Vote for the Best Mascot in Region 3
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Somerset High School was one of the first schools in the state of Kentucky to have a football program. The town of Somerset, Kentucky is known for its briar patches and rabbits. Somerset high school is home to the Briar Jumpers. But not just any briar jumper, Cecil the Briar Jumper. You will usually catching Cecil rocking Somerset high school's official colors, purlple and gold.
These are the only Silent Warriors in the country. Alabama School for the Deaf is known as "the home of the champions." More than 60% of the student body participates in some kind of organized sports. Their teams have competed in the international Deaf-Olympics and have won state and national championships in every major sport. The Silent Warriors compete against public schools around Alabama and schools for the deaf from across the nation.
Some schools opt for intimidating mascots. Then there’s Archbishop Chapelle. Former school president Beth Johnson used to tell new students the following about the school’s Chipmunks mascot: “The alert Chipmunk is perhaps the most cheerful and friendly animal in the countryside … Her arms are open wide to welcome everyone to her family.” The all-girls school adopted the mascot in 1964 through a student vote.
The town of Bolivar was named for Venezuelan military and political leader Simon Bolivar, who was critical in the fight for independence from Spain. But until the early 1950s, the school's nickname was the Tigers. In 1948, Presidents Romulo Gallagos and Harry S. Truman dedicated a statue of Bolivar to the town on the 137th year of Venezuelan independence. Three years later, students voted to change the nickname to honor him.
The word is that the Red Elephants name came from Everett Strupper, a local sports writer, in the mid 1930s. Once after watching Gainesville pull out a hard fought win, he wrote that Gainesville marched "up and down the field like a herd of red elephants." The name stuck, and became the official mascot.
Key West High School has been the home of the Conchs since 1906. A conch is the large shell of a sea-snail, and a giant replica of one can be found outside of the high school. Although not the only school located in beach town, Key West is the only school in the country with the Conchs as their mascot.
Ozark High School was originally the Ozark Bulldogs, with school colors of orange and black. In the early 1930's, the student body voted to adopt the Hillbilly as the mascot, and change the colors to purple and gold. There have been several versions of the Hillbilly mascot, but the most recent one is muscled up, shirtless, wears overralls, and carries a shotgun. Ozark stands by the acronym HPRD, Hillbilly Pride Runs Deep, which they use in many of their school spirit assemblies.
Founded in 1847 and once known as Belles (as in Southern Belles), St. Mary's became the turkeys in 1975. Two seniors - Lisa Morrow Morten and Crissy Garrett Haslam, had brothers who attended Memphis University School (all boys) and the student body unofficially changed the school mascot from an owl to a buzzard. The girls decided it would be a great idea to have an unofficial mascot for St. Mary's, too. So they went the humorous route, and rallied to change the mascot to Turkeys. It started as a joke and ended up as the St. Mary's mascot - and it has been embraced in a big way ever since - they've even created a turkey tango that has been caught on video.
Rock-a-chaw comes from an old Choctaw Indian word meaning devil grass and today is also known as sandbur (Cenchrus L.). Several species are common in the area, especially coastal sandbur. "Rock-a-chaw" was the name given to the hard, spiny, globose or oval bur of the plant. It is covered with stiff spines, which stick to fur and clothing and can be quite difficult to extract. The burs can also be quite painful when landed on such as during football games. They littered the playing fields and campus before these areas were tilled and seeded with grass. During sporting events, it was not uncommon for the students to do their best to remove the many burs from the playing fields where the prickly weeds grew in the sandy soil that is common for the Gulf Coast area. Sometimes students would drag blankets made of wool across the fields. Because the rock-a-chaws had small spikes, they clung to the wool. This aided in quicker removal of the rock-a-chaws from the playing fields.