A Student Council project five years in the making came to fruition on May 1, with the premiere of Mr. Titan, a competition where nine seniors faced off in a pageant style event. The competition included three category winners and one overall winner. Senior Ava Weisheit oversaw and directed the show and Lydia Schmitt choreographed the dances. 

The categories, Mr. Congeniality, Best Dressed and Best Talent, were judged by Mellisa Miller, Tracey Bender, Eric Jones, Lynne Adams and last-minute replacement judge, Debbie Bales.

The show began with a coordinated dance to Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)” and a short introduction from the Mr. Titan contestants, which included: “The Southerner”’s own Camden Anslinger, Macade Chandler, Eliott Church, Matthew Sparks, Ethan Zilaik, Garett Reid, Garrett Heldt, Luke Foster and Vann Rose. 

Anslinger’s fun fact was, “I really like Batman.” Which, for plot reasons, is extremely important to include in this article. 

Next came the talent section, where the contestants showcased their talents, some more spectacular than others. Anslinger juggled three balls, Chandler made balloon animals and Ziliak performed karate. While Church flipped pancakes, Heldt cut a wig and Sparks jumped on a trampoline and caught a football. Chandler was announced as the winner of the Talent Category. 

Next was the beachwear section, where the contestants showcased their beachwear through various … strategies, such as, fake fishing, applying sunscreen, dancing provocatively or showing off a cool Batman towel and shirt. 

Finally, perhaps the most rousing performance for the audience, was the best dressed category. Contestants dressed up in their finest clothes and answered questions asked by the hosts, Student Council members sophomore Jonnie Dixon and senior Brooklyn Casburn. The Best Dressed Category included Ziliak giving a commercial of Gibson County, where he emphasized fields, cows fields, pigs and fields and Foster answering in absurd pageant fashion. 

The best received, however, was Anslinger. He walked out on the stage in Batman costume to “Something in the Way,” flowing cape and all. His question was, “What would you like to be when you grow up?” 

He answered, in typical Batman fashion. “When I grow up, I want to be a hero of Gibson County. I want to be a beacon of hope for this county. I want to make this county my Gotham. When I grow up, I want to be vengeance. I want to be the night. I want to be… Batman.”

Anslinger won this category. 

The show ended with the lip sync battle, which was a variety of songs “sung” by the contestants. This was some of the contestants favorite part of the show. 

“[My favorite part was] when Garret Heldt did the lip sync battle. His dance was very … exotic,” Sparks said. 

When the lip sync battle was finished, the category winners were announced. Heldt won Mr. Congeniality, Anslinger and Chandler won the other two, and the inaugural Mr. Titan winner  was announced: Vann Rose. 

“[Winning Mr. Titan] was pretty cool,” Rose said. “Considering my sister started the event, it was pretty cool to be the first king in our school’s history. It was exciting overall.” 

He was presented with a grand statue, and the category winners were given various do-dads as awards. 

Overall, after two weeks of morning practices, the show was a success for all the contestants and perhaps more importantly, Student Council. 

“With the organizers of this taking on such a large event… doing one hundred percent of the work themselves … with organization and logistics and things like that … to be student run and student organized and student accomplished—I don’t think I can be happier with the overall outcome,” Student Council adviser Ian Gamroth said. 

Students of future classes may look forward to seeing this show again, as it garnered a lot of money and attention for the Student Council. It will depend on the effort put into Gamroth’s “Student Run Student Council” by future Student Council officers. 

“I hope that it goes again,” Gamroth said. “I hope that this is something we do every year, but it is not something that I am going to force anybody to do. If they want to do this again next year, they are going to have to be the ones to put it together.”