By Holly Green
Staff Reporter
April 26, 2008 08:59 pm
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As a theater major, Trent Coots finds his role as Sammy Bearkat, mascot for Sam Houston State University, the perfect character to perform.
Coots, a senior with a passion for the bright orange Bearkat, has spent the past four years working to build up the mascot program at SHSU.
It seems as though his work is paying off, resulting in a third place win at the National Cheerleading Association’s mascot competition in Daytona, Fla., April 9-12.
Coots said the win was exciting.
“We sent in a video to go to the camp and were chosen in the top five out of 16 schools who entered,” he said. “We received third place in both taping and our live skit at the competition. It was huge. It’s only one mascot competing, but there’s so many people behind the scenes who work all year to come up with a skit that lasts about two minutes.”
Sammy Bearkat took a top spot along with first place mascot Mac the Bulldog from Gardner-Webb University and second place mascot Sharky from Hawaii Pacific University.
“We used to compete in a smaller mascot competition and we won first place in 2005 and second place last year. We moved to the NCA, because we felt there was more competition — 16 competing mascots as opposed to four.”
If you had asked Coots a few years ago if the thought of becoming a mascot ever crossed his mind, he would have said, “Not a chance.
“I came to SHSU from Highlands where I graduated high school,” he said. “Our mascot was a Ranger and it was just a cheerleader with a head of the mascot on her. (At that time there was) not a chance I would become a mascot.
“It didn’t click for me until freshman orientation when I saw Sammy Bearkat come flying through the door and fall flat on his face beside a ‘slippery when wet’ sign. I thought, ‘Wow, I could do that.’
“I saw an ad in the Houstonian and thought it would be fun and just did it. I’m a theater major and didn’t have any plays going on, so I wanted to stay busy. It was a good choice, because it’s taking up my whole life.”
Coots said with no experience as a mascot, he learned from the best.
“I started under the supervision of my friend Patrick Gardinier, who was a former Sammy mascot,” he said. “He eventually went pro for the Lake Elsinore Storm (a California minor league baseball team).
“He taught me everything he knows and I realized that I loved it just as much as he did. He set the foundation for Sammy and I just kept it going and continued to build up the program, getting new props, toys and recruiting members of the crew.”
Sammy Bearkat, a part of Spirit Programs under SHSU’s student activities, is composed of four students who play Sammy, one student for the Airkat — an inflatable Sammy Bearkat suit — and about four students who make up the Sammy Bearkat Crew.
“We’re really our own organization under student activities — that’s how I feel about it,” Coots said. “The program has really grown since I’ve been on the team. It used to be that only one person would do all the work, but it became so much that we needed more students to get Sammy at events while other students were in class.
“We all work together to get it done. It’s really taken off.”
Sammy Bearkat attends more than 100 events in a semester alone, including sporting events and off campus activities.
“We do student events and also events out in the community, working with children — they love it,” Coots said. “It’s been a really big year for us. We received a Segway (Personal Transporter), — donated by Weisner — an AirKat, autographed cards advertising for Sammy and miniature microphones.
“The program has definitely come a long way, and it’s all due to the fact that our mascots are so passionate about what they do. We didn’t have much support at first, but we’ve grown and people have started to notice Sammy and they want to be a part of it.
“Part of the building process is to sacrifice your own time and money and that’s what we’ve all tried to do.”
Coots said it takes more than just spirit to be Sammy Bearkat.
“The duties of Sammy Bearkat are basically creating and planning events, getting exposure out there for Sammy, scheduling practice times to work out and do acrobatics,” he said. “Sammy is very athletic — he does back handsprings and he does a back tuck. At games, we’re setting up props and constantly thinking up skits and entertaining the crowd.”
Sammy Bearkat tryouts are coming up May 2 and Coots has advice for students trying out.
“You have to have a good sense of improvisation — pretty much the mind of a kid,” he said. “You have to be able to see something simple and turn it into something funny or interesting. For instance, if you see a rolling chair, you have to be able to look at it and turn it into a ship.
“Sammy is a ladies’ man and he’s mischievous. He also loves the kids. To be Sammy, you can’t stop moving the whole time you’re in character or else you’ll just look like a person in a suit.”
Coots doesn’t seem to have trouble finding the qualities of Sammy, working with children and performing throughout his entire life.
“In junior high, I began to do improv with my teacher and placed first and second at UIL competitions,” he said. “Theater has been my whole life. I originally wanted to do acting in New York or Chicago, but I just realized that this is what I wanted to do.
“During the school year, I’m the mascot coordinator and during the summer I’m a camp director at the YMCA, so my life basically stays around kids no matter what — whether I’m in the suit or not.”
Since he became Sammy Bearkat, Coots has experienced a trip to Las Vegas and a helicopter ride on an MTV mascot dating game, but it is the everyday interaction with people that kept him involved.
“What appealed to me the most was, well, I like to act,” he said. “The fact that you can interact up close and see the reactions and the smiles on people’s faces is what I love about being Sammy.”
Coots said every time he puts on the Sammy suit, he has the courage to be anyone he wants to be.
“You become a character and it’s a different world,” he said. “I get to do everything I want to do that I wouldn’t ever do just as myself. You could be a complete introvert but when you put that costume on, you become He-Man. I love it.”
Coots said being Sammy has opened his eyes to new opportunities.
“I enjoy it to the fact that I want to do it professionally,” he said. “I’m actually in the process of trying out for the Houston Comets, (a Women's National Basketball Association team). I sent them a video resume, and they are interested in scheduling a meeting and suit tryout.”
As Sammy Bearkat, Coots said it is about connecting with the people.
You can take something really lame and make it come to life,” he said. “That’s what defines a good mascot — taking simple things and making them funny. Mascots learn from each other and borrow skits and tricks from others. And that’s OK because we’re doing this for the fans.
“You can’t be afraid to be stupid in that suit — it’s funny and that’s Sammy. We want everyone to enjoy him as a Bearkat, not someone in a suit.”
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