A mascot for all seasons

DEXTER – It already had been a lengthy Saturday for Quinn Dillon.

He played midfield for the Dexter boys soccer team that morning in a 2-1 victory over Deer Isle-Stonington.

Then, as he has done so often during the last four years, he changed personas and changed outfits. By afternoon he was the Dexter Tiger, trying to help the home fans look past the growing deficit their football team faced in its season opener against John Bapst of Bangor.

It was a tough sell by the third quarter, but the Tiger did his best. He played pass with a few of the fledgling footballers on hand behind one of the end zones, he rode a bike up and down the sidelines, and he shared time with some of the youngest kids in the crowd who were more interested in Tiger sightings than the action on the field of play.

“I’m just helping out, showing my school spirit, and expressing myself in a different way than I do when I’m on a team,” said Dillon, the 17-year-old son of Paul and Genie Dillon of Exeter.

The Dexter Tiger is arguably the best known of all the mascots who entertain crowds at high school football and basketball games in Eastern Maine, if not the state.

And that’s largely because of the personality inside the costume.

For Dillon is a regular student-athlete in many ways, competing in golf, tennis, basketball and soccer during his Dexter High days.

But he also has another side, as evidenced not only by the charisma that exudes through the Tiger outfit, but also by his musical tastes – he’s an accomplished bagpiper.

Introduced to the piano by his mother as a fourth-grader, he had the option of changing instruments a year later and chose the bagpipes.

“It’s a different way to express my creativity,” said Dillon, who spent time during the summer of 2005 in Glasgow, Scotland, studying at the National Piping Center and is part of the Maine St. Andrews Pipes and Drums band that performs throughout New England and Canada.

He also played the bagpipes during opening ceremonies at the recent Senior League World Series held in Bangor.

But it’s in a Tiger costume, not a kilt, where Dillon’s individuality is perhaps best expressed.

“My freshman year, I had e-mailed Mr. [Steve] Bell, who was the athletic director then and is now the principal, and said it’s too bad their Tiger outfit had been in the closet for so long, and that they only used it for big games. I told him I’d like to do something with it.”

And a legend of sorts was born.

So enthusiastic was Dillon about his new avocation that he eventually wore out the old Tiger costume, so the sports boosters club pitched in to buy a new one.

Dillon admits to pushing the mascotorial envelope from time to time, enough so that on occasion has drawn the chagrin of school officials and, during high school basketball tournament time, the Maine Principals’ Association.

“I’ve been warned,” he said.

But for Dillon it’s all in the name of self-expression and entertainment.

“I have no role model mascot,” said Dillon, a senior who hopes to start his own business one day. “I just see myself as a feisty mascot, but not so feisty that people think I’m a moron.

“I like to be able to go up to older people and have a little fun with them, and go up to young people and get them fired up, and then go up to the little kids and put a smile on their faces.”

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net