Best high school mascot in South Dakota: Top 10 candidates

From Watchdogs to Quarriers to Scoopers, meet the best high school mascots in South Dakota

If you have Kiotes running amok in your Irrigators, sic a Watchdog on 'em.

That advice is just the tip of the Mogul as we take a deep Diver into high school mascots in South Dakota.

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 past couple of months we've been going from Alabama through Wyoming featuring each state's best high school mascots, and then giving readers a chance to vote for their favorite. Our South Dakota poll will post Nov. 21 on highschool.si.com and will stay open through Nov. 28.

Here are the top 10 high school mascots in South Dakota:

Beresford Watchdogs

Beresford chose to be different from all the Bulldogs out there by being the only high school in the U.S. to go with Watchdogs. Roger the Watchdog is even known to get festive during the holidays.

Colman-Egan C-E Hawks

Seahawks are everywhere in the sports world, and there are even a couple of C-Hawks out there in high school sports. But these are the only C-E Hawks in the country, proudly displaying hyphenated school spirit.

Dell Rapids Quarriers

Step aside, all you Warriors. Here come the Quarriers, named after the large Sioux Quartzite rock quarries that are also in Dell Rapids.

Edgemont Moguls

Was a major media mogul born in Edgemont? Is there a man-made mountain resort in Edgemont with excellent skier-made moguls? No and no. A Mogul railroad steam engine, common on late 19th century American railroads, had the wheel arrangement of 2-6-0, meaning 2 leading wheels, 6 driver wheels and no trailing wheels. The Mogul 2-6-0 was known for its strength, as is Edgemont.

Kimball Kiotes

The coyote is the state animal of South Dakota, and Kimball chose a more alliterative, phonetic version by calling themselves the Kiotes. Kimball also competes as a co-op with White Lake to become the WildKats.

Lake Preston Divers

Think more Greg Louganis than SCUBA on this one. Lake Preston is home of the first swimming pool that came equipped with a diving board in the state.

Newell Irrigators

Newell is the only high school in the country with a nickname honoring mechanical farming devices used to water crops and fields. The area supplies water to surrounding farmland.

Pine Ridge Thorpes

From the Pine Ridge website: “The school has had various mascots since 1879. Known first as the Pine Ridge Indians, Pine Ridge Braves, and Oglala Indians, then renamed as the Oglala Community Scarlet Warriors until 1957 when the high school mascot was changed to the Thorpes in honor of the Olympic Champion, Jim Thorpe. Oglala Community Thorpes later was renamed the Pine Ridge Thorpes in 1983.”

Rapid City Central Cobblers

Yes, a cobbler is a job (shoe mender/maker), but these Cobblers are named after an important man in the school’s history. Coach Euclid Cobb led the Central football team to 144 wins, 43 ties and 13 losses, including his undefeated teams in 1922, ’23, ’25, ’27, ’31, ’32 and ’43.

Sturgis Scoopers

According to the school’s website, the history of “Scooptown” was derived from the nickname given to Sturgis by the cavalrymen stationed at nearby Fort Meade in the late 1800s. Cavalrymen, who claimed they were “scooped” every payday by the merchants of Sturgis began referring to Sturgis as “Scooptown.” Merchants didn’t mind the nickname and claimed that the cavalrymen spent so much money in Sturgis that it could be literally “scooped” from the streets.

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