What’s the Weirdest Thing That’s Ever Happened To You in the Villanova Wildcat Suit?

And 6 more burning questions for Ted Zeta, captain of the Will D. Cat mascot team.

Photo by Jeff Fusco

Villanova Wildcat. Photo | Jeff Fusco

PERSON: Ted Zeta (a.k.a. Will D. Cat), 21

PLACE: The Pavilion, Villanova

THING: Getting ready for game time

Is the suit uncomfortable? It takes a while to get used to. It’s warm. You sweat a lot.

Is there more than one? We have two we cycle through.

I hope they clean them. Yes.

Are you the only mascot? This year we have six, but I’m the captain of the mascot team. We decided to do just one mascot per game this year. But one person is there out-of-suit, watching, as a precaution, in case something goes wrong.

Do other students know who the mascots are? At some schools, they do. We don’t. We try to keep it a secret.

This year’s team is really good. Think you’ll be cheering at the Final Four? Definitely. We’re really built on defense, and that’s what the Villanova basketball identity is.

What’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to you in-suit? At last year’s Syracuse game, we had a big upset. It was a big win, but I didn’t expect the crowd to pick me up and crowd-surf me. I was just trying to make my way to the court when everyone just picked me up.

First appeared in the March, 2014 issue of Philadelphia magazine.