By Paige Ordway--Eagle Staff Writer
At almost every pep rally, sports game, or school event, students can find the Eagle mascot jumping and waving his wings to liven up the crowd. Although he is one of their own, few truly know the man behind the mask. Meet sophomore Hayden Jamison.
“I enjoy leading stuff. I have fun just having fun and doing chants and I think having something to do instead of just coming to school every day,” Jamison says. “Being involved the best you can is better than just living your day, day by day.”
Although Jamison is on the field as a mascot, he also started getting involved behind the scenes. After being a member of SCA in middle school, Jamison ran for SCA this year and is currently the secretary of the sophomore class.
“I just have fun bringing up ideas to better our school and have an impact instead of just sitting down and letting these things keep on happening,” Jamison states. “Yes, I will probably [serve as secretary] again next year and probably do Executive Board.”
With Jamison’s uplifting personality, he’s made strong connections among his friends, one being Adalie Woodford. Woodford and Jamison worked together through SCA to reportedly create a more positive and spirited environment in our school.
“Hayden has been one of my close friends since elementary school. He always brings his joy and spirit into the room he is in and is always there for anyone who might need it,” SCA Sophomore Class President Adalie Woodford comments. “Hayden is always ready to share his ideas and help anyone in any way he can.”
Jamison’s student leadership doesn’t end with SCA, however, as he’s also a Spirit Club officer. He began attending Spirit Club after being encouraged to do so by his teacher Marsha Lopez since they both reportedly hoped to return FCHS to the normalcy that once was before Covid.
"I first met Hayden when he took my ‘Intro to Teachers for Tomorrow’ class as a freshman, and he has always been such a joy to be around,” Marsha Lopez, teacher, cheer coach, and Spirit Club advisor, explains. “He's so personable and friendly, which makes him the perfect mascot! He has really stepped up as one of the officers in our Spirit Club this year and has displayed amazing leadership in planning different school events and organizing our student section. I have come to really rely on him to help me get things done!"
Even with all of this involvement, Jamison has found other ways to show his school spirit by cheering in the student section in the Eagle mascot costume before going out on the field as Guard and Defensive Tackle wearing 69 on the JV football team.
“This year I started with strength, [my first semester doing it was] last year in the spring semester and I just really found a drawing to that," Jamison recalls. "Coach Edwards said ‘You should come out to football’ and I did after school let out and there were so many people I was friends with from past years in classes and I had so much fun growing with my skill in football and everything. I've had [to watch football] film from 3:30 - 5, [play the JV game], and at 7 o’clock go put on the mascot.”
When off the field and out of the stands, Jamison is still involved in his community.
“I volunteer at a horse farm ... called Tactfully Teamed Therapeutic Horse-back Academy ... and help around there with feeding,” he says. “It's a therapeutic horse farm [that helps] disabled [children] all the way to 60-year-olds. I lead the horses around and help [people] mount and dismount the horses and throw hay.”
Being a leader and a role model for our school means Jamison tries to find ways to keep students and staff involved in our community. His peers reveal he's always proactive and makes changes where he thinks they're needed to keep our school spirit running at all times, but Jamison can't lead alone. He shares that he hopes others will take inspiration from him and get involved as well.
“Even if you give small input to those people that run the club that makes them think about what you said," Jamison shares. "We just had a spirit club meeting and I came up with spirit week day by day by day but people had so many ideas. They gave me such great ideas from the student input to have so I can change the spirit week for the better of the students.”