Kreepy Kat

Girls soccer mascot is a creepy, vintage baby doll who is carried around by the team on home game days

She sits on the bench for every girls soccer game. She could be considered the team’s biggest fan. She advertises home games, provides moral support, and gets decked out in soccer gear. She is also a deformed baby doll.

    Sophomore Kendall Walton and junior Bethany Marteeny retold Kat’s origin story, starting with the 2014-15 team at the coast for a bonding trip. Marteeny, though she was not on the team at the time, said Coach Erik Ihde told the team, “‘Here’s $20, you can get whatever you want at this flea market.’”

    “Immediately they bought Kat,” Walton said. She cost $18, and the tradition she brought to the team was priceless.

    The doll makes an appearance at practices, games, in the hallways, on Instagram, and spends the night with the new players, too. This year, the team has established a tradition of passing Kat off to other players on the team at school, who take her to their classes on the day of a home game. Their idea is intended to draw attention and get more people to attend the games.

    “At West Albany, soccer isn’t the main sport,” Walton said. “Obviously people will turn their heads and say ‘Why do you have a creepy baby doll?’, and we’ll say ‘Hey, we have a home game tonight at seven so come support us!’”

    However, senior Logan Klein feels differently. “ I don’t wanna see that thing ever again. Looking at it was a bit disturbing.”

    The mascot, known formally as Kreepy Kat, gets dressed up by the team in different outfits. She lost an arm, but the team just writes it off as old age. The Instagram account for Kat is run by the seniors of the team. You can find it under @kreepy_kat, where her new looks get shown off along with team events. Anyone can tell that she’s not pleasant to look at, but she stands for tradition and friendship for the team.

    “This year we went to Black Butte at [junior] Annie Berry’s grandparents’ house. It was a really fun trip. We have Festivus. This year it was at five in the morning, and it’s just a bunch of fun games that we play. We do a lot of scavenger hunts, too. We have team dinner like twice a week,” said Marteeny. “I really like all the girls on the team. They’re super nice and we just get along really well. Of course, I love soccer, too, so it’s really nice to play the sport that I love with the people that I really like.”

    “I created a monster,” Ihde said. “Kat is part of the team–a hideous part of the team, but a part of the team nonetheless.”