It's the Wolfpack maybe

School colors chosen but no mascot yet for Glacier High

The Kalispell school board made a decision on the Glacier High School mascot Tuesday night almost.

In an effort to be sensitive to ranchers and others who have had it up to here with trouble over wolves, theyre going to give you a month to let them know what you think of the Glacier High Wolfpack.

That is their mascot of choice.

It comes on a unanimous recommendation from the committee thats been weighing the issue over the past month and a half.

Trustees liked it. The first of two motions Tuesday night reflected that, when Anna Marie Bailey moved to accept and adopt the Wolfpack. But a second motion followed, tabling a final decision for another month to be sure the majority of the community can be happy with the choice.

They did, however, pick the school colors.

Those will be navy and green, with a bright white offset. Green wasnt in the running until the last committee meeting, when participants realized that maroon and silver just didnt work so well with navy. Red was great with navy, until it came time to wear the white visiting-team uniforms and the blue and white looked much like Columbia Falls and Bigfork.

Then green surfaced as a sharp-looking contrast with navy, and seemed a nice way to represent the landscape of a Wolfpack.

It took several more meetings to decide on a mascot, however.

In its final meeting Monday night, the mascot-naming committee ousted a suggestion for Wolverines and quickly moved on to the remaining two ideas the Wolfpack and the Avalanche.

The biggest downfall with the Avalanche is the lack of a mascot, some character to be a visual Avalanche, District 5 Superintendent Darlene Schottle reported back to the trustees Tuesday.

Schottle chaired the committees five meetings as members gathered and weeded out more than 500 community suggestions before wrangling over pros and cons for the final three picks.

There just wasnt enough snap, enough appeal, she explained, nor an immediate image that springs to mind when you think of an Avalanche.

But the Wolfpack had nearly everything going for it: It has the most possible visuals, a great logo potential, fabulous slogans and great support from the student body.

Nearly everything, that is. People in the Rocky Mountain West need no reminder of political turmoil caused by people who want to protect threatened wolves and people who want them to stop killing their livestock.

The committee considered that, Schottle said. But it didnt seem the negative connotations would outweigh the positive aspects, especially considering the students affinity for the idea of a pack symbolizing the team spirit.

Trustee Eve Dixon had another take on it.

I still feel this is too negative, too political for this community, Dixon said. But its interesting because the kids did like the Wolfpack and the adults did like the Avalanche.

Dixon is an open supporter of the Avalanche, and even came up with some fun logo suggestions to help bridge the visual gap.

Brad Walterskirchen, who said it took a two-hour trip to the gym for him to get in a 15-minute workout, was amazed at the attention the issue received. But he wanted to know whether the committee considered the Cut Bank Wolves just over 120 miles to the east, or a negative reaction from ranchers.

Schottle said the committee reasoned that Cut Bank is a smaller school that Glacier High wont compete with. Besides, they were more concerned about what they would see locally.

Mark Lalum, a former ag teacher with long ties to the agricultural community, passed along what he had heard from a few livestock producers.

Basically, for those of us not involved in agriculture, particularly livestock, we cant understand the impact, Lalum said. Its been really detrimental to them, its been contentious, a big frustration, and politically charged to the stock grower.

Their request was, Please, do anything but that, because it has been detrimental to them since Day One.

In the end, trustees still agreed that the idea of team spirit being fostered by a Wolfpack was a strong draw, even though they sympathize with those livestock growers.

I like the Wolfpack, board chairman Don Murray said, but maybe we could, rather than act tonight, we could accept the recommendation, take it under advisement for a month and give people an opportunity to voice their concerns.

Thats what they did. Contact trustees or the school with your input.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com.