Best high school mascot in Maine: Top 10 candidates

From Windjammers to Red Riots to Red Eddies, meet the best high school mascots in Maine

Nothing says shipbuilding like a windjammer, as high school mascots in Maine can attest.

But where do Pandas fit in with Shipbuilders and Windjammers? Read on to find out.

SBLive Sports' love for unique mascots with interesting back stories has been well documented.

We've crowned Hodags and Imps the past couple of years in national high school mascot contests, and now we're taking a spin through every state.

Over the next couple of months we'll go from Alabama through Wyoming featuring each state's best high school mascots, and then give readers a chance to vote for their favorite. Our Maine poll will post Oct. 24 on highschool.si.com and stay open through Oct. 31.

Vote: Which is the best high school mascot in Maine?

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Vote: Which is the best high school mascot in Maine?

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Here are the top 10 high school mascots in Maine:

Bucksport Golden Bucks

The name itself is unique (among a whole lot of Bucks, Bucksport has the only Golden Bucks in the country), but wait till you see the physical mascot’s dance moves.

Camden Hills Windjammers

Maine was the Windjammer Capital of the World from the 18th century to 1920. Despite the steamship coming along and taking the wind out of shipbuilding’s sails, Camden, Maine, has kept the state’s windjammer heritage alive via tourism and high school sports.

Cape Elizabeth Capers

Cape Elizabeth has the only Capers in U.S. high school sports, and they can’t be pickled and eaten, nor are they illegal escapades. These Capers merely refer to being "of the Cape."

Edward Little Red Eddies

Philanthropist Edward Little founded this school in the 1800s, and the mascot is the ghost of Edward Little (yep, it’s red). The school nickname was originally the Red Ghosts, but it evolved into the Red Eddies in the 1940s. Solid choice.

Houlton Shiretowners

The Shiretowners chose a new physical mascot a few years ago, moving on from its penguin and going instead with a judge, which the school felt was a much better representation of its nickname. Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines a “Shire Town” in New England as “a town where a court of superior jurisdiction — such as a circuit court or a court with a jury — sits.”

Lee Academy Pandas

Five other high schools across the U.S. sport a panda as its mascot, but Lee Academy gets the nod thanks to the fierce-looking Panda in its logo. It looks much more like Kung Fu Panda than Panda Asleep in the Corner at the Zoo.

Morse Shipbuilders

Bath, Maine, home of Morse High School, became a haven for shipbuilding in the early 1600s, so the choice of Shipbuilders for Morse's mascot was an easy one.

Penobscot Valley Howlers

Penobscot Valley High School is the Howlers because they're from Howland, Maine, and their logo is a pretty sweet-looking wolf.

South Portland Red Riots

The nickname has nothing to do with an actual riot. Local legend suggests a sports reporter back in the day described a South Portland team as coming out of halftime looking like a red riot, and the name stuck.

Westbrook Blue Blazes

The only explanation we could find for why Westbrook is the Blue Blazes (the only one in the country) came from the Westbrook Historical Society, and it's a little confusing: "Col. Westbrook's men would stamp trees with this mark to signify that the tree belonged to the King and would be cut and sent to England for use for ships' masts. Of course these were the best trees with the largest diameters, 24" or larger, and selected for the King's Navy. This is the significance behind the Westbrook schools' teams being called 'BLUE BLAZES.'"

(Feature photo by Eric Seals, Detroit Free Press via Imagn Content Services)

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-- Mike Swanson | swanson@scorebooklive.com | @sblivesports