Coupeville, unlike new league rival Port Townsend, will be keeping its mascot and nickname. Senior cheerleader Emilee Crichton is pleased. (John Fisken photo)
Everything changes.
This fall, Coupeville High School, the smallest 1A school in the state, will end an eight-year run in the 1A/2A Cascade Conference.
Frequent trips to Everett, battles against private schools that operated under different rules and routinely facing schools with 200-400 more students will come to an end.
While they’ll still rep the smallest school, the Wolves will be much closer in size to new league foes Port Townsend, Chimacum and (sort of) Klahowya in the 1A Olympic League.
Another thing changing is the controversial nickname of one of their new league mates.
Port Townsend, which CHS has often faced in non-league games, is retiring its Redskins nickname and will open the 2014-2015 school year with a new mascot.
PTHS students will choose from three options — Redhawks, Sasquatch and Rip Tide.
Considered but eliminated in the early going were Thunder, Marauders, Red Tide and Rising Tide.
Once the students make their choice, the school will meet with the alumni association to discuss the matter, but expects little resistance, according to reports in the Port Townsend Leader.
The school board has no say in the mascot hunt, and school officials tried to keep the matter in the hands of the students.
The coronation of a new mascot, and the subsequent removal of Redskins-related branding, including the large logo that graces the school’s basketball court, will largely bring an end to what has been, at times, a touchy subject.
Port Townsend has been the Redskins since the 1920s, and there have been several recall efforts in the past. The current change was sparked after a parent complained to the Port Townsend School Board in 2012.
Debate at school board meetings raged a bit, with some defending the mascot/nickname as a “source of pride,” but those in favor of change won out in the end.
Not that the argument is totally dead.
Supporters of the old nickname/mascot have posted “No MASCOT is Better than a LAME one” on Facebook pages.
They also posted a cartoon of a man in a Native American headdress on a psychiatrist’s couch saying, “Well, for most of 88 years I felt good about myself, then I walked into a Port Townsend School Board meeting.”
Regardless of which new mascot/nickname Port Townsend selects, Chimacum will still be the Cowboys and Klahowya the Eagles.
Since no one has yet to complain that Wolves are being defamed by Coupeville’s use of them — despite the fact you would be hard-pressed to find one of the animals on Whidbey (eagles we do have) — expect that to stay the same, as well.
Coupeville Sports 