With a flash, a spirited statewide competition has come to an end.

In the 2009 Mississippi Mascot Challenge, television viewers and online fans named Flash, the purple-caped mascot of the St. Aloysius Flashes, best in the state.

Inspired by the personality of junior Josh Williams, the St. Al mascot won the 10-week-long contest, which was sponsored by WJTV and Zaxby’s chicken restaurants.

He was announced as winner Friday night during St. Al’s football game after receiving about 76 percent of the 300,000 votes cast in the final round of the contest, said St. Al development director Patty Mekus.

The win brings a plaque, a lot of free chicken and bragging rights for the Vicksburg Catholic secondary school.

“We beat some big schools,” Mekus said, naming Vicksburg High’s Al the Gator, Northwest Rankin’s Cooper the Cougar, Madison Central’s Jake and Jill Jaguar and Pearl’s Pete the Pirate among the competitors.

Track coach and dean of students Mike Jones said one of the biggest rivals was fellow Catholic school St. Joseph in Madison, which entered Josephine the Bruin.

“We’re proud of him,” Jones said of Josh, who runs track for the coach during the spring. “All we gave him was a cape and a mask. He came up with the rest of it.”

The cape is purple, and the mask is a gold flash of lightning edged in purple, both made several years ago by Ellen McCaa, then a St. Al senior.

Josh added a gold St. Al T-shirt, purple shorts and purple knee-high socks.

“We had to find somebody with a good personality who was willing to do it,” Mekus said. Josh is known for being outgoing, she said, though he sees it a little differently.

“I’m just kind of crazy,” he said. “That’s why they asked me.”

In addition to the plaque and a day of chicken for the school, Josh might get a bit of cash from the contest’s sponsors to upgrade the costume if he wants.

Flash was a bit of an underdog in the competition until the final round, Mekus said.

St. Al has not had a mascot in years, and got one this year in response to the contest. “We haven’t had a mascot in such a long time. I wasn’t sure what to do,” Josh said. During football games and pep rallies, he settled on a lot of running with the cape and acting crazy, he said.

About 26 schools from around the state entered the contest, Mekus said. After four weeks of online voting, 12 mascots moved to round two.

Flash was number 12.

During the next three weeks, online voting narrowed the field to a final four. Flash came in second in that round, moving into the finals with Patriot Man from Jackson Prep, Pete the Pirate from Pearl High and Raider Man from Jackson Academy.

Flash made some commercials, Mekus said, including one shot in the break room at WJTV which showed him making coffee and sandwiches — speeded up, so it was all done “in a flash.”

Josh, 17, plans to continue as mascot in his senior year, and in the meantime hopes to learn some gymnastic and acrobatic moves to make the mascot even flashier.

In addition to being the Flash, Josh, the son of John and Lori Williams, runs cross country and track and plays chess and checkers. He’s an A and B student who hopes to attend Mississippi State University and major in chemical and mechanical engineering with a minor in electrical engineering. He also wants to be an officer in the U.S. Marine Corps.

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Contact Pamela Hitchins at phitchins@vicksburgpost.com