Mascot auditions for Rowdy the Redhawk open to Southeast students

The most recognizable face at Southeast Missouri State University is one that students, faculty, staff and many others undoubtedly have seen many times, either on campus or at sporting events. It's a face that select few have had the opportunity to say they've performed behind, but we may never know who they are.

Rowdy the Redhawk was named Southeast's mascot in 2005 and has performed at hundreds of events since.

"There's a lot of them," Kent Phillips, coordinator of facilities and event management, said. "At every football game, every basketball game, Show Me Days, as many volleyball, gymnastic and soccer matches there are. We send them out to other sports, if possible. He gets called out to birthday parties and the career fair. A lot of departments on campus will call and ask for Rowdy. So as long as the students' schedule can work out, we'll send them."

Working around the schedules of students who perform as Rowdy is something Phillips would like to simplify, and that is why Phillips is looking to add new students to the team.

"We went through the process of tryouts," Phillips said. "We currently have two people that perform as Rowdy, we had one graduate in December, so we are looking to add to our team. We're trying to maybe even add more people because there are traditionally three students. But, with the workload of what Rowdy has, we'd kind of like to add to that."

The tryouts are what anyone might expect a mascot test to be like. Phillips said the audition lasts only about 30 minutes, but quite a bit happens in that time frame.

The student goes through the traditional sit down question-and-answer type talk, but after that is when the real fun starts.

The student then suits up in one of three Rowdy costumes and does his or her best to wow the interviewers. They are asked to go through some of the everyday activities Rowdy might encounter. Some of those include: walking around in the larger-than-average shoes by running up and down stairs or throwing a ball back and forth.

While simply being Rowdy might be incentive enough for a student to try out, there's some financial incentive as well in the form of a scholarship, which varies for each student year to year.

While working at sporting events or other get-togethers is all part of the fun, there is a chance that bigger appearances could be in Rowdy's future. Just recently, during Brad Paisley's January concert at the Show Me Center, Rowdy had the opportunity to go on stage with the country music star.

So, if students are interested in joining the famed Rowdy ranks, there's never a better time to apply.

"We're always looking, if someone was interested," Phillips said. "We really try not to turn anyone away because you can never have too much help. Especially if someone's interested who's enthusiastic, dependable, that's exactly what we're looking for. Lately, the Rowdys we've had now, they've been in the position for several years, so we're kind of in a turnaround frame right now."

Rowdy also is in the 2016 Mascot Challenge against 12 schools in the OVC. Fans of Southeast's mascot can vote once a day at OVCMascotChallenge.com.