Juneau students pick Huskies as combined high school team mascot

A husky.
A husky. (Creative Commons photo by Zach Inglis)

The combined teams of Juneau-Douglas: Yadaa.at Kalé, Thunder Mountain and Yaakoosge Daakahidi high schools will compete under a new mascot: the Huskies.

The Juneau School District announced the pick Wednesday. Students of all three schools voted this week for the Huskies over Ravens, Miners, Phoenix and Juneau United, the latter of which they had previously been competing as without a mascot. The colors will be black, silver and white.

The Huskies were also the Douglas High School mascot back in the day, before Douglas and Juneau high schools merged in 1956.

Judy Ripley was part of the last graduating class of Douglas High School in 1955 and is pleased with the pick.

“H-U-S-K-I-E-S. Yay Huskies!” the former cheerleader said with a laugh. “I think it would be quite nice if the united team used that name.”

The district said Huskies embody the strength and endurance of Juneau sports teams.

The new mascot is specifically for district-wide teams and activities, like the football and cheer teams. Thunder Mountain-specific teams will remain the Falcons; likewise with JD’s Crimson Bears.

It could create the occasional identity issue. A 2012 story at maxpreps.com, a CBS Sports site, looked at the most popular Alaska high school mascots and noted nine other schools with Huskies as their mascot. It was tied for the third most popular Alaska high school mascot at the time.

The state’s school activities governing body approved the Juneau School District’s partially combined teams in 2017. School district activities official Darryl Smith said the mascot change will be effective in the fall 2019.

Jeremy Hsieh

Local News Reporter, KTOO

I dig into questions about the forces and institutions that shape Juneau, big and small, delightful and outrageous. What stirs you up about how Juneau is built and how the city works?

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