MaxPreps Mascot Mondays: Vermont high school mascots

Just as important as a school's name and its location is its mascot. Options abound, and some teams go with the commonplace while others go with the truly unique.

In Vermont, there are 73 schools with mascots listed in the MaxPreps database. Listed below are the Top 8 most popular mascot names in Vermont, the mascot names that only one school owns and other mascot facts/stats.

CAPITAL CONNECTION
Remember studying state capitals in school? If you do remember well, then you would know that Montpelier is Vermont's home to the state government. The kids at Montpelier High are the Solons, and that has a huge connection to the fact that they live right near the capitol building. Solon was a Greek lawmaker and way back Before Christ the lawmaker and poet tried to legislate against all types of decline (moral, economic, etc) in Athens. He is often credited with laying the foundations of Athenian democracy. But he's there only in name: The mascot logo is Screech the Owl.

QUAILS, OR A GUY NAMED BOB?
The mascot for Bellows Free Academy (St. Albans) can be because one of two things: Either they wanted to pay honor to the Northern Bobwhite (a quail) or they wanted to pay honor to a guy named Bob White. The answer can be either, depending on where you look. Our friend at Marc's Distinctive High School Mascot Collection states that they want to honor the bird, but a Wikipedia entry states that there was a longtime coach and athletic director named Bob White. Either way, it's one of the most unique mascot names in the country.

SEA MONSTERS, MAYBE. SEAHORSES, DEFINITELY
Lake Champlain has a special story attached to it, one regarding the "Lake Champlain Monster" swimming through the waters of the lake that creates the New York-Vermont border. The monster is rumored to be somewhat like a seahorse, and the kids at Burlington are proven to be just like Seahorses. According to an explanation on the school's website, the mascot name does not reference the monster. It's all about the land the school was built on. "The story goes that fossils of seahorses were found when the site of the former Burlington High School, now Edmunds Elementary/Middle Schools, was excavated in the late 1800’s. The fossils possibly dated back to over 12,000 years ago when glaciers began to melt in the region and what is now Lake Champlain was saltwater."

PRESIDENTIAL REFERENCE
Tucked in the middle of Vermont is a place that produced the 30th President of the United States of America, and that school wants you to know that. Black River (Ludlow) is where Calvin Coolidge comes from, though he attended Black River Academy, which was on a different site than the current school, according to a page on the school's website. Still, it's quite the claim to fame for such a small school in a sparsely populated area of the country. You will find seven other schools named the Presidents, but what you will not find is a school that does not have a particular president's name as part of the school, except for Black River.



NO HOLLYWOOD ATTACHMENTS WITH THE SLATERS
Let's first mention what they were not thinking when they named Fair Haven the Slaters. They are not named after actor Christian Slater, nor are they named for surfing legend Kelly Slater or "Saved by the Bell" character A.C. Slater, who was the jock on the show and played by Mario Lopez. Nope, this mascot name goes back to the history of Fair Haven, which is called the "Slate Center of the Nation." The slate quarries started in the mid-1800's and have continued to provide the economic lifeblood of the town located just on the border with New York. You will find one other Slaters in America, in Bangor, Pa.

TOP 8 MOST POPULAR MASCOT NAMES
# Wildcats 4
# Eagles 3
Hornets 3
# Raiders 3
Rebels 2
# Falcons 2
Blue Devils 2
Yellowjackets 2
# Denotes mascot name is in America's Top 15

MASCOT NAMES USED BY ONLY 1 SCHOOL

Arrows *Bobwhites Bucks Bulldogs Bullets Chargers Chieftains Colonels Commodores Cosmos Cougars Coyotes

Crimson Tide Crusaders Ghosts Golden Horde Golden Knights Green Wave Highlanders Hilltoppers Hurricanes Huskies Indians Kings Lakers

Lancers Marauders Minutemen Olympians Otters Panthers Patriots Phantoms Phoenix Presidents Red Devils RedHawks

Rockets Royals Seahorses Slaters *Solons Spartans Thunderbirds Tigers Trojans Vikings Warriors Wasps Wolves

* Denotes that no other school in America has that mascot name

MASCOT STATS
Most popular mascot name is used by 5.5 percent of schools.
There are 58 different mascot names for 73 schools.
2 schools have mascot names that no other American school has.
Vermont's Top 8 features 4 of America's Top 15 mascot names.