2022 Best In-Game Routine or Skit Award Winner
2022 Best Video Short Award Winner
2023 Best In-Game Routine or Skit Award Winner
2023 Best Video Short Award Winner
Benjamin Beaver is the proud mascot of Beaver Dam High School in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, home of the Golden Beavers. Beaver Dam is a small city of roughly 16,000 residents in Dodge County, about 60 miles northeast of Madison, and its high school has a strong athletic tradition anchored by a community that shows up for its teams. Benjamin has become a central figure in that culture, not just at football and basketball games, but across the entire athletic program. He earned an impressive four Mascot Hall of Fame awards across 2022 and 2023: the 2022 Best In-Game Routine or Skit Award (High School category), the 2022 Best Video Short Award (High School category), the 2023 Best In-Game Routine or Skit Award (High School category), and the 2023 Best Video Short Award (High School category). Four awards in two years is the kind of consistency that makes other high school mascots reconsider their career choices.
Showing Up for All 21 Sports
One of the most remarkable aspects of Benjamin’s program is its scope. Benjamin Beaver has made at least one appearance with every single one of Beaver Dam High School’s 21 athletic teams — including sports where mascot appearances are virtually unheard of: golf, track, tennis, swimming, bowling, and trap shooting. He even ran hurdles as part of a crowd entertainment routine, which is either very brave or very reckless, depending on your perspective. Possibly both.
The Speedy Suspect
Benjamin’s 2023 in-game skit award was earned with a bit of pure crowd-pleasing theater. Working alongside the school’s security staff, Benjamin and Officer Tony Karel performed a “speedy suspect” chase skit during a timeout, using props and playful interaction to draw a rousing response from the student section without missing a beat in the game. The key to Benjamin’s in-game work is that it enhances the atmosphere rather than distracting from it, a balance that is harder to strike than it looks.
Trick Shots and Championship Energy
For his short-form video work, Benjamin is featured prominently at Beaver Dam High School basketball games, a program with a serious pedigree, including a girls’ team that won three consecutive State Championships from 2017 to 2019. Benjamin leads the team onto the floor with his flag and delivers halftime trick shot performances for packed crowds in the school’s Field House, turning halftime from a bathroom break into a highlight.
Beavers are the largest rodents native to North America and are famously industrious, capable of felling trees and building dams with remarkable speed and precision. Benjamin Beaver apparently took notes, because his workload across 21 sports and four Hall of Fame awards is genuinely beaver-level productivity.
