It’s campaign season at Texas A&M and everyone knows it.
Junior yell leader candidates Mark Womack, a political science major, and Kyle Womack, a history major, just finished their 24-hour yell practice with a complete set of yells every 30 minutes from one of the brothers.
Sophomore Danny Valdee, a communication and political science double major, said he loves the concept.
“It really shows what a yell leader has to be by simply yelling,” Valdee said.
Mark, a political science major, said the event was inspired by a non-reg. yell leader – known simply as Buck. Buck designed an event for his campaign where he did a full yell practice every hour on the hour, so the Womack twins put their own spin on it.
“Since there are two of us, it wouldn’t be for us to just do one yell every hour, so every hour on the hour I’m doing a full yell and every half hour, my brother is doing the same thing,” Mark said. “It’s pretty much Womack yells, a few minutes, Womack yells, a few minutes, Womack yells; no sleep, no stopping, no skipping.”
At the end of their 24-hour yell practice, the Womack twins unveiled a secret: they were only half-way done. In an effort to be even more “redass,” the twins are doing a second full day of yells. A 48-hour yell practice.
Sophomore aerospace engineering major Josh Rock Stone is doing a similar event where he will be doing 2011 yells over a period of 33 hours.
“I’ve always believed that members of the Corps of Cadets, being Keepers of the Spirit, have had the privilege of being seen as prime candidates for yell leaders,” Stone said, “so in order to prove my dedication to Texas A&M and the 12th man, I’ve decided to do 2011 yells to show the effort I am willing to put forth to represent this University.”
Sophomore Jonathan Nguyen, a general studies major, is taking the same concept and applying it to the physical aspect. Nguyen has been working on sets of 111 pushups that will add up to 2011 and be completed by Saturday before Big Event.
“I still have over a thousand to do,” Nguyen said, “but for A&M, I’ll finish them by the Big Event Saturday.”
Junior Daniel Magallanes, an industrial engineering major, has been camping out in front of Hart Hall since Sunday evening in a tent with his name and encouragements from supporters written on the sides, and he plans to stay in the tent until campaigning is over.
“A reason why I am camping out is because I want to show others my passion and commitment with this campaign and with the yell leader position and I want to share that with actions rather than words,” Magallanes said.