'A Ramily': Students working as Rameses reflect on their experiences

Getting closer to graduation at UNC brings warmer weather and exams, but it also marks the unmasking and recruiting of everyone’s favorite mascot, Rameses. 

Mascot Team Captain and lifelong UNC fan Paige Kenerly was one of the seniors revealed this year, among fellow mascots, Gabby Gazaille, Jeb Bryson and Alex Henson.

Kenerly tried out for the role the first week of her first year. Since then, she’s traveled across the country under the mask secretly from March Madness games to 5Ks multiple towns over. 

“It was difficult, but also kind of fun to have a double life,” Kenerly said. 

Throughout their time in the role, portrayers of Rameses and Rameses Junior have to keep their identities anonymous, even from close friends. 

“I’ve taken so many pictures and given so many high fives to my professors and classmates and friends and people I'm in clubs with,” Kenerly said. “I stop myself from laughing, and now it's super fun to talk about it with them, like ‘Oh my gosh, you posted a picture of us on your Instagram, and you had no idea.’” 

Despite working in the Dean E. Smith Center countless times, in front of thousands of people as Rameses, Kenerly said that walking out as herself for the first time was more nerve-wracking than expected. 

“We don't expect to get ‘thank yous’ and that sort of thing, because, that's the job, doing [it] for the love of UNC. So it is kind of jarring to all of a sudden have everybody know it's me,” Kenerly said. 

Outgoing seniors who have worked as Rameses or RJ are revealed at the end of their time in the role at UNC basketball games. 

Former Rameses from 2018 to 2022, Daniel Wood, was asked to stay on as the permanent director of the program and currently oversees the mascot team. 

“It takes a lot to work 400 events a year,” Wood said. “They're setting aside hours and hours of their day to go make other people happy. Even if it does have some really awesome perks and travel opportunities, it's a selfless job, and they deserve all the credit, and it really speaks to their character.”

The Rameses and RJs, former and current, spoke to the tight-knit nature of the small team throughout their time in the role. 

“It's been awesome. I mean, we call ourselves a 'Ramily,'” Kenerly said. 

These bonds last past graduation. Kenerly said that the mascot team honors former Rameses, Jason Ray, who passed away in a car accident in 2007, traveling to the NCAA tournament. The current mascots remember him, and represent the Jason Ray Foundation, by sewing JR patches on their jerseys. 

“It really just shows that it goes so much deeper than getting to work a UNC-Duke basketball game, you know? It really means so much to people,” Kenerly said. 

Rameses and RJ have set personalities, with Wood describing Rameses’ personality as loving to work out and RJ’s as a nephew personality. Each student portraying the mascots is still able to bring something new to the role. 

“Rameses would get fired up, he’d smack his head and get angry. That was something that I started, and I've seen continue on, but each year there's a performer starting a new type of variation that you'll see,” Wood said. 

The mascot team relies on a system of mentorship. In addition to Rameses’ characteristics being passed down through the years, so have the excuses to tell suspicious friends in the hopes of remaining anonymous.

“You have to kind of become a little bit of an expert at white lies,” former Rameses Matt Babb said. 

Despite the dodged tailgates and declined game invites from friends, Babb said there were also upsides to the anonymity. 

“I think I was my most authentic self when I was Rameses, because I wasn't bound by the things that we often [get] nervous or anxious about when it's us. When I was Rameses, I got to just be me,” Babb said.

Babb also spoke to the technicality of the role, the physical demand of wearing a hot suit getting up to 110 degrees during summer game days, as well as the attention to detail Rameses has to have during games. 

“You’ve got to know the game. You’ve got to know all the rules and the calls, and you’ve got to know the players and the things that are going on,” Babb said. “You have to be a superfan.”

Babb said it’s hard to choose a favorite memory in the suit, between Duke games, marathons and weddings, but his last football game sticks out to him.

“Just watching and being like, 'This is it,'” Babb said. “'This is what it's all about.' I just remember that moment so well.”

Interest Meetings for the next Rameses were hosted Thursday, March 20, and Monday, March 24 in Woollen Gym. 

At the meetings, Wood said he loves getting to share all of the fun moments that go into being Rameses, like traveling to Final Fours and doing commercial shoots, but also experiences like visiting a hospital or elementary school. 

“You might as well just go and try out or send an email and ask, because I did that on a whim, and that's completely altered my college experience, and that's what's made it to me,” Kenerly said. 

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