MaxPreps Mascot Mondays: New Mexico 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 New Mexico, there are 155 schools with mascots listed in the MaxPreps database. Listed below are the Top 15 most popular mascot names in New Mexico, the mascot names that only one school owns and other mascot facts/stats.

LIONS LIVING IN THE SEA
New Mexico is quite far from the ocean, and it's common knowledge that sea lions can only come from coastal areas. Yet you will find Fighting Sea Lions at Bataan Military Academy (Albuquerque). It actually has nothing to do with the cute creatures from the sea. The school's website tells a much different story: "The sea lion is a mythic Irish heraldry creature dating to 400 A.D. The name of the symbol is sometimes confused with a male seal but the creature is, in fact, more like a seahorse. It has the head of a lion and the body and tail of a fish. As a symbol it was used to represent the men who fought to protect the homeland coastal waters. For centuries, it has been used as a representation in Scotch/Irish Coats of Arms." There is a more modern definition as well: "On the third day following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Japanese planes bombed an American submarine that was docked in a harbor on the South Pacific Island of Luzon in the Philippines. The submarine was the U.S.S. Sea Lion (1937). It was on this island, the Island of Luzon, that the Bataan Death March and related events later occurred. Fitted with deck guns, a second U.S.S. Sea Lion 315 was commissioned in 1944. As a result of its fierce attack on the Japanese battleship Kongo, it was the only U.S. submarine to sink a Japanese battleship during World War II. At the end of World War II and having returned to the United States, a group of survivors of the Bataan Death March created an organization for all survivors of the Death March. Naming the organization the Battling Bastards of Bataan, the Bataan veterans chose the heraldry sea lion as the symbol for their organization in honor and memory of the bombed submarine in Luzon."

SPARTANS MINUS P?
At first glance, it looks like our database just has a typo, like St. Pius X (Albuquerque) should be the Spartans but a "p" is missing. If you think they are wrong, you are wrong. According to the school's website, Sartan derives from the name of Pope Pius X, Giuseppe Sarto. The school's patron saint was known for his good humor, fair play and thruthfulness and the school wants to embody it. "In Italian, Sarto is translated as 'Tailor.' Thus a Sartan is one who tailors his life after these ideals and actively supports his motto: 'To restore all things in Christ.'" You definitely won't find a Sartan anywhere, though you will find six other schools that pay homage to St. Pius X with their school names.

CAVEMEN, CLOSE TO THE CAVES
It's a double meaning for the mascot name at Carlsbad. They are the Cavemen and the logo fits that perfectly, featuring a man who looks like he's from prehistoric times. It gets better though. Carlsbad is the city closest to the Carlsbad Caverns National Park and touts its proximity to the magnificent collection of underground caverns. You can find four other Cavemen in the MaxPreps database, and it's a toss-up who has the best caveman-themed school name-mascot name combination: Carlsbad or Cave City (Ark.).

FIGHTING HORSES, NOT BEANS
Welcome to the Pinto Bean Capital of the World: Moriarty. They celebrate each year's pinto bean crop with a parade, festival and rodeo that centers around the old U.S. Highway 66 that goes through town. The school's mascot name is the Fighting Pintos, the only school in the nation to do so, but whoever came up with the mascot name made a very clever choice by eschewing a bean and instead going with another type of pinto. The logo is a pinto horse, which is a type of horse that features patches of white and another color hair, usually brown. You will find Pintos at California (Mo.), which represents the only other type of Pintos in the database.

SHARPEN UP ON YOUR ESPANOL
Here's a Spanish lesson: What does scorpion translate to in Spanish? The answer is found at Tierra Encantada (Santa Fe), where they are the Alacranes. The school states on its website that it aims to have its students develop literacy in both Spanish and English, so the mascot name is a good to start. It's a way to stay unique because you can find Scorpions all over the nation (16 total, one in New Mexico), and very few mascot names go with Spanish words that the average person can't translate.

TOP 15 MOST POPULAR MASCOT NAMES
# Eagles 10
# Panthers 9
# Tigers 8
# Warriors 7 (There is 1 Desert Warriors)
# Wildcats 6
Bears 6
Rams 4
Hawks 4 (There is 1 Sky Hawks)
Bobcats 4
# Cougars 4
Coyotes 4
Jaguars 3
Demons 3
Broncos 3
Cardinals 3
# Mustangs 3
# Trojans 3
# Denotes mascot name is in America's Top 15

MASCOT NAMES USED BY ONLY 1 SCHOOL

*Alacranes Bengals Blazers Braves Buffaloes Bulldawgs Cavemen Centurions Chargers Chiefs Chieftains Colts *Desert Warriors

Devils Dons Dragons Elks *Fighting Sea Lions *Fighting Colts *Fighting Pintos Foxes Griffins Grizzlies Hilltoppers Hornets Horsemen

Huskies Indians *Lady Lynx Leopards Lynx Matadors Mavericks Monarchs Mountaineers Patriots Rangers Rattlers Ravens

Rockets *Sartans Scorpions *Sky Hawks Spartans Steers Storm Sun Devils Sundevils Thunderbirds Timberwolves Vikings Wolverines Yellowjackets

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

MASCOT STATS
Most popular mascot name is used by 6.5 percent of schools.
There are 79 different mascot names for 155 schools.
8 schools have mascot names that no other American school has.
New Mexico's Top 15 features 8 of America's Top 15 mascot names.