MaxPreps Mascot Mondays: West Virginia 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 West Virginia, there are 140 schools with mascots listed in the MaxPreps database. Listed below are the Top 15 most popular mascot names in West Virginia, the mascot names that only one school owns and other mascot facts/stats.

MUSCULAR APPLEMEN
They aren't the muscle men at Musselman (Inwood), they are the Applemen. Apples are more delicious than muscles, but muscles are much more scary. The mascot name comes from the Musselman family, which generously set up a trust fund to help local schools and students. The Musselmans were in the fruit canning business and owned a plant that became the first in the country specifically devoted to applesauce. The school's land and buildings are all there because of the Musselmans, and the school pays homage to its history with its unique mascot name, one that no other school has.

BUFFALO DOES NOT EQUAL BISON
It's not redundant, believe it or not, to see the Buffalo Bison. This one is confusing, and it shows the difference between the school name and mascot name. Most people actually think that buffalo and bison are the same animal but that is not correct. What we normally consider a buffalo is really a bison, because buffalo have sideways horns and are only native to Africa and Asia.

DOTS FROM POCA
This is by far one of the nation's best name-mascot combos, and also one of the most commonly known. The athletes from Poca are the Dots, and the Poca Dots were recognized by ESPN as having the nation's No. 1 sports nickname. So how does a school end up eschewing the usual animal names and going with something extremely unique, and maybe even wacky? Blame it on the newspaper man. According to Marc's Distinctive High School Mascot Collection, a writer from the Charleston Gazette suggested the nickname in 1928.

HIGHER LEARNING-INSPIRED
A pair of West Virginia high schools not only copy school-mascot name combos from well-known colleges, they made sure to choose two schools with high reputations. The athletes from Notre Dame (Clarksburg) are the Fighting Irish, just like the football team that will play for an NCAA national championship, and the athletes from Princeton are the Tigers, just like the Ivy League school located in New Jersey.

MOHIGANS, MOHICANS OR MOHEGANS?
The athletes from Morgantown are the Mohigans. Is that like Mohicans, or is it like Mohegans? A Wikipedia entry states that the school's nickname is a combination of letters from the school's yearbook name (the Morgantown High Annual). Now the Mohicans (also called Mahican) are a tribe that spent its time along the Hudson River before being moved to Wisconsin. The Mohegans are native to Connecticut and are a different tribe. Neither seem to have a West Virginia connection, so this unique mascot name has some questions surrounding its basis.

TOP 15 MOST POPULAR MASCOT NAMES
# Wildcats 8
# Tigers 6
Patriots 6
# Panthers 5
# Knights 4 (There is 1 Golden Knights an 1 Maroon Knights)
# Bulldogs 4
# Cougars 4
# Warriors 4
# Raiders 3
Yellowjackets 3
Red Devils 3 (There is 1 Blue Devils)
# Lions 3
# Eagles 3 (There is 1 Black Eagles, 1 Blue Eagles and 1 Flying Eagles)
# Falcons 3
# Indians 3
# Denotes mascot name is in America's Top 15

MASCOT NAMES USED BY ONLY 1 SCHOOL

*Applemen Bearcats Beavers Big Reds Bishops Bison *Black Eagles Blue Devils *Blue Dons Blue Eagles Bruins Buccaneers Cadets

Colts Comets Cubs *Dots Dragons Express Fighting Irish *Flying Eagles Golden Bears Golden Knights Golden Tornado Greyhounds Grizzlies

Hillbillies Hornets *Jacks Lumberjacks Maroon Knights Mavericks Minutemen *Mohigans Monarchs Mountain Lions Mountaineers Mustangs Pioneers

Polar Bears Red Dragons Red Riders Redskins Renegades Saints Skyhawks Spartans Tide Timberwolves Titans *Travellers Trojans

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

MASCOT STATS
Most popular mascot name is used by 5.7 percent of schools.
There are 80 different mascot names for 140 schools.
8 schools have mascot names that no other American school has.
West Virginia's Top 15 features 11 of America's Top 15 mascot names.