Savage Words: What will BV’s new high school mascot be called?

Weekly newspapers don’t always have the best chance of breaking news. Because the news is reported weekly, and not daily, it’s obviously tough to be the first with breaking news.

But I’ve got a whopper here, and I’ve been sitting on it for a couple of weeks. And now, the time has come.

I’ve got it on good authority that the Metro Athletic Conference is set to expand for the 2029-30 school year with the addition of one more high school. Currently the conference consists of the five high schools in Sioux Falls (Washington, Lincoln, Bishop O’Gorman, Roosevelt and Jefferson), along with Harrisburg and Brandon Valley.

That’s about to jump by one more school in three years, and that new school is coming to the Brandon Valley School District.

Scheduled to be built on the east side of town near the new Burkman Valley Elementary School, the new Brandon Valley High School doesn’t have a name yet. But, I’d assume Brandon Valley East would be a logical choice.

But I don’t know about that. Folks with a better grasp on the logistics of the school and what it will be called are going to make that decision.

But as a sportswriter, I’m terribly interested in what the new mascot name will be for Brandon Valley East High School.

Will it be similar to Lynx? Like maybe, Wildcats? That wouldn’t be too terribly unique as there are already three schools in South Dakota named Wildcats. What’s worse would be Tigers – there are 12 of those in South Dakota, including Metro Conference foe Harrisburg.

Perhaps the new Brandon Valley East should be named after the biggest enemy of a Lynx. I looked it up. The biggest threat to the Lynx is ‘habitat loss’. I dunno, the Brandon Valley East Habitat Losers just doesn’t roll off the tongue. 

When Sioux Falls Jefferson opened in 2021, there was a ton of debate in sportswriter and sports broadcasting circles of what the mascot name should be. Some were really, really bad.

I don’t know how many times I heard people in my industry say that the mascot should start with a “J.” One that started to gain traction was the Jefferson Jedis, sort of a spin-off of Star Wars. I’m happy to say that didn’t stick.

With that school of thought, the new Brandon Valley East mascot should start with an “E.” Eagles, perhaps? Again, I hope not. There are eight schools with that mascot name in South Dakota.

I guess it really doesn’t matter what the new name of the school, or mascot name is. What I’m excited about is the expansion of the Metro Athletic Conference. It needed a boost to eight schools.

Imagine the season-opening football game in three years when a potential matchup could be Brandon Valley vs. Brandon Valley East. How cool would that be? And bragging rights? You can imagine what that’s going to be like in three years as footballers from Brandon and Valley Springs go up against each other in an intra-city rivalry game.

So, now that I’ve gotten your attention, it’s time for a breath. 

Take a look at the top of this paper, and notice the date. April 1, or April Fool’s Day.

Gotcha.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I told Brandon Valley school district superintendent Dr. Jarod Larson that I was writing this April Fool’s column. I just wanted to give him a heads-up before his phone started blowing up on Wednesday morning with questions of a new high school coming to town.

The last thing I wanted was heart palpitations for Dr. Larson. He thanked me, after a long exhale when I told him. 

He did have this to say to me: “It’s very important to know that we will be one high school. We have absolutely no intentions of being two, and we have strategic plans to be one high school.”

OK, I got that in for him.

But still … gotcha!