By Ashley Walls
Sports Editor
Out of the 1300 students at Asbury, there are five people who are walking around campus right now with a secret. They are typical Asbury students during the day; they eat lunch in the cafeteria, are in your classes and may have just said ‘hey’ to you. But by night, they are the Asbury University mascot.
You may never know who these five individuals are, but sophomores Julia Chin and Alexa Goins are making sure you will see the mascot, Isaiah the Eagle (named after Isaiah 40:31), much more in the future. Through the mascot, Chin and Goins have plans to unite the student body – athletes and non-athletes alike.
Chin and Goins noticed that school spirit has been an issue with Asbury in the past, so they became actively involved in the Screamin’ Eagles committee, a committee they describe as designed to hire mascots, plan events and bring people to athletic events.
“We want people to support our athletics,” said Goins. “Our job is to bring the athletic side of campus and the non-athletic side of campus into one.”
“Everyday in the cafeteria you see the athletic teams sitting together in cliques,” said Chin, noting that the committee would like to see less of a divide. “We want people to go to games because they genuinely have pride in their school, not because of the free things handed out at games.”
For the time being, the mascot will be making appearances during soccer games. In the future, Chin and Goins plan to see the mascot at baseball and basketball games, volleyball matches and swim meets.
Chin says the committee has made a schedule of all the home meets and games for each sport. In addition, the committee plans to talk to athletes to see which games or matches are the most important.
“We are really excited for those who have shown interest in our committee and want to be a mascot,” said Chin. “It gives us hope that we can renew the spirit on this campus.”