This week’s Power Rankings are cancelled.
No requiem for the Winlock Police Department.
No “Our s*** don’t stink, but our recreational drugs do” jokes about the feds paying to check Washington sewage plants to determine how much marijuana we’re smoking. (I had a side bit about Centralia Wastewater Operations Manager Richard Dickinson closing his eyes and crossing his fingers in hope that they’d pick the fine Goodrich Road facility as one of the random test sites.)
Not even a single crack about Pe Ell updating its criminal code for the first time since 1979. (“Still illegal: the metric system and Heineken.”)
And I’m cutting a whole (hypothetical) paragraph on Adna High School updating its mascot to look less like Captain Hook and more like a realistic Somali pirate, complete with an assault rifle.
Instead, we’ll focus on animals — or, rather, a specific animal: the bearcat.
W.F. West High School unveiled its new mascot logo — designed by graphic artist and Class of 1975 alum John Mason — late last week, and the public reaction has been less than cordial.
The pearl-clutching (I discovered a “Save the Old Bearcat” Facebook page Tuesday night, with 170 likes; I checked again Wednesday morning and it was over 1,000) centers on the fact that the new Bearcat — a flat-headed, red-eyed, whiskered beast with black fur and bared teeth — looks nothing like the old mascot, which is to say the new mascot actually looks like a bearcat.
And it can only look like a real bearcat if it stops looking like the old Bearcat, which was a wildcat hybrid that often prompted Bearcat detractors to ask true Bearcats whether a bearcat was a real animal, as Bearcat detractors and roughly 95 percent of the true Bearcats have never seen a real-live bearcat.
Here’s a breakdown of the concerns, and keep in mind that it’s first and foremost an ASB matter that the student leadership can address in the fall.
It takes away from the history of the school: There’s been about 15 Bearcat logos since 1929, although this is probably the first time there’s been much publicity involved in a logo change. Typically, I think, a new logo gets slapped on the yearbook and everyone shrugs. There’s now fans refusing to wear or buy new Bearcat gear based on the logo, a bit of point-making that could easily be misconstrued as a shot at the student-athletes competing in crimson and gray. Assistant principal Tommy Elder had received or been forwarded emails from 30 displeased parties as of Wednesday afternoon, each of whom has also presumably written letters to their elected state representatives regarding a strong desire for increased education spending.
It’s ugly: That’s a matter of opinion. Personally (and it should be pointed out that I’m not a Bearcat, or a Tiger, for that matter) it’s growing on me. The consensus in the office was that the new logo looked like Gmork. (Gmork is the talking wolf in “The NeverEnding Story” that haunted my nightmares until I was about 19. I rewatched that movie last week and almost teared up. The kid’s horse sinks to death in the Swamp of Sadness! The 1980s were weird.)
It doesn’t look like a bearcat: Eh, it doesn’t look like a puma. Or a lynx. Or a cougar. Or a wildcat. Or a zephyr. Or a mountain lion. Or any of the previous logos, really, which is a big part of the concern.
The community and alumni didn’t have a say: This is true. The ASB had a big hand in it, as it’s a depiction of their mascot and ultimately a decision for the students. It’s not like any of the former W.F. West logos will no longer be accepted as fan-wear. Pretty much everyone at the school has been in on the project (and it is a project; there’s an entire 95-page branding manual that goes along with it) for over a year, and the community response will hopefully be used as a learning tool for the students involved.
The school board has seen it, and while an election campaign platform focused entirely on changing the school mascot instead of actual school issues would be hilarious (and at this point doesn’t seem to be outside the realm of possibility), it’s not really a school board decision. If the kids want the new mascot on their uniforms, scoreboard, basketball court and free T-shirts, it’s their call. As long as it’s not something offensive (a term that’s become far too ubiquitous these days), it should be fine.
We should all keep in mind that this is a sports logo, not a construction bond or any sort of actual districtwide policy change that affects learning or the opportunities afforded the students in Chehalis’ fine school system. No teaching positions or programs have been cut, and there’s no scandal brewing in the school — although, if there was, wouldn’t this be an excellent smoke-and-mirrors distraction tactic? “PAY NO ATTENTION TO THOSE MISSING ASB FUNDS AND NINE TEACHERS BOXING UP THEIR PERSONAL EFFECTS, AND BEHOLD OUR NEW MASCOT AND ITS BIOLOGICALLY CORRECT WHISKERS AND FIVE TOES!”
Also, any concerned former Bearcat should remember that the safest way to ensure teenagers embrace something is for adults to condemn it. Don’t go all parents-from-Footloose on the new mascot and expect change.
And if changing it back is of the utmost importance, the administration and student leadership need to be shown that the majority of the current students — as well as the vocal members of the alumni community — support a return of the “old” Bearcat.
Maybe a run of “Save the Bearcat” T-shirts — with the proceeds, of course, benefitting an underfunded cause within the district — is an appropriate course of action. Discontinuing the support of an upstanding school and its students based upon the look of the mascot they’ve chosen, however, is not.
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Aaron VanTuyl is The Chronicle sports editor and a columnist. If he has any costumes in his closet, they are more likely to be a pirate than a bearcat.
