When people come to CCHS football games, they enjoy seeing Wiley the Wildcat on the sidelines, but not many fans really know the guy inside the costume.
So let’s take the wildcat head off of Wiley and get to know who he really is.
Juan Gonzalez is a senior at Calhoun City High School. He is the son of Elizabeth and Luis Torres and he is also the great mascot Wiley. Juan has been Wiley just this past year after being encouraged by his chorus teacher Meg Dennis to try out.
One of his favorite Wiley memories is from the Bruce game whenever he went and sat on the bench with some of the CC players and began to read the newspaper out of boredom from the game.
“They were so mad at me but I thought it was epic.” he says. He says his favorite thing about being Wiley is the interaction with the children at the games.
“I love seeing them start running up to me as soon as I walk out. I enjoy taking pictures with them and getting to give them high fives. It just gives me a good feeling inside whenever I see them smiling and laughing at me.”
He says he is definitely going to miss being Wiley once he goes off to college. Juan says that it has been a great and fun experience and he isn’t ready for it to be over yet.