The Cardinal mascot is the ambassador of school spirit making him a part of SHS that is ingrained into the community. He gets people excited, loud and pumped. People always take pictures, high five or fist bump with him.
The student portraying the Cardinal the 2018-19 school year was chosen by the Booster Club officers at the beginning of the year.
“It’s mostly about the personality,“ Booster Club sponsor Sam Hanley said. “The Cardinal needs to be outgoing and funny and cannot take himself seriously.“
Hanley says the student needs to be a good actor, and since the Cardinal is forbidden to talk, he must convey what he is saying by using body language. The mascot needs to be tall and have some athletic ability because it’s really hot in the costume. He jumps around, waves his arms in the air and dances.
Hanley says that the Cardinal is supposed to be cheerful at all SHS events and is essentially a cheerleader.
“I really like to make people excited, give them the energy and make them laugh,” the Cardinal said.
Being the Cardinal can also be challenging because he needs to be very animated all the time and has to keep in mind that at every point somebody’s watching him, according to the Cardinal.
“It’s hectic,” the Cardinal said. “It’s like so much is going on. You are jumping around, you are waving your arms in the air. You are the Cardinal and you are getting everybody pumped up. There are eyes on you all time.”
The Cardinal is very passionate about his job and is also trying to improve his skills in entertaining the crowd.
“I want to get more involved with the crowd. I really want to do some sort of tricks, like a cartwheel, and definitely improve my dancing,” the Cardinal said. “It looks goofy.”
The Cardinal says that at first he lacked confidence in knowing if he could walk up to the stadium. But after he had been to football games, the pep rally and did a couple different things, he began to feel more confident and now thinks that he has the right to be the better bird.
“I’m very proud to be the Cardinal. I love it so much,“ the Cardinal said. “It’s just so cool to see everything from a different point of view as a mascot…, and it means so much to see the smiles that people have. It’s just so great.“