The Nexus

Wally is a girl.

It’s not obvious to those who aren’t in the know, but deep down, the fearless furry mascot is indeed a female. That’s okay, because the girl making Wally the most beloved mammal on campus is a master mascot.

Last year, as Wilma, she danced her way onto the Prep Pigskin Report. She got, and continues to get, the crowd pumped for two quarters every football game.

Her secret?

“I can act like a complete idiot,” she said. “I can do whatever I want as long as it is family-friendly, and no one will make fun of me for it the next day unless they know who I am.”

These actions can be silly. Our mascot revealed that she used to switch the cheerleader’s ladders around and confuse them as often as possible. She also said that, in one memorable moment, she almost derailed the band’s halftime show by mockingly conducting the band at a different tempo.

The band, of course, followed Wilma’s tempo over the conductor’s.

But aside from messing with everyone on the field except the football players, she said that the main place for her mascot humor is in the stands. Here, the mascot has no limits.

She said that she has stolen hats and worn them, taken cell phones in use and closed them or done the old-fashioned surprise head rub.

“Basically, I can go up to anybody I want and [do these things],” she said. “I don’t get in trouble. I enjoy making people laugh. It’s easy to do in the suit.”

Of course, while her antics make the crowd laugh, our mischievous mascot is working hard inside the suit. Originally, she said she had to adjust to the travails of life as a mascot. Besides the hot suit, an unfortunate given with all that fur, her first few games as Wilma brought physical pain.

“When I would be [Wilma] I’d be all energetic at the beginning and by the end I’d be so run down that it hurt just to lift my feet up,” she said. “I have to limit myself in how much energy I can expend each quarter.”

So it’s not all fun and games being the mascot. And sometimes, she said the problems can start from outside the suit, in certain types of football fans.

“I have to look [out] in the stands for huge groups of guys,” she said. “[When I was] in the Wilma suit, they would pull my tail and grab Wilma in a certain place where she has extra padding. They’d basically try and take the suit off me. So I don’t go near those people anymore.”

Inappropriate behavior can make mascot life difficult, but sometimes, our mascot explained that the toughest thing is just getting her point across in a restrictive Wolverine suit through which no one can hear her or see her face.

A tall order? Not for an actress with true mascot expertise.

“It’s all body language,” she said. “When you’re on-stage, you can use your tone of voice and facial expressions. You don’t have those things in a mascot suit. You have to able to show you’re angry or that you’re ecstatic or you’re embarrassed or shocked.”

For instance, the girl behind the mascot knows what it’s like to be completely misunderstood as Wilma the crying Wolverine. When a cheerleader fell and was injured, she said she did her best to show the seriousness of the fall by rubbing the plastic eyes of the mascot head.

“[Everyone] on the field was saying ‘Are you rubbing your face?’” she said. “I couldn’t show [Wilma] was sad.”

While some mascot emotions are lost in translation, the suit can show a great range of emotion. The characters of each mascot, in fact, are so different that the head mascot said she’s had to adjust to donning a new suit this year, one without the extra padding of the Wilma costume.

“Wilma has almost a sex appeal,” she said. “I’d blow kisses to people. I can’t do that with Wally because he’s a guy and guys don’t do that. With Wally, I give people more high-fives and chest bumps; more things that guys would do.”

It may make things tough, but the girl in the suit said that this shift in attitude, from foxy to frat boy, is completely necessary for her to stay in character as the mascot.

“If you actually almost convince yourself that you are a character [as the mascot], it’s a lot easier to interact with people,” she said. “There are certain things that each character does that are signature to that character.”

As for the mascot master’s motivation to don the suit, inhabit her character, and pump up the crowd for 2 hours every home game, she said it isn’t very complex.

“It’s a big deal,” she said. “A lot of schools really take pride that they have mascots that are out there and are willing to do stuff. Plus if I didn’t do it, I wouldn’t have any incentive to do anything on Friday nights.”

But the work isn’t a one-way street. After all, our mascot learned something from the suit beyond how to do terrible hip-hop dances. She said that being the peppy Wally, the social Wilma, has changed her own character outside the suit.

“Having to be energetic in the suit and having to be happy all the time has affected the way I am daily,” she said. “I’m generally happier.”