Greenwood, Loyal school districts select mascot for combined teams

Since the Loyal and Greenwood school districts began discussing their future collaboration with each other, one question has always lingered in the back of their minds, 'If we are separately the Loyal Greyhounds and the Greenwood Indians, who are we when we're together?' Thanks to a recent survey completed by students of both districts, the schools now know the answer.

The Loyal-Greenwood Wolves will be the team other school districts’ teams will face in sports in which the schools are co-oped, following approval by the Loyal and Greenwood school boards during their regular meetings, both held Feb. 23. The two boards unanimously approved the mascot, and the accompanying color scheme of grey, white and black with red/maroon accents for the co-oped team.

“It’s a good balance,” said Greenwood School District Administrator Joe Green. “It (the Wolf mascot) contains the spirit of the dog that represents Loyal and the native spirit of the Indians. That was one of the most common comments we had in the survey.”

Teams immediately affected by the mascot change will include the middle and high school softball teams and middle school baseball team in the spring; and the middle and high school cross country teams and middle school football team in the fall. The high school football team will become co-oped in the fall of 2024, and the team will adopt the Wolves moniker then.

The process to select the mascot for the combined athletic team was started earlier this month when the middle school and high school students at Loyal and Greenwood were asked to come up with ideas for a potential mascot. The schools received 87 responses, with some students offering the same idea. After going through the results, the top three candidates were selected: the Wolves, Patriots and Eagles.

These three mascots were voted on by the same group of students. Wolves received the top vote with 148 votes, or roughly 50 percent of the vote. The Patriot and Eagle mascots each received roughly a quarter of the votes.

At the Greenwood board meeting, where its half of the measure was approved, members of the board asked a few questions to clarify what taking on this new mascot would mean for the community. Green said the Wolves mascot will only be used for athletics where the Loyal and Greenwood schools were co-oped.

“This is for co-oped teams only,” clarified Green. “They’re still the Greyhounds and we’re still the Indians. But when we’re co-oped for sports, we will be the Wolves.”

The next step in the process to establish their new collaborative mascot, Green said, will be to design the logos and decide what their mascot will look like. That task will be handled by the Loyal School District, who Green said had an agreement with a graphic artist out of Marshfield to come up with options. Once some ideas are brought back, both schools will look them over and decide what style works best for them.

“We don’t want a puppy, but we don't want a Hercules dog that scares children either,” said Green.

The school districts are looking forward to having a unique symbol for the combined sports teams.

“There was a lot of very good thought in it… I know for the last years, for softball it was, ‘Well, what are you, Loyal-Greenwood? Is there a nickname or a mascot?’ So this is something the kids can own,” said Loyal School District Administrator Chris Lindner.

Editor Valorie Brecht contributed to this report.