she has any necessary props or items for the performance. White is looking forward to being the emcee at the try-out. “This is very exciting. It has been a two and a half year process and it’s nice to see this finally transform into reality,” he said. “The show is going to be a lot of fun. It’s going to be crazy, ridiculous — some of the talents that I have seen so far are off the wall.”

Derickson is also very excited about the try-outs. “Every time you get a novel, new event it draws a lot of attention and excitement,” she said. “I think there is some buzz and I hope a lot of students will turn out. I think folks will be vocal about the candidates and the costume.”

The current contestants are Juliana Macri ’09, Melissa Grigsby ’09, Alex Gilbert-Bono ’10, Anna Baeth ’09, Finlay Logan ’08, Dan Hodson ’09 and Joel Tolliver ’10.

Baeth agrees about the excitement for the mascot. “I think its really exciting that we are getting a mascot — something tangible to demonstrate Swat pride,” she said. " I think Swatties have an internal pride for Swarthmore — I mean, we are some of the brightest, compassionate, funniest and strangest group of people around, but don’t really demonstrate it externally. The phoenix will help us do that."

She sees the opportunity to participate in this new feature of the college as something to promote Swarthmore pride and have fun. She said, “We could all use a good laugh every now and then. I suppose that’s why I am trying out — to show Swat pride and give every Swattie a chance to come laugh at me as I make a fool of myself on Saturday. Sweet.”

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