Urchins – East Union High School (Blue Springs MS)

These guys, right?

Unfortunately, it’s supposed to be these instead:

So, why not say it? Also, what the heck do sea urchins have to do with a small town about 275 miles from the ocean.

So, why, Blues Springs? Why?

Well, according to yahoo!sports, their colors “resemble those of typical sea urchins.” 

If a sea urchin were a San Diego Padre, that is

Just to confuse things further, their logo features a seahorse (see above).

Historically, they were known as the Epic Urchins. Girls teams are called the Urchinettes.

So, where does all this crazy come from? 

Well, I can tell you that Blue Springs is a town of about 430 in northern Mississippi, not too far from Tupelo. It dates back to 1888, when the railroad came through. The town name comes from these (which probably don’t have any sea urchins in ‘em):

Today, BS is the site of a large Toyota manufacturing plant. For some reason, though, they seem to be very proud of their town hall.

As for East Union … Well, first, it’s not officially a high school, but an “attendance center.” That said, the “attendance center” has about 250 students. Really couldn’t find out much more about it, unfortunately. Just as an example, here is the About Us page for the school attendance center:

They do appear to have all the major sports though. They also have some interesting ones such as archery, bowling & girl’s powerlifting. In addition, they also have two cheerleading squads, one for football and one for basketball.

Though you’d never know it from the, er, attendance center’s website, it appears they have won their fair share of state championships:

It doesn’t look like there’s any physical, on-field mascot, which is a little disappointing. A big, round ball with spikes sticking out of it would have been quite the sight.