POCATELLO — Benny the Bengal is headed to nationals.

    KaLee Kopp, director of marketing and promotions for Idaho State University’s Athletic Department, and a good friend of Benny’s, says the ISU mascot won his opportunity to compete at the national level during a regional competition in California last summer.

    “This was the first time we sent him to a competition,” Kopp said.

    Benny was up against several other university mascots last summer during the United Cheerleading Association’s regional competition, where ISU’s Cheer Squad and Bengal Dancers also competed, and took the top spot and an automatic bid to the national competition. That will be hosted in California as well on March 17 and 18.

    Kopp said Benny has developed into a larger part of the university’s branding during the past several years and, at the same time, he has developed his skills in entertaining the crowds at various ISU sporting events.

    But just how much better, and to what level Benny’s skills have grown, is something Kopp wanted to know.

    “I wanted to see how well he could compete with other school’s mascots,” she said. “I think he does really well here, but I wanted to see how he matched up nationally as far as entertainment value goes.”

    During the regional competition, those mascots competing were given some props, a little bit of music and asked to show the judges just what they can do with it all to entertain them. But for the national competition, Benny will be allowed to bring a few items of his own, whatever will fit on the airplane, that is.

    Even though he can bring his own props, Benny will still be under intense pressure to have a rather large impact with relatively little time.

    “It’s a 2-minute skit, and you have one minute to set up your props (before the skit), and one minute to break them down,” Kopp said. “You can bring music, but you can’t tumble, you can’t stunt in any way. You have to entertain the crowd without any words and no one can help you.”

    The competition will likely be pretty stiff, but Kopp feels Benny is up for the challenge. In fact, if you haven’t noticed, preparations for his big day have already begun.

    “People may start to notice there’s a bit of a new look to him,” Kopp said. “He just got done at the salon and his hair is pretty fluffy. It’s been about a week now.”

    Kopp also said ISU’s Cheer Squad and Bengal Dancers were invited to the UCA nationals competition next month and will be joining Benny in California.