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Published Sunday, January 29, 2012 in Opinion

Mascot mess

Fall is always a fun time in my hometown. The air is crisp, the leaves are lovely and at any moment you're liable to hear a group of high school students yelling, "Go, Cougars!"

They're not urging wild animals to escape from the nearest zoo. They're pulling for the Newnan High School Cougars. The kids call it Cuga Time. They love it. So do I.

That's not the case at Corner Canyon High School in Utah. Not long ago, the students who will attend Corner Canyon high when the doors open for the first time next fall got to pick their mascot.

They chose to call themselves the Cougars. Not gonna happen. And not because the "Cougar" nickname is already overused in the home state of the Brigham Young University Cougars.

Cuga Time won't happen at Corner Canyon High because the school principal said "Cougar" is demeaning to women. In case you haven't heard, "Cougar" is sometimes used to describe an older gal who preys on younger guys.

Now the area is in turmoil and students are blaming themselves for causing the fuss.

I'm glad I'm not in high school anymore.

When I was a high school kid, I had my hands full academically trying to get through biology and chemistry and math. Socially, things were even worse. Especially when a big dance came along and I spent hours summoning the courage to pick up the phone and get turned down for another date. (At least today you get your heart broken on Facebook instead of face to face).

Kids still have all those academic and social problems. They don't need the extra pressure of choosing mascots. Especially in a time when any mascot they select is likely to offend one group or another.

Let school officials choose the mascots and take the heat. They don't always do a bad job.

I went to Robert E. Lee High School in Montgomery, Ala. We were the Generals. Students didn't get to vote on the matter and didn't much care. We were happy being the Generals and thought it was a good nickname for a school, especially the athletic teams.

Especially since our crosstown rival was the Sidney Lanier Poets.

Poets? Pooh.

Imagine how those Poets felt lining up across from the Generals. Warriors versus wordsmiths? No contest, and the results showed on the scoreboard. But, win or lose, we were never haunted by the possibility that a bad mascot choice had offended anyone or caused a poor academic or athletic performance.

And the record shows that bad nicknames don't have to lead to hard feelings.

Hoopeston Area High School in Illinois calls its teams the "Cornjerkers." So far, neither the local jerks nor the Children of the Corn have complained. The same goes for homeless people living near Laurel Hill High School in Florida, home of "The Hoboes." No complaints.

If the kids at Corner Canyon High had wanted a nickname that offended women, they could have called themselves Bimbos, Broads, Hookers, or my favorite, Hussies.

And just because "Cougar" offends some people today doesn't mean it will next year. Things change. So do nicknames.

Decades ago, a certain female celebrity was notorious for preying on younger men. She wasn't called a Cougar. She was called Zsa Zsa Gabor. But she wasn't reviled because she had a taste for tender young flesh. People knew Zsa Zsa dated younger guys because most of the men her age were dead.

I'm proud to live in the hometown of the Newnan Cougars. I'm even prouder that those Cougar students and their counterparts at my county's other high schools consistently perform way above average on standardized tests.

I guarantee you no one is offended by that.

(Send your email comments to: alex@newnan.com )

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