Best high school mascot in Mississippi: Top 5 candidates

From Urchins to Rock-a-Chaws, meet the best high school mascots in Mississippi

Whippets are undeniably fast runners, but a Rock-a-Chaw in the paw can cause a whole Maroon Tide of problems.

This is probably a confusing scenario to most, but not Mississippi high school sports fans.

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 Mississippi poll will post Oct. 28 on highschool.si.com and stay open through Nov. 4.

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

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

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Here are the top 5 high school mascots in Mississippi:

East Union Urchins

Formerly called the Epic Urchins, East Union's mascot comes from Greek mythology, where the god of the sea had daughters who rode seahorses. This is why the East Union logo boasts a seahorse rather than a sea urchin.

Kosciusko Whippets

Kosciusko isn't the only high school in the country called the Whippets, but it's the only one with a smiling physical whippet mascot named Whippy to whip the fans into a frenzy at sporting events.

Picayune Maroon Tide

There's one other Maroon Tide among U.S. high schools (Galax, Virginia), but the Picayune Maroon Tide set themselves apart with a phenomenal logo — an angry-looking maroon wave appearing eager to pick a fight.

St. Stanislaus Rock-a-Chaws

Rock-a-Chaw comes from an old Choctaw word meaning “devil grass,” and it refers to the pesky little sand burrs that abounded on the St. Stanislaus campus before the lawns were cultivated.

Taylorsville Tartars

Tartars are fierce Mongolian warriors that date back to the days of Genghis Khan. That fighting spirit remains alive in Taylorsville, Mississippi.

(Whippet photo by Mike Brown / The Commercial Appeal via Imagn Content Services)

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