Best high school mascot in Idaho: Top 5 candidates

From Russets to Cutthroat, meet the best high school mascots in Idaho

Author:
Mike Swanson, SBLive Sports
Updated:
Oct 13, 2023 11:55 AM EDT
Original:
Oct 13, 2023

The Shelley Russets and Camas County Mushers have performed well in past SBLive high school mascot contests.

But this time around they'll meet some in-state competition from the Maniacs, Wampus Cats and Cutthroat.

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 Idaho poll will post Oct. 14 on highschool.si.com and stay open through Oct. 21.

Here are the top 5 high school mascots in Idaho:

Camas County Mushers

It’s not Alaska, but Fairfield, Idaho (home of Camas County High School) does average over 60 inches of snow per year, and mushing is one efficient way to get around during winter in the rural town of 501 people.

Clark Fork Wampus Cats

Clark Fork has been the Wampus Cats since 1935, and different people in the area have different ideas of what exactly a Wampus Cat is. Here’s a favorite, as told to the Bonner County Daily Bee in 2010: “They say what the hell’s a Wampus Cat?” laughs Bob Hays, who owned Hays Chevron until 2022 and played at Clark Fork in the late 1950s. “I tell them it’s a big cat that stays up in the mountains and eats snow snakes in the winter.”

Orofino Maniacs

This one-of-a-kind mascot goes back in the 1920s, when Orofino’s boys basketball team was said to have played like maniacs. At Orofino High School, this means being "ungovernably enthusiastic.”

Shelley Russets

Shelley’s mascot isn’t just any potato — it’s a russet-burbank potato that wears a crown, robe and scepter. Shelley offers a two-week break from school to allow students to assist in the season’s potato harvest.

Sun Valley Community Cutthroat

The scrappy, aggressive cutthroat is the Idaho State Fish, and Sun Valley Community School has been the Cutthroat since a yearbook contest named it the school mascot in 1984. The logo is a cutthroat wearing sunglasses and holding a knife in its teeth.