Rams strive for fun during volleyball title chase

Considering he is less than a foot tall, Carlos doesn't seem like he'd be much of a volleyball player.

And he isn't.

The strings that serve as his arms and legs don't allow him to stand, let alone withstand a blow from a spiked volleyball. His large head and small body make staying upright a challenge and, well, he is a dude on a girls team.

Still Carlos, the stuffed version of a stick figure cartoon, has overcome these obstacles to become a contributing member of the Scott City volleyball team this season as it has earned a second consecutive trip to the Class 2 final four in Kansas City, Mo.

Although they don't show it too often while the game is going on, fun and laughter are two of the Rams' biggest weapons and Carlos is an important piece of the arsenal.

Scott City senior Brooke Simpson shows off the team mascot, Carlos, who is taken to all matches. (Kit Doyle)

"He's just, when we're down, we can make jokes about him that puts a smile back on our face and we forget everything on the court," setter Katie Diebold said.

For the record, Carlos isn't his real name. As far as the players know, he didn't have one when they named him that this summer after a character in the movie "The Hangover."

Scott City coach Haley Jennings and middle blocker Brooke Simpson discovered him on the Internet last year and he became a hit with the whole team.

"There is a website that we found that had cartoons," Jennings said. "They were really funny, stupid little cartoons, so Brooke and I last year would look every day. They had a new cartoon every day and we would crack up because it was just like a little stick figure that would do funny things."

At the end of the school year, Jennings found a stuffed version of the character for sale on the site.

"We were cracking up, so I said I have to get one," Jennings said. "So I ordered him and he became Carlos, our mascot."

There is no end to the giggling and smiling when Carlos is discussed. He has his own headband, branded with his name, to match the rest of the team and a matching bracelet to go along with it. He is on the sideline and in the huddle during every game.

"We take him to every game and then when the game starts, we all slap his little stick hand or whatever you want to call it," Brooke Simpson said.

And there's more.

"Normally before the game, we'll put him in the middle and we'll all have to rub his head at least once," Diebold said.

He even has his own dance. When the players are feeling frustrated or find themselves struggling, it's Carlos who picks them up more often than not.

According to Diebold, to do the Carlos dance, the player bends one arm in front of them while placing the other arm, bent at the elbow, up in the air. One simultaneous snap with both hands and a quick declaration of "Carlos" out loud and the team's good spirits are restored.

They also dance before the game. Standing in a circle with their arms around one another, the players jump one way and then the other while reciting a phrase Brooke Simpson said was passed on to her and her teammates by upperclassmen during her freshman year. She doesn't know who or when it started, but she knows that it will continue to be passed along after she graduates.

"SC," the players start.

"SCH. Ahhh, kick butt," they finish, doing kicks of their own to finish their preparation.

Then when the players are finally on the floor, they find other ways to stay together.

Brooke Simpson estimates that she has four different handshakes and clapping sequences with different teammates and that there are a dozen or so variations spread throughout the roster.

"We all have something different with each person," she said. "It really just depends on who it is.

"I think it really keeps us pumped up out on the court. It keeps us bonded. It's just something fun we like to make up."

And fun is something that Brooke and her sister Mikah Simpson, an outside hitter for the Rams, specialize in.

Theirs is one of the more elaborate on-court handshakes.

"Well, it's like a section of a longer handshake we have -- it's a very long handshake and it makes everyone laugh," Mikah Simpson said.

"When we're walking through the kitchen passing each other, we'll break it out. We have little stuff that we do every day. In the hallway, we'll just slap and we know what we're doing but everyone else?" she said, her voice trailing and he face showing that others find their antics a bit confusing.

"We just brought it to volleyball to spice things up a little bit."

Of course, the Rams have some very serious goals set for themselves this weekend. Their focus is on a state title, but that doesn't mean they're about to stop having fun or that Carlos is staying home this time.

"We know when we need to be serious, but we always try to bring fun into it," Mikah Simpson said. "That's why we love the sport."