Best high school mascot in Washington: Top 10 candidates

From Papermakers to Bantams to Spudders, meet the best high school mascots in Washington

Washington high schools prove you can make a mascot out of just about anything.

A personified machine that makes paper? Sure. A potato? Why not. An acorn? Absolutely.

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 Washington poll posted Nov. 30 on highschool.si.com and will stay open through Dec. 7:

Vote: Which is the best high school mascot in Washington?

Here are the top 10 high school mascots in Washington:

Blaine Borderites

Blaine is right on the Canada border, thus they’re the Borderites. Simple.

Camas Papermakers

When you think about the amount of paper that high schools go through every year, it makes a lot of sense to devote a mascot to its production. Somebody has to make it. Camas’ physical mascot is a life-like paper-rolling machine, in honor of the town's founding industry, the production of paper goods at the Georgia Pacific paper mill near the Columbia River.

Charles Wright Tarriers

No, not the Terriers. “Tarrier” is an Irish/Scotch ethnic stereotype, with one definition meaning a “loiterer” and another saying it’s a kind of railroad worker.

Clarkston Bantams

Originally the Sandpipers, Clarkston became the Bantams in 1937. They've also been called the Fighting Bantams and Mighty Bantams. The impressive Bantam (a rooster) logo the school uses today (see above) was designed in the early 2000s by an art teacher at the school.

Fort Vancouver Trappers

Originally called Vancouver High School when it opened in the late 1800s, the high school is named after Fort Vancouver, an early trading outpost near the Columbia River across the Oregon border. The high school chose the Trappers as its mascot in honor of the fur trade in the area in the early 19th century.

Kalama Chinooks

Kalama recently worked with the Chinook tribe to rebrand the school's mascot, moving away from Native American imagery to a mascot showing a fierce-looking Chinook salmon.

Lincoln Abes

Roosevelt High School in Minnesota has the Teddies, and Lincoln High School in Tacoma has the Abes. You have to respect Lincoln's honest take on one of the country’s best-respected presidents. On a related note, there are seven Hoover high schools in the United States, but none is called the Herbs.

Oakville Acorns

Courtesy of Oakville High School

Even the mightiest of all oaks starts as an acorn, but Oakville’s athletic personification of the Acorn in its gym is something so mighty-looking that even He-Man might blush (see the background image above).

Ridgefield Spudders

The Spudders’ mascot is a potato, and one of its feeder elementary schools, Union Ridge, is the home of the Tater Tots. Excellent taste and presentation.

Shelton Highclimbers

If climbing is your thing, it’s a good goal to try to climb high. And Shelton High School is just south of the Olympic National Forest, so high-climbing opportunities abound.

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