Job as Mascot Suits Him Fine

Maybe it was finding himself at an overnight cheerleading camp with 2,000 teenage girls, but Dean Aclan had an idea he was going to enjoy this mascot business right from the start.

“Oh my goodness!” said Aclan, a 15-year-old junior who wears the Celt costume at Crespi High athletic events. “There were only about 10 other guys around. I’m going there again next year!”

It’s a good thing Aclan is enthusiastic, for the rigors of his trade are many and the recognition virtually nonexistent.

Stuffed into his foam-and-wool costume, the 5-foot-5 Aclan drops weight faster than a hot-air balloon pilot trying to lift off.

“I weighed 165 pounds before I got this job and I weigh 150 now,” Aclan said. “There aren’t any air holes in the head so it’s hard to breathe and I can only see through the mustache.”

To combat dehydration, Aclan wears a water-pack on his back with a plastic drinking tube that curves over his shoulder.

“But by the time the fourth quarter comes I’m all out of water,” Aclan said. “You just have to deal with it.”

He also has to withstand the inevitable odor harbored by the four-year old costume.

“It stinks.” Aclan said. “Sometimes I spray Right-Guard or Binaca in there.”

Aclan was censured after his Celt debut this season, when he performed a Green Bay Packer-style leap into the stands at Pierce College. Crespi administrators asked that he remain grounded, and not make fun of referees.

In September, Aclan performed in costume with Crespi’s cheerleaders at the Rose Bowl during halftime of the UCLA-Tennessee game.

In February, the resident of Woodland Hills will be a dancer in the halftime show at the NFL Pro Bowl in Honolulu, without his Celt costume. That opportunity is a reward for winning his summer camp’s mascot performance competition.

“I think we even get to have lunch with some of the pro players,” Aclan said. “I can’t wait.”