SPORTS
Too many thoughts about high school mascots
Part of my job in writing stories is doing a little research into opposing team’s mascots.
A peak behind the curtain, when referring to teams, it gets redundant to keep saying the school’s name over and over when referring to them. An easy way I break it up is switching between the school’s mascot and name.
It usually does not take a lot of effort to find any high school’s mascot. I use Max Preps as my first check. Only every now and then does some small private school does not have their mascot listed or I can’t tell from the logo. A school’s website is the next check and usually it’s plastered in the background somewhere on the athletics page.
For girl team’s, I learned to put “Lady” in front of any mascot name. Sometimes it is just that easy to put it front of the mascot name. For some mascots, it is not.
There are two schools in the Wichita Falls area that have the mascot “Bulls” with Graham and Bridgeport always being on the schedule for Bowie and Nocona in almost every sport. (Correction: Graham are the Steers)
Especially around these parts where people know better, I can’t just be lazy and put Lady Bulls. They don’t exist and someone would let me know.
Through further research, I learned Graham girl teams are called “Lady Blues” and at Bridgeport they go by the “Sissies.” Both names are interesting ways to get around this dilemma.
Speaking of things that don’t exist, with Chico being the “Dragons”, their mascot opens up a whole can of worms.
Who’s to say a lady bull doesn’t or can’t exist in fiction or mythology, though a quick Google search doesn’t bring up anything obvious in that realm.
I’ve had that question with Lindsay’s mascot, the “Knights.” While we’ve seen lady knights in medieval fantasy stories for decades, I’m pretty sure during actual days of traditional knights and lords, only men were allowed.
Technically, females have been knighted for more than 100 years, but besides putting “Dame” in their name it’s not like they don armor, swords, shields, etc. like we think of when we see knight.
Still, Lindsay calls its girl teams the Lady Knights so I have as well in print.
The most common form of mascot name in high school sports is an animal.
Of the eight school districts covered in The Bowie News coverage area, only Nocona’s is not some animal, but a type of person (Indian). Bears (Gold-Burg), longhorns (Forestburg) and panthers (Saint Jo), oh my. I want to pet a bulldog (Prairie Valley) and a jackrabbit (Bowie). Bellevue and Montague are both eagles.
A fun scenario every fan who has ever made a sign for a sporting event has been to imagine what would happen if the school’s mascots met for a confrontation.
The ones that are obviously one-sided are usual easy fodder for sign makers.
Some designs of mascots stand out from others, with school colors needing to play on things in unexpected ways or fierce designs for sometimes docile animals.
My favorite one I see sometimes, whenever one of my school’s play at their gym, is Springtown’s “Porcupine” mascot. The thing is so monstrous looking, it reminds me of the legendary Pokemon, Groudon.
Another unique one I remember seeing is the Grandview “Zebras.” Yes, you better believe the school colors are the colors of a zebra. Of course they keep the stripe pattern of a zebra on their uniform and football helmets and it’s only natural they run out of the mouth of the fiercest looking zebra head at games as well.
The only way my mascot knowledge grows is when my team’s play different schools, which is hard to do for some of them unless they make it far in the playoffs to play some teams that are hours drives away they would never play normally.
With the Nocona girl’s basketball team recently making it to the state tournament, a few new schools had mascots that made me do a double-take.
The Frost Polar Bears is the most perfectly named mascot for a school in the state. I know the town was named after Samuel R. Frost and not because it snows there anymore than more than the rest of the state, but you have to lean in on this opportunity and they did.
No other school in Texas could be the polar bears. It just would not work.
Not just that, they had a host of other options to go with that no other school could have gotten away with, but they went with the most apex, coolest predator in the artic climate.
The school colors being blue and white were just the icing on the cake.
It was unfortunate they completely went away from this winter theme at said playoff game when the student section dressed in the always fun “Hawaiian day” theme.
I almost put as much stock in that decision as to why Nocona beat the leis off of them in the game. Embrace what you are Frost.
Another unique mascot encountered came later during the state tournament. The Lady Indians played the Wellington Skyrockets. I’m sorry, what? Named after a firework? The logo looks more like just a rocket. Either way, that is different.
Even if you want to just zero in on the rocket in the name, Wellington is located in the panhandle, 543 miles and more than an eight hour drive from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.
Further research shows one person who was born, but not raised, in Wellington, John Aaron, did work at NASA as an engineer and is said to have played an important role in the Apollo 12 and 13 missions. Maybe that played a part.
Probably some other thing is the reason which 10 minutes of Google searching did not bring up. I just thought it was unique.
We would love to hear from our readers what school mascot names you have come across and why they stand out. Email me at sports@bowienewsonline.com or share it on our Facebook page.
A solid day was had by Montague county high school tracksters at the State Track and Field Meet May 16 in Austin.
Bellevue’s Mattie Broussard had a pair of second place finishes in both the 800-meter run with a time of 2:21.41 and the 3,200-meter run with a time of 11:31.33. Broussard also was 4th in the 1,600-meters with a time of 5:22.18.
Her teammate Brylie Hager was 9th in the 110-meter hurdles in 19.93.
Forestburg’s Brenna Briles was 4th in the triple jump with a 35’9 1’2” leap. Her teammate Jocelyn Rich was 4th in the pole vault with a 9’ leap.
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
Bowie had a pair of top four finishes at the State Track and Field Meet May 14.
Sophomore Brayden Willett made it onto the medal stand, finishing 3rd in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:17.89. Bowie junior Tyler Richey finished 4th in the pole vault after a 14’6” effort.
The top two finishers from Holliday, also in Bowie’s district, celebrated with him after he crossed the finish line.
“It was kind of surprising,” Willett said about Ryder and Noah Stroman embracing him in a celebratory hug. “They’re good guys, so it was kind of cool.”
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
This past week found your outdoor scribe doing some rather mundane things such as yard work, vegetable gardening and repairs around the old cabin. Oh, I also wrapped up a couple of magazine articles. I always enjoy sharing my adventures with all of you in this column but to be perfectly honest, not nearly as much as my ‘field work’ hunting and fishing which is an iatrical part of any good outdoor column. If you’re like me, you much prefer reading about an adventure that you can also partake.
I am far more comfortable telling you about an outdoor experience I had firsthand knowledge of rather than the reporting part of my job as an outdoor communicator. So, this week, I’d do a bit of ‘reporting’ and share some planned adventures I have scheduled for the next couple weeks. By the time you’re reading this, I will have already been in the woods in quest of a fat ‘eater’ hog and probably have some freshly caught blue catfish fillets in the freezer, details will follow in the next couple of weeks.
I’ll kick things off early in the week heading down to my friend Jeff Rice’s Buck and Bass Ranch located on the upper end of Lake Fork. Jeff produces our weekly TV show “A Sportsman’s Life” which airs on Carbon TV and YouTube. Our plan is to film a segment of our show on stalking wild hogs. It will be a challenge to capture the shot with all the thick grown spring vegetation. It could happen fast and require a fast shot. We will be breaking in my CVA Cascade scout rifle in 308 caliber. This short barrel little rifle is light and easy to handle in thick cover, ideal for this type of hunting. Our plan is to hit the woods during the last couple hours of daylight and ease along the trails, watching and especially listening for hogs. Wild porkers are vocal critters and it’s common to hear them before seeing them. We will play the wind and attempt to get downwind and then close the distance for a shot but you can never guess how a hog hunt will unfold. Wild pork or not, Jeff and I always have a great time together and I plan to bring a side of wild pork ribs already slow smoked and covered in brown sugar and BBQ sauce with a side of camp baked beans!
After a tasty dinner we plan to get a good night’s sleep and head out the next morning for a planned fishing trip with guide David Hanson at Lake Tawakoni. Both channel and blue catfish are on a very good bite right but it’s hard to pass up those snow white blue catfish fillets when the bite is good. David is, to my knowledge, the most veteran catfish guide on the lake and became friends close to a quarter-century ago when we first began fishing
together. The plan is to use freshy cut shad in shallow water and target eater size blues weighing between 2 and about 10 pounds but as every catfish angler knows, it’s always possible to connect with a big trophy size blue when fishing Tawakoni.
Next week, I plan to join my long-time friend J.C. McCollough on the Red River below the Texoma dam. I’ve been fishing and hunting with J.C. for many years and look forward to getting with him again. I would describe this to catching big catfish in a barrel but in this case the deep holes in the river are comprised of several acres. The water level in the river below Texoma are dictated by the water release at the dam by the Corp of Engineers. When there is a current in the river, fish move upstream to feed on baitfish coming through the dam. When the water recedes, they fish move into the deeper holes where baitfish also seek refuge from the falling water. Catching will be fast paced with the chance to connect with some big fish as well as limits of “eater” size fish. We’ll be rigging with big live gizzard shad fished weightless on a free line, using medium spinning gear. The bigger fish will often nail the frisky live shad and the fresh cut bait is a sure way to connect with lots of smaller fish. There is something very exciting about fishing big live baits on a slack line. One minute your bait will be darting around and you will occasionally feel it taking up slack and the next when a big blue catfish grabs the bait, the rod will bow and the fight will be on. There is usually no ‘setting the hook’, by the time you feel the fish, it will already be hooked and making a strong run to the nearest submerged brush. Your job will be to keep the drag set just enough to keep pressure on the fish but not so much as to cause the line to break.
J.C. uses his airboat to access these deeper holes because of the very shallow water. While it’s not impossible to portage a kayak or small boat in the river, it often requires a few miles travel to get to these deep holes, this is best accomplished by experienced kayakers with plenty of endurance. There was a time when I was game for this type fishing but I much prefer to do my river fishing these days from a boat designed to negotiate the shallow waters.
Squirrel season is underway in many of the east Texas counties and there’s some pretty good fox squirrel hunting here close to home in Kaufman county and I’ve been thinking about how tasty a big skillet of smothered squirrel with rice, gravy and biscuits would be. Bream are on the beds now and my friend Edgar Cotton invited me to come do some ‘perch jerking’ with him and his son David-it’s in the plans! Well, hopefully next week I will have a ‘sure nuff’ adventure of two to relate you you-I’m ready to get some relief from all this work around the homeplace! LC
You can contact Tawakoni/Fork catfish guide David Hanson at 902-268-7391. Contact J.C. McCollough at 580-372-0320.
Listen to Luke’s podcast, “Catfish Radio” just about everywhere podcast are found.
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