Let’s try this again

South attempts to restart Mr. Patriot competition after last year’s cancellation.

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Benjamin Marsh-Parkway West Pathfinder

The 20 contestants in last year’s Mr. Longhorn competition at Parkway West pose for the crowd. At South High, Mr. Patriot was canceled last year for the first time.

Here at South High we have many annual events from the Student vs. Teacher Basketball Game to SouthTalks, to the Renaissance Assembly. One of our most widely attended events in years past has been Mr. Patriot.

But If you aren’t aware of what Mr. Patriot is, it has been an annual event at South High started back then-assistant principal Patrice Aitch back in 2003 where any club or sport who is interested in the event can choose a guy to represent their club in a talent show similar to a pageant. Clubs compete making jokes and showing off their club. There are multiple rounds one of which is a skit.

South High alumna Julia Rogers said she always enjoyed Mr. Patriot while she attended South High.

“Mr. Patriot when I attended South between 2011-2014 was always a very well attended event that me and my friends liked going to, and to hear that it was cancelled last year just because people didn’t know about it had me upset,” said Rogers.

Student body Vice President Asad Siddiqui, senior, said he knows Mr. Patriot has always been a popular event at South High, and he is planning to have Mr. Patriot successful this year to bounce back from last year’s cancelation. In fact, the event is still popular at West and Central. Last year those schools had more than 20 representatives participate in their Mr. Longhorn and Mr. PCH competitions.

Siddiqui responding with.

I wouldn’t say Mr.Patriot isn’t popular at South. I think that as long as we can get it off the ground then we usually have a pretty big interest from the school. At South there are definitely years where kids are more school spirited than other years, so we are not as consistent as other Parkway schools,” said Siddiqui.            

“The members of STUCO thought we should still push for this to happen. We just had to approach it differently this year than times before. For example before practices were held after school, but that lead to the issue of boys having to work/other commitments. Thus this year all practices will happen during Ac. Lab. In order to get it to happen we are doing a lot more outreach to the clubs, than just emails. As of now we have 11 boys signed up with hopes of at least six more,” said Siddiqui.

South High math teacher Rachel Allender is also involved in putting on Mr. Patriot this year.

“Mr. Patriot has a long standing tradition in the school, we hope it encourages others to get involved here at South. And Mr. Patriot is just a fun event to be a part of or watch the night of,” said Allender.

But with all of the supposive talk about Mr. Patriot happening, students like sophomore Cole Stanley don’t even know what the event is.  

“Who’s Mr. Patriot? Is he a guy I should be following on Instagram?” asked Stanley.

Whether you are going to attend Mr. Patriot or not, Mr. DECA, Justin Epperly, explained why he decided to participate in the event.

I wanted to participate in Mr. Patriot because I wanted to become more involved with the DECA club. After competing last year on the district and state level I really started to enjoy the people and the content of the club,” said Epperly.

Epperly added that he is worried that it will get canceled.

“I am a little worried but I think that this year if we get more people to participate the event will follow through,” said Epperly.

This encourages Siddiqui said he hopes to have the show go on and knows the impact it has on school spirit and that it is an annual event.

Mr. Patriot has been happening at South for 15 years and last year it just didn’t happen due to lack of interest. Just because we had one year where it didn’t happen, we knew we weren’t going to give up,” said Siddiqui.