Suzanne Stewart
Staff Writer
Pocahontas County has pride in its schools. It is Warrior Country; Eagle Country; Copperhead Country; Red Devil Country; and Timberwolf Country.
Last Monday, however, all that was set aside for it to be Mountaineer Country when West Virginia University’s Mountaineer mascot Cade Kincaid visited all five schools.
It was a busy day for Kincaid, who was whisked around the county to talk to students at each of the schools. He shared stories about his life as The Mountaineer, why he wanted to be the WVU mascot and how important it is to always show up – whether it be to school, to your job or for an event.
Kincaid is from Fayetteville and officially started his year as the mascot back in April. Since then, he has attended more than 200 events as The Mountaineer – all while also being a student at WVU.
“I’m traveling all over the state of West Virginia,” he said. “I’m going to schools, parades, festivals, event, just anything you can imagine. I’m still in school. I still go to class every day. I still have to make good grades.”
Of course, Kincaid also goes to games. All the games. Football, basketball, soccer, you name it.
For football season, Kincaid flies to away games with the team and spends his days on the field, keeping the energy high, shooting his musket when the team scores and doing copious amounts of push-ups – as long as the team is scoring.
When he is appearing as the Mountaineer, Kincaid is decked out in full buckskins, with a raccoon hat, his musket, a black powder horn and satchel for his essential items.
“I wear this every single day,” he said. “It’s extremely hot, so I sweat a lot. I only have one pair of buckskins, so if they get soaking wet in the rain, that’s what I’m wearing.
“Do you think this is a real raccoon?” he said of his hat. “It is a real raccoon. It used to be. Now it’s a hat.”
Kincaid said the most important thing about being the Mountaineer is showing up. He has a lot of events on his schedule, as well as his regular class schedule and no matter what is going on with him, he has to show up and be there for himself and everyone who depends on him.
“I do a lot of events,” he said. “There are days where I don’t want to drive; I don’t want to go here; I don’t want to go there. That’s the hardest part is just deciding I have to go.”
Kincaid said he felt the same when he was in school and knows all kids have days where they don’t want to go to school for whatever reason. Maybe they don’t feel good, they didn’t sleep well or they just aren’t motivated.
He said the important thing is to go and maybe, once you get there, it’s not as bad as you thought it might be. Also, there are people who rely on you to be there, like fellow students, best friends and the teachers.
“There are going to be times where you just have to show up to stuff whether you like it or not,” he said. “It’s an important thing you can do. I’m sure there are days your teachers don’t want to come to school.”
Kincaid said that teachers may have bad mornings too, but they show up because they know their students are relying on them.
When he doesn’t feel like showing up, Kincaid said he thinks about the people who are excited to meet him and that helps him get motivated to go to the event because he doesn’t want to let them down.
“So, if you don’t want to go to school, think about your teachers,” he said. “I’m sure a lot of you guys make your teachers’ day. They show up every single day just to make sure you guys are educated. To make sure you guys are safe and to make sure you guys are in a comfortable environment.
“It’s really important to them,” he added. “You are the most important thing to them.”
At the end of his presentation, Kincaid opened up to questions from the students and teachers. He told the story of becoming the Mountaineer and said it started with a job interview and included going up and down all the stairs at a basketball game.
He admitted it can be hard to do all those push-ups when the football team is having a good game day. He may get tired, but he loves every minute of it.
One student asked if he can do a backflip like his character in a video game. He said, no, and gave a little trade secret about mascots that are more agile like that.
“You see mascots all over the country doing stuff like backflips,” he said. “It’s because they take turns. They’re wearing big heads and outfits, so what they do is – they have one guy who will do the first quarter and then he’ll go in the locker room and they’ll send out a different guy. So, they are always fresh and ready to go.
“They’re not tired like I am,” he continued. “They’re not spending all day in the costume. They spend an hour and take turns.”
Kincaid said there is a second Mountaineer who helps with appearances, but they never work together at one event. At football games, Kincaid can spend up to eight hours performing, in his full gear, without much of a break.
Before leaving each school, Kincaid posed for pictures with the student body and left the students with a reminder that all they need do to succeed is show up.
