Best high school mascot in Iowa: Top 10 candidates

From Wheelers to Nikes to Stormin' Pointers, meet the best high school mascots in Iowa

The Hawkeyes are all the rage in Iowa, and the state's high school mascots show all kinds of hawk love.

Four of our top 10 high school mascots in Iowa have the word "hawk" in the name.

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 Iowa poll will post Oct. 19 on highschool.si.com and stay open through Oct. 26.

Here are the top 10 high school mascots in Iowa:

Audubon Wheelers

Named for world-famous bird expert John James Audubon, the town took a different turn when it came to choosing a high school mascot. Its wheel-in-motion logo looks like it would perform well on the world-famous Autobahn. 

Burlington Notre Dame Nikes

Although the school's athletes are known to wear Nikes from time to time, that's not where the nickname came from (at least not directly). Notre Dame's mascot is named for the Greek goddess of victory, just like the shoe company is.

Center Point-Urbana Stormin’ Pointers

Would they have made the list simply as the Pointers? Probably not. But Stormin’ Pointers wielding lightning bolts are an out-of-this-world force to be reckoned with.

Clinton River Kings/Queens

Located right on the Mississippi River across from Illinois, Clinton's boys teams are the only River Kings in the nation, while the girls teams are the only River Queens in high school sports. The logo is a real pro, depicting a trident backing a C, with the C looking like a head and the trident prongs looking like its crown.

Emmetsburg E-Hawks

Before email, e-commerce, e-banking and e-books came the E-Hawks of Emmetsburg. The E-Hawks, sporting a barrel-chested, yellow-sweater-wearing hawk as their mascot, have been winning state championships since the '70s, and now the school has an e-sports team! 

Kee Kee-Hawks

The hyphen is super helpful here, so you know it's the Kee High School Kee-Hawks and not the Kee Kee High School Hawks. It's also worth noting that the "Kee" in Kee High School is short for Eastern Allamakee.

Regina Regals

Regina is the only high school in the country that calls itself the Regals, and its mascot is an anthropomorphic blue-and-gold crown named Crownie.

Sheldon Orabs

The Orabs’ school colors are orange and black, and in a contest in the 1920s to name the mascot, Orabs (orange and black) took the prize. If the cross-state schools would ever be interested, the Sheldon Orabs vs. the Hampshire Whip-Purs (white and purple) would make a fantastic Color Bowl.

Waterloo West Wahawks

No, we didn’t forget an R. These are the only Wahawks in the country among a sea of Warhawks. The name is derived from Waterloo (Wa) and Black Hawk County (hawk), and the school’s mascot is a hawk-like character named Westy.

Waverly-Shell Rock Go-Hawks

Earlier in Arkansas, we met the Go-Devils, learning that a go-devil is a thing (a crude sled for dragging logs). There's no such thing as a Go-Hawk, but it's perfect as a built-in cheer for Waverly-Shell Rock supporters.

(Feature photo by Joseph Cress/Think Iowa City / USA Today Network)

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