The crowd’s cheers begin to swell. The music starts to pick up, and the Bruin spirit in the stands and on the football field is almost contagious. This moment seems perfect, but it’s missing one thing: a student in a bear suit cheering on the players and keeping the crowd lively.

SCHS’s mascot, Buster Bruin, hasn’t “officially” appeared at a football game since 2011, when Derek Sauceda, class of 2014, was dubbed school mascot.

After Sauceda, the last person to put on the Buster costume was Doug Vandermark, class of 2015, who spent his brief time as Buster performing at the last two football games of last season and at Senior Night.

Sophomore and dance team member Catherine Klicek thinks that one of the reasons nobody has stuck as Buster for a while is because “nobody wants to dance in that smelly costume.”

Diana Sauceda, the Spirit Squad advisor, agrees that the “smelly” bruin-suit may be a reason for the lack of Buster applicants. The school hasn’t purchased a new suit in 15 years, and it’s so old and fragile that it has to be hand washed at the end of each season.

Because the mascot costume gets incredibly hot, Sauceda thinks “new mascot suit technology,” including better  breathable lining and an ice pack vest to keep cool, would make the job more appealing for students to apply. Sauceda hopes to someday get enough funding to purchase a new suit, as she thinks this will attract more people to the job.

“The past few years we’ve had people interested in joining as a mascot but they failed to follow through,” Sauceda said.

Though there is currently no student who holds the title of mascot, Spirit Squad performers like sophomore Mariah Loya, plan to whip out the Buster suit this year for special occasions like homecoming and senior nights.

During last Friday’s varsity game, Loya ran to the bathroom and changed into the Bruin suit, ready to march on the field and cheer with the rest of the Spirit Squad.

“It was difficult,” Loya said. “I was still doing the regular cheers but it was harder to move. I couldn’t really see.”

As for the payoff, Loya said that though she couldn’t exactly see the people in the crowd, she could hear the difference between a mascot-less game and a game where Buster was there to rally up the crowd.

To become a mascot, students can audition at the same time as cheerleaders and dancers during the spring, but if they’re really interested, Sauceda said they can contact her to set up an audition during the school year. At tryouts, Buster applicants learn the same routines as the other Spirit Squad performers and are evaluated on their performance abilities.

After making it past tryouts, the mascot’s real work begins when people fill the bleachers at each football game. Like Loya, Sauceda believes that being a mascot, or even just seeing one from the crowd, makes the experience of attending a sports game all the more valuable.

“The mascot really helps promote school spirit,” Sauceda said. “The crowd loves being able to interact with the mascot in a way they can’t with the rest of the spirit squad.”