Senior Fiorella Lara Montoya is the one behind the mask of our school’s best cheerleader, Lola the Bobcat. She’s been Lola since sophomore year, and officially revealed herself as our beloved mascot at the Blue & White Week Pep Rally. In the following Q&A, Fifi answers highly anticipated questions about her spirit-filled undercover identity.

Q: How did you become Lola the Bobcat? 

A: I was playing truth or dare during lunch, it was Chick-fil-a day late sophomore year. I don’t remember who dared me, but they said “I dare you to be Lola the Bobcat,” because someone dressed as Lola the Bobcat was in the grotto walking around. I emailed Ms. Martinez and she responded not even 30 seconds later.

Q: What was it like the first time you put on the costume?

A:  It was at the audition, and I was thinking, ‘How do people do stuff in this?’ It was bulky, so hot and furry in there, and it smelled really bad. It was exciting though, I was thinking about if I should tell people about this fun little secret.

Q: What is your favorite part of being Lola?

A: My favorite part is that nobody can say they were their school’s mascot. Out of the 800 girls in our school, I’m the mascot. I feel like it’s such a unique thing to have on your resume.

Q: What’s the most important quality someone should have to be a school mascot?

A: Definitely don’t be afraid of being judged. Ms. Martinez didn’t want people to know, and I thought that made sense. I feel like if people knew I would restrain myself from doing random dances and dance moves. I ended up telling people anyway, and I never cared what they thought. You can’t be scared of being judged. There’s always going to be someone who doesn’t like you, so you just need to be strong and overcome it.

Q: What did you do to prepare for Lola Palooza?

A: Honestly not enough. I graciously got beat by Nati Careaga’s mom, she deserves it so much. I just looked through my spotify and chose an upbeat song. I kind of looked at dance moms hip-hop numbers to get inspiration. I also looked at what I did in past pep-rallies and saw what people cheered at more, and thought that I should incorporate the audience.

Q: What are some challenges of being Lola?

A: The only thing I don’t like about being Lola is that during the pep-rallies I don’t get to be with my friends, because I have to entertain people the whole time.

Q: Do you rehearse what you’ll do at pep-rallies?

A: I don’t rehearse, although I do hydrate ahead of time a lot, being I almost fainted the first time.

Q: What is some advice you want to give the future Lola the Bobcat?

A: Honestly, make it more mysterious. Also what I was saying before, don’t be afraid of being judged because you’ll hold yourself back and then no-one will appreciate it. And make sure to be as sassy and fun as you can!