When someone thinks of a high school, one of the first things that may come to mind is the school’s mascot. To name a few in the area, there are the Bridge City Cardinals, West Orange-Stark Mustangs, Vidor Pirates, and most importantly…the LCM Bears. 

From the very first traveling pep rally in elementary school to that last game as a senior, the Bear is an important symbol in an LCM student’s time here. This year, the students taking on the responsibility of representing the Bear mascot are: junior Lexxi Fair, junior Sydney Franklin, and senior Tyler Regan. 

Regan, who is in her first year as the mascot, said she was very interested in taking on the suit for many reasons.

“I’ve wanted to be a mascot ever since middle school and always thought it would be a blast,” she said. “It seemed really cool to put on the suit, dance, and cheer people up.”

The Bear mascots are certainly known for their energetic moves, and their dances and silliness keep the crowd pumped before and during Friday night games.

“We like to clap our hands, do the motions the cheerleaders do, become ‘part of the student section,’ and especially cheer on the little kids,” Franklin said.

Like most students involved in Friday night lights, school responsibilities aren’t the only thing these three focus on. Along with fulfilling their mascot responsibilities, these girls have plenty of other hobbies to keep them busy. Regan loves theatre and dancing around in her room. Fair loves to read and spend time with friends, while Franklin even takes on an extra job. 

“I work at Sonic,” Franklin said. “I love to sleep, I hang out with my friends and family, and I’m on the Computer Science UIL Team.” 

Though the mascots are all smiles a majority of the time, they tend to face certain struggles every now and then that come along with the position. 

“The suit can raise the outside temperature up to 20 degrees,” Regan said. “So every 45 minutes we’re supposed to take a break for water and to cool down. There’s a lot of vision impairment in the suit and it’s hard to see where you’re going.”

Since the mascots are essentially representing the entire school and even the district, it is important to stay in character – which proves to be difficult at times.

“You can’t talk to anybody,” Franklin said. “The eye on my suit is a little messed up and kids always come up to me and ask me what’s wrong with my eye. I just have to shrug my shoulders. I do the same thing when they ask me if I’m a boy or a girl. Basically the answer for everything is, ‘I don’t know.’ We have one face and no emotions, so our body becomes our emotions we need to get across.”

Even through the various struggles, the privilege of representing the school in such a way has proven to be a rewarding hobby for all three girls.

“I love dancing with the kids,” Regan said. “Teenagers know that we’re not actually a giant bear that dances, but the little kids are so in awe of the mascot. They love to give hugs and that’s really cool.”

Becoming heavily involved on Friday nights has also helped the girls gain new friendships.

“I love hanging out with all of the JV girls since I’m close friends with almost all of them now,” Fair said.

Though football season is flying by, all three mascots are still looking forward to the rest of their Friday nights with the team. 

“It’s great being part of the LCM student section family, making people happy, and getting involved,” Franklin said.