Austin Rogers
Title:
Spike Squad
Major:
Mechanical Engineering
Year:
Class of 2024
Hometown:
Dalton, GA
Home games at the Sanford Stadium are a spectacular sight no matter what team you’re rooting for. But even with the 92,000 screaming fans, the Spike Squad, in their painted faces, wigs, and distinctive grey spikes, always manage to stand out. Among these members, the famed Georgia “G” Mario cap is a familiar sight for Bulldog fans and one that Austin Rogers wears with pride.
Austin joined the Spike Squad his freshman year at UGA and has participated every year since. He considers his time with UGA and the Spike Squad to be a privilege, as much fun as it is work.
Austin and the rest of the Spike Squad show up hours before the game starts to get their outfits ready and have their choice of seats. They spend the entire day sharing their unique brand of energy with the crowd and are often the last to leave.
“No matter what the outcome is, we don’t leave until the band has played the last song.”
However, the Spike Squad is more than colorful costumes and cheering from the sidelines. Over the last two years, the student organization has worked to extend their commitment beyond the football stadium into different types of community service.
“It was a lot of work but it solidified what I knew I wanted to do and my goals for the future.”
Austin Rogers
Spike Squad
Austin has been on the executive board for three years, first as the financial director and now as the president. Most of his time with the Spike Squad takes place, not on the field, but knee-deep in paperwork and emails. He is always working to organize new community service events and partnerships such as with Malcolm Mitchell’s child literacy organization, Read with Malcolm.
“I want our community efforts to become synonymous with the energy that we bring to games. There’s so much we can do and it’s so easy for us to reach out and help the people in our community.”
Austin is excited about the amount of service their group has managed to bring to the community, from reading to elementary-age children to promoting Extra Special People to holding auctions and raising awareness for Bulldogs Battling Breast Cancer.
In 2022, a UGA alumni who had been battling cancer asked the Spike Squad to help commemorate her last round of chemo. She wanted to make it into a celebration and, as a huge Dawgs fan, invited the Spike Squad to bring their energy to her Last Chemo Tailgate. Austin says that those are the moments that make this organization so worthwhile.
“There’s this public perception that we’re just going crazy at the games, but it’s all about the energy. We’re taking all that drive and using it to fuel the community.”
As if he isn’t busy enough, the mechanical engineering major is also the philanthropy chair for his fraternity, Theta Tau, the oldest and largest fraternity for engineers in the nation and is currently planning an event to host high school students at the Driftmier Engineering Center as well as an engineering career fair.
Austin’s interest in mechanical engineering sparked during his junior year of high school after he was selected for a month-long research project with the Governor's Honor's Program. During this highly competitive program, he co-authored a research paper on electromagnetic propulsion and the Hall effect.
