A gym at Wabasso High School, home of the Rabbits and my alma mater. Minnesota Prairie Roots file photo used here simply to illustrate sports and not directly connected to the mascot competition.
I’M NOT SURPRISED, not at all, that a USA TODAY sponsored competition to find “the best” high school mascot in the nation has turned into a verbal sparring match between fans of the Winona (MN.) Winhawks and the Centralia (ILL.) Orphans.
The issue apparently started when USA TODAY’s online voting site crashed on Thursday, the final day of the competition.
From what I can gather, the Orphans held a strong lead early on with the Winhawks implementing a strategic last-minute game plan in an attempt to claim the Region 4 title.
Now these high school sports fans are accusing each other of poor sportsmanship, unfair voting tactics and more, while others are calling for a boycott of USA TODAY’s contest. As of Saturday morning, commenters had posted 546 comments on the Region 4 voting page, well beyond any other region. Region 6, the next closest with the top two mascots separated by less than 3,000 votes, had about half the comments.
Region 4 has also racked up the most votes at nearly 7.9 million, compared to the second nearest vote total of almost 4.5 million in Region 5. The vote and comment totals in Region 4 show you just how heated this competition has become between the Minnesota and Illinois teams.
I read only a sampling of the comments from each region, enough to surmise that codes of good sportsmanship have been replaced by name-calling and a whole lot of negativity, especially between Winhawks and Orphans supporters. I wonder if the USA TODAY high school sports staff wishes they’d never created this competition.
In a special announcement posted on the contest website, USA TODAY extended the voting period, which resumes at 3 p.m. ET Monday, March 18, and ends at 3 p.m. ET Wednesday, March 20.
That decision is not sitting well with Orphans fans, based on comments posted on the Region 4 voting page. Online stats show the Illinois team leading with 36.937 percent (4,071,313) and the Winhawks trailing with 34.436 percent (3,795,630) of the votes. Some Orphans supporters are accusing USA TODAY of changing the game rules because of complaints from Winhawks fans.
True or not, I don’t know. But here’s USA TODAY’s official stance.
Wow! When you all turn out to support your mascot, you can really bring the site to a crawl. Because we want to make sure that everyone who wants to vote can vote, we don’t want any technical difficulties to get in the way. So the regional round of the USA TODAY High School Sports’ Best Mascot competition will resume…
I expect the war of words will resume, too, on Monday.
Does any of this surprise you? Not me. Sadly.
Two thousand dollars and a national title are at stake here. But now, with all the controversy and unsportsmanlike conduct surrounding this contest, would you really want your mascot to win?
Thoughts?
Here are the current standings, top two in each region, as of Saturday:
Region 1:
- Morse Shipbuilders of Bath, ME., 45.657 percent, 1,092,775 votes
- Kingswood Oxford Wyverns of West Hartford, CT., 45.23 percent, 1,082,570 votes
Region 2:
- Key Obezags of Annapolis, MD., 37.187 percent, 492,084 votes
- Northampton Konkrete Kids of Northampton, PA., 21.007 percent, 277,976 votes
Region 3:
- Key West Conchs of Key West, FL., 34.032 percent, 504,060 votes
- St. Mary’s Episcopal School Turkeys of Memphis, TN., 33.462 percent, 495,609 votes
Region 4:
- Centralia Orphans of Centralia, ILL., 36.937 percent, 4,071,313 votes
- Winona Winhawks of Winona, MN., 34.436 percent, 3,795,630 votes
Region 5:
- Pratt Greenbacks of Pratt, KS., 45.276 percent, 2,250,804 votes
- Chinook Sugarbeeters of Chinook, MT., 44.677 percent, 2,221,011 votes
Region 6:
- Carbon Dinos of Price, UT., 40.063 percent, 1,504,129 votes
- Oregon Episcopal Aardvarks of Portland, OR., 39.987 percent, 1,501,267 votes
CLICK HERE AND HERE to read my first two posts on this contest. To vote in the USA TODAY “best” high school mascot competition, click here.
© Copyright 2013 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
That’s all???????? A measly $2000 and “bragging rights”??!!?? One comment……GROW UP!!!!! Sorry for shouting, but honestly……
I kind of feel the same way. While every dollar helps, I don’t like what has happened with this contest. Not at all.
A very sad ending to what could have been something that was “fun”!
Yup, that’s right, although the ending is yet to come as the regional winners advance to nationals.
The “W” word (withdraw) comes to my mind! But that’s so “grown up”!!!! And I don’t think there are any of those in the fore!!!!
(Do I “like” this, really? no, not the arguing. But I like your usual display of informed Minnesota blogging!)
Yup, like to keep it real and honest. We’re not always totally “Minnesota Nice.”
I ran across your blog and wanted to give you an update – yes the Centralia Orphans won with 25 million votes in the national round alone. Most of the time our fans were great sports and if you go back to the site you can see this. Our closest competitor in the national competition was the Price, UT Dinos and in the middle of the competition there as an accident at a local mine near Price killing a young father. Our Orphan community was very caring in their response and many of us are sending donations to the fund set up for his family. I agree that when the contest was extended there were a few negative comments from both sides and I understand that is newsworthy to write about. In the end though it was the grand sportsmanship that stood out and a bond between schools formed that is much more important than winning the contest. I would hope you would do an update about this instead of the focus on the negative. Here is a portion of my post on my facebook page:
Whether we won or lost I enjoyed voting and rooting for our hometown and some special things seemed to happen within the Centralia community:
• A town hit hard by the economy pulled together toward a common goal and former Centralians, not only throughout the US but all over the world, supported the effort.
• The power of social media went a long way in recruiting voters and even communicating with the opposition and learning about their communities. Bonds were formed with the Cobden, IL Appleknockers and the Price, UT Dinos, our closest competitors during the competition.
• It gave me a chance to show my kids the school spirit and loyalty that is such a huge part of the Centralia community, even though they got sick of hearing about it! I guess you could say I’m an Orphanatic … (or a lunatic)
• I learned some things that I hadn’t known about Centralia. For instance, in the 1950s, the coach of the basketball team chose a high school basketball player that lived at the local children’s home (a true orphan) to be the model for the mascot illustration. That gentleman is now in his 70’s and is proud that the mascot bears his likeness. He also happens to be the husband of my former Sunday school teacher for many years and I never knew the story. I think that is really cool!
I am proud of my hometown even though I no longer live there. I know in my heart the majority of the people in the Centralia are good people, please don’t let a few negative remarks on a posting site cloud your image of our town.
Susan, congratulations to the Orphans! I am delighted to read that some very positive things resulted from this contest. Thank you for sharing those. But I couldn’t overlook the negative comments which worked their way into this competition. Not being into sports at all, on any level, I do perhaps approach competitiveness from a different perspective than most. That all said, you certainly should be proud of your hometown and the positive connections developed with the other communities involved.