Ever since Alex arrived at Enloe High School a couple of years ago, it was clear that the school spirit was strong with this newly hatched Eagle.
Anyone who has followed his story knows full well that he has always had a strong sense of belonging to his school. Indeed, he was so beloved by pretty much anyone working at or attending Washington Elementary School for the many years he was there that he was their unofficial “Mayor of Washington”.
When he moved on to Daniels Middle School (now renamed Oberlin Middle School), his ability to charm and “press the flesh” that he’d perfected at Washington remained on full display. I also have no doubts that the faculty of Washington Elementary were in mourning that they’d lost their “mayor” and I’ve no doubt that even when they found his successor that the poor kid would have one heck of a time living up to the outsized shadow Alex had left behind.
So it wasn’t much of a surprise that he’d really enjoy sporting events at The Nest whilst Nicholas was playing and marching with the band.
That was when his eagle eye spied their mascot in action and he was all over the idea of one day wearing that costume during a game.
That began a journey of discovery of making enquiries on how to make his mascot dreams coming true and how to ensure he’d be able to safely navigate the stadium whilst in costume. Just when it seemed we might well have figured it out, the COVID-19 pandemic came along and binned in-person events. Then we’d find ourselves back at square one and have to try to find a way for him to don the costume.
It took three years and surviving the pandemic lockdowns but I’m happy to say that during Enloe’s home fixture against Cardinal Gibbons, the stars were aligned thanks to Coach Clark and Enloe’s Athletic Director Womble and Alex had a big surprise waiting for him in the room below the press box as we entered the stadium.
A huge duffle bag containing Eddie the Eagle’s costume!
As you can imagine, he was well beyond being merely “over the moon”. As in even further than the recent Artemis I mission that flew well past the lunar surface!
I’m sure you’d find that hard to imagine given the smile on his face when he saw the eagle’s head was actually wider than the tips of his ears. I have no idea how he physically pulled it off but there you are.
It took a bit of experimenting to figure out how to make the costume work with his splints and we ultimately ended up ditching the lower half of the costume in favour of the eagle’s head and what is essentially a cloak covering most of him.
Actually, I have to say the result was a more hip and modern mascot and Alex really made the look work.
All of that was well and good but he was going to need someone to help him overcome the lack of visibility whilst in costume and that is where the true hero of this story comes to the rescue as I was going to be in the booth helping run the scoreboard and doing the announcements and then rocking the Nikon between those activities to capture the pictures of the team in action.
Enter Mrs Pleasant (née Andrews) who was (and honestly still is!) one of our favourite fourth grade teachers whilst our kids were at Washington Elementary School. Her daughter Miss Naomi (#2) along with Miss Kanah (#13) and Katie have managed to stay in touch through the years and various schools and sporting endeavours and have been teammates on Enloe’s Women’s Lacrosse team for the past two seasons.
Mrs Pleasant volunteered to help Alex get suited up close to game time and then make sure he’d get where he needed to be safely and stayed with him the entire game whilst I was in the booth.
Without her stepping up to really make Alex’s day special, Enloe’s #1 Women’s Lacrosse fan would probably still be waiting to spread his wings and shake those tail feathers.
That was a gift of kindness well beyond my ability to find the words to properly express how thankful we are that she looked after him on this day. There’s not enough money in the Two Worlds that can come close to matching the worth of the positive impact a teacher who truly cares about a student to give so much of herself so that Alex will have a memory he will truly never forget.
Mrs Pleasant is one of the really special teachers and has been these many years that we’ve known her and here is hoping she has many more years of rocking the awesome!
The team has one final home game in Len Bauer stadium this season and hopefully we can get him back into the costume and really let him have some fun with it.
