The Panther: fierce, fearless, and powerful. That’s West Ottawa’s mascot, and it’s a rare sight. The Panther’s absence caused sports to long for a mascot at their games. Now, someone just needs to be committed to the part.
Principal Kristine Jernigan recalls seeing the Panther in her high school years. She also confirmed that one of the current staff members at West Ottawa High School used to be the Panther. Can you figure out who?
To Jernigan, the Panther’s absence has one known reason: no one is committed to being the Panther. Some students have expressed interest, but other commitments conflicted with the job. Ultimately, this ended up with no mascot.
Now the mascot costume is near the athletic trainers’ room. The outfit hides behind the closed door of a dark closet, waiting for its next big performance.
Athletic Director Bill Kennedy confirmed a similar reason. “We need to find kids that are willing to wear it,” Kennedy said. “Ultimately, what I’d really love to do is find somebody that would be, like, super passionate about doing it: football, basketball primarily.”
Being the school mascot is an exciting experience. “It’s different because your personality can be quite different once you get the suit on, right? And nobody knows who you are,” Kennedy said. “You can kind of be more, you know, joke around and have fun and do funny stuff and that sort of thing.”
Becoming the mascot isn’t difficult. Kennedy mentioned that he’s pretty open as to who could be the Panther; someone just needs to ask. “I would definitely want somebody that’s in good academic standing, just like any other student athlete as far as eligibility and stuff goes,” Kennedy said. For ground rules, make sure to keep your actions appropriate. “We don’t want to, you know, do anything inappropriate in the suit and post that out because that’s just a bad look for everyone,” Kennedy said.
Instructor Shanna Meyer revealed that she was the Panther mascot when she was in high school. “I just loved it. It was a good way to show school spirit,” Meyer said, “but also getting to see the kids that were super excited to see you, giving the high fives. The anonymity of it was kind of fun, so yeah.” Meyer also said, “It’s fun to try it. And, see it gives you a little more respect for the professional team mascots. Seeing what they’re doing, like when they’re running and they’re jumping and doing all kinds of the crazy stuff you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s actually really hard and takes a lot of training to be able to do a lot of that stuff.’”
Meyer gave some advice for anyone interested in being the mascot. “[The] basketball season in the gym, it gets really hot really fast. So taking lots of water breaks and like making your appearance at strategic times and then going and taking it off for a few minutes and then make another appearance,” Meyer said. She recommends not having the costume on for the entire time.
I had the honor of becoming the mascot for the Purple Power basketball games on the 21st of February. Being 5’0”, I had some struggles with the costume. The outfit is like a onesie. The head was like a helmet that had straps to go around the arms. The hands were like gloves and the feet slipped on with a bit of velcro on the back to keep them secure. Since the costume is more like a onesie, it was a one-size-fits-all kind of a deal. That also meant that it would be very large and baggy on me.
At first, I really struggled with trying to adjust the onesie part to fit me. I tried using safety pins, but they always came off. Then, I decided to equally space out the safety pins around my waist. I threaded a string through the safety pins and tied it to create a makeshift belt. That worked surprisingly well.
The head of the Panther was massive. I ended up stuffing two sweaters and two shirts just to make my head a little more stable. For the arm loops, I crossed them around my back so they ended up on the opposite side.
The gloves I just wore like normal. They were large, but I could deal with it. For the feet, I wore my regular shoes but I had to stuff a shirt in each side so that my feet wouldn’t be constantly falling off. Overall, all of this made it hotter inside the suit. However, being the mascot was still a great experience.
During the first half of the girls’ game, I didn’t know what a mascot did or was supposed to do. Adding on the fact that the suit was hot and hard to move, I ended up sitting in the student section. Even while sitting down, I could feel the sweat dripping down my neck. I focused mainly on my breathing and tried to show my support through large movements whenever we scored. I had to dramatize every action I did because I couldn’t speak in the suit.
During half time, I ended up going around and talking to the security guards and Kennedy, asking what I should be doing as a mascot. They gave me some ideas that I kept in mind to try better during the next game.
During the boys’ game, I walked around, high-fiving people and taking pictures. People ended up figuring out the Panther was me pretty easily, but that might be due to my height. Hiding my identity is difficult with my stature. I walked the track, saying hi to kids and interacting with them. The kids loved it, and it made me smile seeing the excitement on their faces.
Everyone was very kind to me, for the most part. There were a few rambunctious boys, but they were just having their fun. Even though I was definitely really glad to take off that suit at the end of the night, I would be the Panther again in a heartbeat.
Throughout the years, the Panther has been a staple of West Ottawa. From sporting events to guest appearances at elementary schools, the Panther is well loved in our community. Let’s bring the energy back. So, will you be the next Panther?
