{"id":65029,"date":"2020-04-12T21:41:54","date_gmt":"2020-04-13T03:41:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/youngs-sudden-sayonara-to-skyler-the-skyhawk\/"},"modified":"2020-04-13T03:41:54","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T03:41:54","slug":"youngs-sudden-sayonara-to-skyler-the-skyhawk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/youngs-sudden-sayonara-to-skyler-the-skyhawk\/","title":{"rendered":"Young\u2019s sudden sayonara to Skyler the Skyhawk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"James
James Young of Bayfield has been Skyler the Fort Lewis College Skyhawk for the past four years. Now a senior, Young had to turn back in the mascot suit when the new coronavirus pandemic shut down schools and sports for the remainder of the school year.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

One last cheer. One more hug from a young fan. One final wave to the crowd. James Young\u2019s last hurrah as Skyler, the Fort Lewis College Skyhawks mascot, was anything but ceremonious.<\/p>\n

For four years, James Young of Bayfield, a history major at FLC, worked to turn Skyler into the face of FLC<\/a>. From football and basketball games to various school and town functions, Young took an inconsistent school image and made it synonymous with the quirky, humble NCAA Division II college tucked into the geographically isolated town of Durango in Southwest Colorado.<\/p>\n

So when the new coronavirus pandemic swept through the United States and shut down the remainder of NCAA spring sports prematurely March 13<\/a>, so, too, came the end of Young\u2019s term as Skyler.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was definitely a shock,\u201d Young said. \u201cIt is one of those moments where you think you are prepared for something to end, you think you\u2019re ready for it, but then it catches you completely by surprise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I found out the rest of school classes were going online because of COVID-19, I hadn\u2019t yet cleaned out Skyler\u2019s locker. The realization of having to do that and turning in the suit, I wasn\u2019t prepared for how it would affect me emotionally to all of a sudden have to do all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Young was celebrated during basketball senior night Feb. 22, as he received a strong ovation from the nearly 1,000 fans in attendance inside Whalen Gymnasium. It was inside Whalen where Young found trademark moves for Skyler, from running the players out onto the field with a giant flag, often reading from the pages of The Durango Herald<\/em> while seated at half court during away team introductions, to gliding around the court effortlessly on a longboard during timeouts.<\/p>\n

\"James
James Young made riding a longboard during basketball games a trademark move of the Fort Lewis College mascot, Skyler.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Skyler\u2019s last dance came March 7 at a home softball game, a 4-3 win for the Skyhawks against first-place Colorado Christian University. FLC earned a split in the four-game series against the Cougars, including a 3-1 walk-off win in the opener behind a McKenna Hefley home run. In the weekend finale, FLC erased a 3-0 deficit with four runs in its final two innings at the plate.<\/p>\n

Young said he will remember those final games fondly.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my best memory from this entire year,\u201d he said. \u201cSeeing Hefley hit a walk-off homer to win a game, to see the emotion on her face and that of her teammates, it was incredible. The fans who were there, they were great. In past years, I don\u2019t know if that team would\u2019ve come through and done the same thing. But they pulled it out, and I was so proud of that team and being able to watch their comeback wins was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four years earlier, Young first picked up the Skyler suit when nobody else was available to wear it for a home football game. After he had seen Skyler perform one-game earlier, the 2013 Bayfield High School graduate was confused as to why the mascot was gone. He asked to wear it, and the role has been his ever since that 2016 game.<\/p>\n

\"Skyler,
Skyler, the Fort Lewis College Skyhawks mascot, leads the men\u2019s basketball team out on to the court during a home basketball game in 2019.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

FLC ordered a new Skyler suit in 2018 because of the condition of the old suit and Young\u2019s willingness to not only attend games but a litany of school functions. Young launched social media pages on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a> for Skyler. He so embodied the role that FLC assistant athletic director Jason Flores said he often would sign his text messages with \u201cSkyler,\u201d written at the bottom. The FLC athletics department announced this week it would conduct a virtual version of its postseason awards ceremony and has named the event the \u201cSkylers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSkyler is Fort Lewis\u201d Flores said in a Dec. 30 article in The Herald<\/em>. \u201cAll of the kids see him and know he\u2019s Skyler the Skyhawk. Kids here grow up around it, and my own daughter has gone from running away any time she sees him to now asking every time we are on our way to the game if Skyler is going to be there.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does a lot for the school and especially more since (President Tom) Stritikus has been here. He\u2019s awesome and does it for the love of doing it. It\u2019s going to be really hard to find someone as committed as (Young) once he graduates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stritikus reached out to Skyler on Twitter and said the two would reunite to film one more promotional video together before Young departs the character for good.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat meant a lot. It made me realize that my role as Skyler, even though sports are done and the students are at home learning online, it doesn\u2019t mean the character goes away,\u201d he said. \u201cSkyler isn\u2019t done being Skyler. For the president to get in touch made me realize how much a part of Fort Lewis he thinks Skyler is. Whoever takes over after I leave, Skyler and Fort Lewis will continue to go hand-in-hand. I have a lot of gratitude for our president and am thankful he was willing to let me be part of his organization and college.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, Young will finish up classes online. He said he feels online classes, while still efficient enough to get lessons accomplished, do not provide the connection to classmates and professors paramount to higher education.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big part of the college experience is the moments you have of discussion in class with your classmates and professors,\u201d he said. \u201cWithout that, you\u2019re left only with your own personal opinions and are not exposed to other viewpoints. It harms the process. If you are not having your mind opened through those conversations, you are not getting the full lesson.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there is a graduation ceremony held sometime at a later date this summer or next fall, Young said he would attend. Whether or not he wears the Skyler outfit one more time, that is unknown.<\/p>\n

\u201cPart of what we do in colleges is walk across the stage and get that little piece of paper that says you did it,\u201d he said. \u201cEventually, we are going to do that. Whether it\u2019s in the summer, the fall, whenever it is, I am willing to wait until whenever to get that piece of paper handed to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like any athlete \u2013 Young received a small scholarship and was a member of the cheer squad for a few seasons \u2013 Young said it was hard to close his locker for the final time. He said the interactions with the fans, players, coaches and even the opposing players are something he will remember forever.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt becomes a bit part of your identity. Having that unceremoniously ripped away like it was for everybody, it hurt a lot more than I thought it was going to,\u201d he said. \u201cSkyler will always have a special place in my heart.\u201d<\/p>\n

jlivingston@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Student mascot doesn\u2019t get goodbye to Fort Lewis College fans he had hoped<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65030,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[992,132,29,2343],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-65029","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-college-sports","tag-fort-lewis-college","tag-newsletter","tag-sports-group"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65029","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65030"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65029"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=65029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}