Sandstoners – Potsdam (NY) Central High School

And, yes, they do refer to themselves as the Stoners.

Where the heck did Sandstoners come from though? And what the heck does it mean?

Well, if you guessed Potsdam is known for their sandstone, you’d be right. Turns out it’s a pink-orange variety that’s particularly good for construction.

The most famous recipient of that sandstone is probably some of Canada’s parliament buildings. Seeing as Potsdam’s pretty close to the Canadian border, this actually makes a lot of sense.

The city of almost 15,000 is also known for two colleges, SUNY Potsdam and Clarkson. In fact, when those schools are in session, the town’s population goes up by over 50%.

SUNY-P (Are those bricks?!?)

I actually have heard of a couple of the native sons and daughters, In particular, I’m familiar with Peggy Fleming (skater), Wes Craven (director), and Frank B. Kellogg (secretary of state).

Wes is the one in the middle

The high school has about 380 students. Oddly couldn’t really find out that much about it. Its Wikipedia page talks primarily about winning a local quiz bowl and a $10,000 grant from KFC to the school’s Positivity Club.

I do know that it’s at least as old as this pretty ancient postcard

That article also mentions it has 14 sports (but no additional info). It does appear, though, that the hockey team’s pretty good.

Their mascot is this pretty weird-looking dude:

And he’s represented on the ice (and the court and the field) by this much more prepossessing fellow:

I wonder though … Couldn’t they have just been something like the Miners, or the Diggers, or the Quarrymen?

Dang, that last one’s already taken

Sallies – Wilmington (DE) Salesianum School

I wonder if the Sallies ever play the Alices.

Pretty obvious where this one comes from. That said, you still gotta wonder what the heck a salesianum is.

Well, Wikipedia is telling me that it means “house of sales.” Now, you’d think that would mean some place selling furniture, or carpets, or cars, or what have you. Instead, it points to the Oblates of Saint Francis de Sales, the Catholic order that started and still run the school.

And, yes, it is indeed Catholic. In fact, it’s one of those very rare institutions, an all-boys school. 

The school dates back to 1903, and currently has 930 boys. Interestingly, it was the first integrated school in the state of Delaware.

They’ve got over 40 “famous alumni,” though I only recognize Jeff Bezos’s stepfather. Most are athletes or military types.

As for the former, the school is definitely an athletic powerhouse. Would you believe they’ve won 185 state titles? Their main sports seem to be cross-country, soccer, and swimming. 

Their mascot appears to be this thing:

I could only find this one picture of it, though, and that doesn’t say anything about it at all.

Sports Illustrated, however, does mention something about “school dogs” Louey and Dewie:

It’s a Catholic boys school, so everybody has to wear a tie

I probably don’t need to say much about Wilmington. It’s a pretty big city, and where every company in the US seems to be headquartered.

Rookies – King Cove (AK) School

This one’s really confusing. Let me (attempt to) explain …

First of all, the Rookies are only for the girls teams. The boys teams are called the T-Jacks.

Second, both appear to have a grizzly as a mascot.

Third, where those names came from is something of a mystery. According to one of the school’s coaches:

“The ‘T-Jacks’ name goes back to King Cove’s Mike Uttecht — the great grandfather of Rookies senior McKenna Gould — who used to call grizzly bears ‘Tundra Jacks’ back in the 1950s.

Barker said the girls team started much later than the boys team, so they were called the Rookies during their first year.”

I dunno. Seems a little random to me. Not sure if I’m buyin’ it.

The town of King Cove is at the very end of the Alaskan Peninsula. It’s pretty isolated – you can only get there by air or ferry. The scenery, though, looks pretty spectacular.

The town was founded in 1911. Currently, there are about 750 people, with approximately half being Native American.

Life centers around fishing. Peter Pan Seafoods formerly operated the largest cannery in Alaska there, but the plant just closed down a couple of years ago. Needless to say, that’s not helping the local economy any.

King Cove School goes from Pre-K to 12^th grade. Not sure exactly how many students they have. I found numbers from 84 to 211 (and am not sure if those are totals or just the high school). The student body is about 85% Native American.

Mother nature or Photoshop?

As for sports, it looks like they have basketball, wrestling, volleyball, and cross country. Seeing as this is Alaska, I’m thinking that last one might be a typo.

Looks like they’ve got some pretty supportive fans at least:

Resorters – Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah High School (WI)

Last week, we had us some purple reindeer. This week, we’ve got ourselves some red elk. 

Which, of course have absolutely nothing to do with the high school’s official mascot, the Resorter.

Now, what exactly is a Resorter, you might ask. Well, Merriam-Webster says it’s someone who is a “frequenter of resorts.”  (Spell check simply wants me to change it to "reporter.")

So, what does that have to do with Elkhart Lake (or Glenbeulah for that matter)? 

Well, It sounds like Elkhart Lake is actually something of a resort town. On the lake shore and within city limits are several, including the Osthoff. According to Conde Nast, that one’s the number one resort in the Midwest. And would you believe it’s going to be the site of the 2025 NFL draft? Damn!

Historically, there were seven resorts in the town back in the late 1800s. They were very popular with urbanites from Milwaukee and Chicago, who would arrive by train.

Today, the town is mostly known for auto racing. The big racetrack in town is called Road America. 

As for Glenbeulah, it’s got about half the population of Elkhart Lake, 460 to 940. They’re both a little north of Milwaukee, about halfway between Fond du Lac and Sheboygan

The high school’s got a mere 160 students. Somehow or other, though, they manage to support 14 different sports.

It looks like they’ve got an elk mascot:

That said, the students also like to dress up like tacky tourists (i.e., resorters!).