The end is near for Yuma School District-1’s Mascot Madness.
Outlaws and Raptors were announced earlier this week as the finalists, and voting closes at 12 noon on Friday, September 22. The new mascot will be announced next Friday, September 29.
One can vote by Friday’s deadline by accessing the Google form found at the district’s website and Facebook page, or email your selection to [email protected], or hand deliver your vote to the District Office at 1115 S. Ash St. Only one vote is allowed per email account.
During last week’s Final Four voting, the Raptors beat the Aggies, and the Outlaws took out the Pioneers.
A total of 1,026 ballots were cast. The Outlaws received 665 votes to the Pioneers’ 313, while 48 ballots were left blank. The Raptors had a relatively close one against the Aggies, winning 494-422, with 110 blank ballots.
Voting has been robust since the process began in August. Yuma-1 first put out a call for nominations, and the response was so quick and overwhelming, the district cut the nomination process to just a few days.
A total of 96 nominations were submitted by the deadline. There were a total of 155 submissions, 153 via Google Docs, one dropped off at the district office, and one via email. District leaders determined 81 were valid, with 15 being rejected.
It was decided to put the 81 nominations into one of 16 groups. The top vote-getters of those groups then were placed in the Sweet 16 bracket, which has been pared down each week until now there are the two finalists.
Mascot suggestions eliminated, besides Aggies and Pioneers last week, have been Yotes/Coyotes, Threshers, Bison, Hawks, Cyclones, Vipers, Storm/Red Storm, Stallions, Antelopes/Lopers, Wildcats, Yuma Nation and Yetis.
As most are aware, a law passed by the Colorado Legislature during the 2021 session gave schools with American Indian mascots until June 2022 to eliminate all imagery and wording, as monitored by the Colorado Commission on Indian Affairs. School districts faced a hefty monthly fine if they did not meet the deadline. New mascots also were to be approved by the commission.
Yuma-1 successfully met all the eradication requirements. It also started a process early in the 2021-22 school year of having the public submit new mascot suggestions. The list eventually was whittled down to finalists.
However, the Yuma-1 Board finally voted early in 2022 to “just be Yuma” for the 2022–23 school year, and revisit it at a later date.
And now Yuma is about to have its first new mascot since 1935, when it changed from Cornhuskers to Indians.
