What's the best former Iowa high school mascot? Vote in May Mascot Madness

Everybody, it seemed, was doing brackets this spring.

One of the most interesting ones locally was one by Maquoketa Valley football coach Trevor Arnold, who conducted a poll in an effort to find the state's best-looking football helmet.

Lewis Central won that competition. It won't win this one.

For lack of a better term, we'll call this May Mascot Madness. Here's how it works:

I stumbled across a website (which is a very good resource, by the way). It lists all of the high schools across Iowa, along with school colors, nickname/mascot and conference affiliation.

It doesn't just contain current schools. It also lists defunct schools. And a lot of the schools that no longer exist had some unique, cool nicknames.

So I pared the list of defunct schools to 81 based on originality of nicknames. No Lions, Tigers or Bears on this list.

Instead, we have everything from Admirals (Farragut) to Zippers (Zwingle).

This isn't your conventional bracket. Each competition will consist of three schools, not two, and one will advance based on voting. It's a popularity contest, plain and simple.

The first round — we'll call it sectionals — will take nine days and tour the state, from northwest to southeast. By the end of sectionals, 81 teams will be pared to 27.

Then comes districts, in which 27 schools become nine.

The substate tournament carves the list of survivors to three, which will vie for a state championship.

Who will be the last team standing? Will it be the Everly Cattlefeeders, producers of one of the state's best six-on-six girls' basketball players in Jeanette Olson? The Panama Mosquitoes? The Webb Spiders? The Sheffield Claydiggers? Or will it be a dark horse (like the Garwin Rough Riders)?

Climb aboard and enjoy the ride. Let's have some fun.

Far Northwest District

SECTION A

Ocheyedan Mounders 46.33% (158)

Lester Goldfinches 40.18% (137)

Larchwood St. Mary's Traveliers 13.49% (46)

SECTION B

Floyd Valley Thunderbirds 57.76% (186)

Alton St. Mary's Blue Jax 35.09% (113)

Sioux City Riverside Cavaliers 7.14% (23)

SECTION C

Quimby Peacocks 39.37% (124)

Fairview Typhoons 35.24% (111)

Grand Meadow Larks 25.39% (80)

DISTRICT FINALS

Ocheyedan Mounders 49.66% (73)

Floyd Valley Thunderbirds 26.53% (39)

Quimby Peacocks 23.81% (35)

Near Northwest District

SECTION A

Everly Cattlefeeders 70.57% (283)

Clay Central Comanches 20.95% (84)

Clay Central-Everly Mavericks 8.48% (34)

SECTION B

Sioux Valley Soos 47.81% (142)

Fonda Flyers 28.28% (84)

Brooke Canaries 23.91% (71)

SECTION C

Webb Spiders 55.37% (165)

Albert City-Truesdale Hurricanes 26.85% (80)

Marathon Minutemen 17.78% (53)

DISTRICT FINALS

Everly Cattlefeeders 70.27% (104)

Webb Spiders 26.35% (39)

Sioux Valley Soos 3.38% (5)

West Central District

SECTION A

East Monona Thunderhawks 63.06% (210)

Panama Mosquitoes 35.44% (118)

Avoca Bluebirds 1.5% (5)

SECTION B

Lanesboro Burros 73.56% (128)

Viola Township Victors 21.26% (37)

Bayard Reds 5.17% (9)

SECTION C

Zion Zephyrs 56.74% (101)

DeSoto Whirlwinds 38.2% (68)

Nevin Blue Sox 5.06% (9)

DISTRICT FINALS

East Monona Thunderhawks 60.14% (175)

Lanesboro Burros 24.05% (70)

Zion Zephyrs 15.81% (46)

Southwest District

SECTION A

Farragut Admirals 57.93% (84)

Amity AmHawks 32.41% (47)

Northboro Red Birds 9.66% (14)

SECTION B

Grand River Blue Dragons 35.71% (45)

Tingley Nomads 34.92% (44)

Gravity Grizzlies 29.37% (37)

SECTION C

Rathbun Coal Miners 52.82% (75)

Garden Grove Grovers 35.21% (50)

Millerton Waves 11.97% (17)

DISTRICT FINALS

Rathbun Coal Miners 56.08% (83)

Farragut Admirals 22.97% (34)

Grand River Blue Dragons 20.95% (31)

North Central District

SECTION A

Mallard Ducks 45.63% (94)

Bancroft St. John's Johnnies 32.52% (67)

Curlew Waders 21.84% (45)

SECTION B

Klemme Shamrocks 55.36% (160)

Sheffield Claydiggers 33.91% (98)

Twin River Valley Thunder 10.73% (31)

SECTION C

Boxholm Swedes 62.79% (108)

Fort Dodge Corpus Christi Catholic Celts 22.09% (38)

Williams Cornhuskers 15.12% (26)

DISTRICT FINALS

Klemme Shamrocks 72.47% (229)

Mallard Ducks 19.3% (61)

Boxholm Swedes 8.23% (26)

Central District

SECTION A

Elkhart Echoes 72.22% (78)

Des Moines Tech Engineers 25% (27)

Des Moines West Blue & Gold 2.78% (3)

SECTION B

Laurel Green Hornets 67.62% (71)

NESCO Royal Kings 23.81% (25)

Fernald Blue Jackets 8.57% (9)

SECTION C

Rudd Rangers 44.25% (50)

Eldora Training Trainers 34.51% (39)

Alden Redskins 21.24% (24)

DISTRICT FINALS

Laurel Green Hornets 41.26% (59)

Elkhart Echoes 33.57% (48)

Rudd Rangers 25.17% (36)

Northeast District

SECTION A

Rudolphinum Rudohawks 62.32% (86)

Clermont Commanders 23.91% (33)

Calmar Cahawks 13.77% (19)

SECTION B

Volga City Boatmen 74.02% (94)

New Vienna St. Boniface Bonnies 22.05% (28)

New Vienna New Hawks 3.94% (5)

SECTION C

Cascade Aquin Tomahawks 50.76% (67)

Loras/Columbia College Gubs 40.91% (54)

St. Columbkille Co-Dukes 8.33% (11)

DISTRICT FINALS

Volga City Boatmen 44.65% (71)

Rudolphinum Rudohawks 33.96% (54)

Cascade Aquin Tomahawks 21.38% (34)

East Central District

SECTION A

Zwingle Zippers 75% (117)

Goose Lake Jets 13.46% (21)

Mechanicsville Bullets 11.54% (18)

SECTION B

Muscatine Catholic Muscateers 37.75% (57)

DeWitt St. Joseph's Warbirds 37.09% (56)

DeWitt DeHawks 25.17% (38)

SECTION C

Oxford Seabees 56.85% (83)

Nichols Little Nicks 38.36% (56)

Iowa City University High Blue Hawks 4.79% (7)

DISTRICT FINALS

Zwingle Zippers 74.1% (103)

Oxford Seabees 17.99% (25)

Muscatine Hayes Catholic Muscateers 7.91% (11)

Southeast District

SECTION A

Clutier Charging Czechs 75.97% (98)

Green Mountain Mounties 17.05% (22)

Tama Tamahawks 6.98% (9)

SECTION B

Wyman Welshmen 44.88% (57)

Fox Valley Trotters 43.31% (55)

Salem Seahawks 11.81% (15)

SECTION C

Rose Hill Hill Men 38.21% (47)

South English Blue Bombers 35.77% (44)

Hedrick Foxes 26.02% (32)

DISTRICT FINALS

Clutier Charging Czechs 82.98% (117)

Wyman Welshmen 12.77% (18)

Rose Hill Hill Men 4.25% (6)

Substate Finals

SUBSTATE 1

Everly Cattlefeeders 68.36% (188)

Rathbun Coal Miners 18.18% (50)

Laurel Green Hornets 13.45% (37)

SUBSTATE 2

Klemme Shamrocks 65.04% (266)

Volga City Boatmen 20.54% (84)

Ocheyedan Mounders 14.43% (59)

SUBSTATE 3

East Monona Thunderhawks 43.87% (186)

Clutier Charging Czechs 32.78% (139)

Zwingle Zippers 23.35% (99)

State championship

Klemme Shamrocks 46.44% (1,612)

East Monona Thunderhawks 39.7% (1,378)

Everly Cattlefeeders 13.86% (481)