This Maine High School Has One of the Best Mascots in America

Our Pine Tree State is filled with so many awesome and iconic mascots, but one in particular was recently named the runner-up for best in America!

We all have our own personal biases when it comes to high school—especially when it comes to mascots. Some of us think ours was the absolute best, while others still cringe at how lame it was, and honestly, it probably just depends on how much we enjoyed those high school years.

So, given all of that, how do you even determine what makes one high school mascot better than another—let alone the very best in the entire country?

Each year, High School On Sports Illustrated runs an NCAA Tournament-style bracket to determine the best high school mascot in America, and it’s no quick contest—it’s a full-on mascot marathon. To win it all in 2025, a mascot had to survive multiple rounds of public voting, outlasting 68 other schools in a series of close matchups to be crowned the nation’s very best.

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Alright, having covered that, which high school in Maine has one of the best mascots in the country, nearly winning top honors but ultimately finishing in second place?

According to the annual National Mascot Tournament 2025 from High School On Sports Illustrated, the Maine school that made it all the way to the finals was Morse High School in Bath—home of the Shipbuilders.

Here are the teams that the Shipbuilders faced and defeated on their way to the championship round:

• Round 1: The Clay-Battelle Cee Bees (West Virginia)
• Round 2: The Hutto Hippos (Texas)
• Sweet 16: The Newport Central Catholic Thoroughbreds (Kentucky)
• Elite Eight: The Key Obezags (Maryland)
• Final Four: The Monroe Cheesemakers (Wisconsin)

The Shipbuilders from Morse High School outlasted nearly every other mascot before falling just short in the finals to the Center Point-Urbana Stormin' Pointers.

The Stormin' Pointers, representing the Center Point-Urbana Community School District in Iowa, are this year’s official High School On Sports Illustrated National Mascot Tournament champions.

Here’s a look at some of the past champions from this very same bracket challenge—now joined by the Stormin’ Pointers:

• 2024: Coalinga Horned Toads (California)
• 2023: Cary Imps (North Carolina)
• 2022: Rhinelander Hodags (Wisconsin)

And there you have it: the Morse High School Shipbuilders in Bath are officially one of the best mascots in the entire country!

What are your thoughts on the results from the National Mascot Tournament 2025? What’s your favorite high school mascot? We’d love to hear from you—feel free to join the conversation by messaging us on the app!

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