Conclusion of the Mascot Olympics

Weeks passed and the Cougars continued playing football games that were won and lost. Yet somehow, THE cougar continued to maintain the point lead throughout 8 weeks. I was ecstatic to know that I could possibly win these Olympics.

Upon the nearing of week 9 of the regular season, I was informed that I had won the Mascot Olympics. Mr. Arons had informed me over the phone that I did win this competition and that they would like to have me come to the studio to help the sports anchors broadcast the week 9 Friday night football highlights. I quickly agreed to this offer as I had always wanted to see what the opposite side of the news camera looked like.

However, the sports broadcast always took place at 10 p.m., which was just minutes after the end of most of our games. I didn’t know if this would give me enough time to get to KGAN, but I still took my truck down to Kingston before the Kennedy v. Dubuque Walhert game.

We won the game, as I have mentioned in the post below this one, and I quickly got ready for the broadcast in the locker rooms of Kingston. I drove down to the studio at 10:12 p.m. just a few seconds before they had planned for me to go on. A studio manager helped me get my stuff on as we ran into the KGAN studio.

This was my first time live and it is more than fair to say that I was a little bit nervous. Arons presented me with a gold medal for winning the Mascot Olympics and then I helped the two other sports anchors finish the Friday night football highlights.

I really had a tremendous time being the mascot, and I was glad that I could represent my school in this way. As I reflect upon it now I can’t believe that I won this event, and even better yet had such a great time doing it.

(Just a note: this will be my job after highschool- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgdbatwWUNQ )

Cougar Football- Week 9

The Cougars beat Dubuque Walhert 27-7 in their last regular season game. The game was played in rain that lasted most of the night. This game was Senior night and was also the last regular season game of the 2008 season. We ended our season with the record of 6-3, which places us into substate. We have shown great tenacity as a team as we didn’t let the three game losing streak in the middle of the season damper our spirits, but instead went on to win every single game after that.

The Cougars will play Xavier at their home stadium, which will give Kennedy a much desired rematch of our number 1 rivals. The Battle for 42nd Street will be replayed. My team mates and I are greatly looking forward to another chance of playing our down-the street rivals. As they only beat Kennedy last name after breaking a few big plays, and a missed scoring opportunity on defense, which 7 yards from the goal line separated us from the win. We also have Royce Bell back as our starting running back, after he had missed the first five games of the season.

We have already had two practices (Saturday and Sunday) and I’m in good faith of knowing that there isn’t one player on my team that can’t wait to beat Xavier. Not only are we playing for pride and revenge, but we are playing for the Street and for our own grab as the Iowa 4A State Champions. The Kennedy Cougars are going to play a night of football that is so physical that no one will have ever seen the likes of it. Our coaches have told us that they know that we need no extrinsic motivation for this game, because this battle is ours, 42nd STREET IS OURS!

Mascot Olympics

I'm the cougar mascot at Kennedy. I've attented many sporting events and represented my school not as a player or as a mere fan, but as the mascot. I love being in the cougar suit because it allows me to become a completely new person and I can choose to act in almost manner I please. All it takes is a big cougar head and some fur and a person can instantly become the life (and comedy) of any event.

Last summer I was asked to represent my school yet again. However this was vastly different from any other time I've been asked, as now I was to take place in the actual event instead of on the sideline. I was called to arms to serve and represent my school in the 1st Annual Mascot Olympics.

As I drove down to Kingston I was fairly confident that I wouldn't complete fail for my school as I had become vaguely familar with becoming the cougar. I was the first person to arrive at the ancient stadium and I didn't want to yet get in my suit of fur as the thermometer was nearing 95 degrees. At that point I knew this competetion was going to become brutal fast, as when someone gets in the cougar its at least 10 degrees warmer then it is outside of it.

Our judges, the Kernel's and Roughrider's mascot, soon showed up. Arons of KGAN, ran these olympics and soon all of the mascots, including me, had performed nine events. We were scored on all of these events and the mascot witht the highest average score won.

Weeks passed, and one out of the nine events were shown during football highlights on KGAN.

Cougar Football- Week 8

Another important topic on this blog will be that of sports, more specifically in honor of the season, football. I’ve been playing tackle football since elementary, and it continues to play a hugely significant role in my life, I work year round playing the sport, practicing for it, and conditioning and strengthening my body for it. I hope to be able to fund a large portion of my college tuition, by playing the sport for my after- high school institution.
Today (Friday October 17th), I’m merely hours away from my team’s eighth game of the season. We will be playing football at Dubuque Hempstead’s Lazell Stadium. This will be the farthest away I’ve ever travelled to play ball, but I need to train myself to the fact of not being effected by traveling if I’m to play any college football. If we win tonight we will be 5-3, which guarantees the Cougars of a winning regular season, a major accomplishment in the Mississippi Valley Conference. This also will insure Kennedy’s spot in substate, and with a win today and next Friday it will give us a favorable advantage for this upcoming substate game.
Dubuque Hempstead has a “Division 1” runningback who has already signed on for Iowa State. They are a good football team, who offensively runs the “wing-t” formation as their standard. On the other hand, Kennedy has one of the best defenses in the league, and our offense is rapidly improving game by game. (This post will be updated after the game.)

On Friday night the Cougars came to play some ball. We spoiled the Hempstead Mustang’s homecoming with a 21- 12 win. We dominated Dubuque’s offense and held them to 69 yards for the entire game. We continue to vastly improve offensively, and had great success with the running and pass game. The Kennedy Cougars have a home game at Kingston next week againist Dubuque Walhert, it should be another great game.

Hometown Trapping

Earlier in my trapping and hunting career I was limited to my parent’s driving me down “home” over Thanksgiving holiday, as it is a 90 minute drive and I had not yet my driving license. Whereupon reaching my hunting grounds I had access to an old beater farm truck or a quad with which I used both to get the required mobility to be successful. In accordance with this, ever since I was a little boy I’ve been wishing and working so as I can get my own truck that I can take hunting and trapping when I can legally drive. My hard work persisted and now I’m driving a four-wheel drive Chevy Silverado short-bed truck, the ultimate outdoorsmen vehicle (at least in my own biased opinion).
Now, I finally don’t have to rely on my parents to get south. I have the freedom to go hunting and trapping every weekend now during season and still including Thanksgiving break. The only thing that separates me now is the 90 minute drive to my grandparents, as this quickly becomes an expensive endeavor.
Luckily, I have come up with a solution that will help me curb this potentially high bill for gas, and that is to do some trapping around my home when I’m not chasing wild game in Mahaska. This is the first year that this great opportunity has been made available to me because of my Silverado. Trapping around home I think and hope will provide me with some of the best trapping that I will ever get to experience. As the fur around my home is an untapped resource, that hasn’t been pursued in many decades, this meaning that there should be a vast amount of critters.
I hope to be able to trap several bridge crossings and some public hunting grounds, in which I have scouted during this pre-season for sign of furbearers. This scouting has been a success and I’m greatly looking forward to laying some steel in these new locations. However, as I will be trapping outside of a major urban area I realize that I might face some trap and fur theft because of the surrounding large population of people. This will make it critical for me to check my traps in the cover of darkness (well before sunrise), when it will be very difficult for people to see me checking traps.
If I execute this plan of trapping around my home with good order I think that I could make some good profits and put some spending money in my pocket, but most importantly this will give me more opportunities to do what I love doing. I’m greatly looking forward to the opening of the season as this will be a great change in the monotonous school day, a boy getting to check fur-laden traps before the 8:00 am school bell rings.

Hunting and Trapping Introduction

Every year I make my annual pilgrimage down to Mahaska County to trap and hunt until my heart’s content (and my muscles ability to continue these extremely rigorous activities). My grandfather and several other of my relatives have either a farm or a property in Mahaska, in which permits a lot of acres of territory to hunt and trap. Ever since kindergarten over the Thanksgiving holiday I pursue to harvest a multitude of species that all are united by the fact that they are furbearing. These furbearing critters more specifically include ‘coons (raccoons), muskrats, minks, beaver, coyote, fox, and occasionally the odd ‘possum. As these creatures are harvested for their furs they are worth, a usually meager, ransom, which has many times allowed me to at least break even with the high cost of expenses that my hobby entails.
There is something more than an escape from school or a few dollars earned that motivates me to go down south every year, and I’m not exactly sure what that is. On the other hand I don’t think I’m supposed to know and rather this mysterious phenomenon that occurs between man, nature and beast should be left undiscovered, but yet loved and revered. I know that I’ve been hooked for life by hunting and trapping and I want to share my passion in this blog and describe some of the picturesque details that I’ve experienced while out in the woods or down in the river bottoms of the North Skunk.
Trapping and hunting has forever changed my life and has made me into the man that I am today and want to be tommorow. It has given me a great appreciation and knowledge of nature, which I strongly believe is a fundamental element of life that each man must experience at some point so as they will come to respect and understand the amazing environment that surrounds them while they waste their lives in the “cement jungles”. Also, trapping and hunting teaches us many admiral traits that make us better humans. It strengthens both our mental and physical stamina as we must outfox the fox in its natural habitat, teaching us to be clever, observant, patient, and understanding. I also believe there is something spiritual when we pit ourselves as a lone human against nature and try to overcome it. From all of this, the outdoors, which largely includes hunting and trapping, are going to be a main focus on this blog as my love for it is quite evident in the above text and in my future posts.

Welcome to the Hunt

This is a blog of my life. What interests me, what I think about, and what I'm supposed to be doing here on this Earth. Feel free to take a timid toe dip or a plunge into the deep- end of my mind. Now lets get going, because its a beautiful day to go chase down the great hunter, Cougar, that prowls in all of our thoughts and minds.