Mascot for upcoming high school could be green hornet, lion, cougar or mustang

BROOKSVILLE –
The school board tentatively was settled on the barracuda when they voted on it last month.

On Tuesday, after they saw six proposed drawings of the predatory fish, they decided they could do better when choosing a mascot for the new high school.

“I just didn’t like it,” joked board member Pat Fagan. “I thought about a green hornet and I liked it at the time … I just think the kids would like that instead of, ‘Here come the barracudas.'”

In addition to the green hornet, the board also will mull over a list that includes a mustang, lion and cougar.

Hernando Christian Academy’s mascot is a lion. James W. Mitchell High School in New Port Richey uses the mustang.

Bo Bavota, the district’s facilities director and supervisor of the construction of the new school along U.S. 19, said he must have the mascot pinned down soon because it will be part of the construction of the gymnasium.

The five board members unanimously agreed to have green as the dominant school color. The building itself, located a few miles north of Weeki Wachee Springs State Park, is being built from recycled materials and is part of a statewide, environmentally friendly approach to school construction.

“It’s a green school, so we’re going green,” said school board member Sandra Nicholson.

Fellow board member John Sweeney conceded lions and mustangs might be a hard sell because two nearby schools already use them for their mascots.

“Cougar might win out,” he said.

The county’s fifth public high school will open in 2010.

A new principal is expected to be named in the coming months and the school board will choose four members to become part of a committee to name the school.

Interim Superintendent Sonya Jackson also would choose someone to be on the naming committee.

Reporter Tony Holt can be reached at 352-544-5283 or [email protected].