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Falmouth schools to drop 'Yachtsmen' mascot

FALMOUTH (WGME) – Beginning next fall, the Falmouth Yachtsmen will no longer be known as the “Yachtsmen.”

Maine high school sports make changes to mask requirements

The Falmouth School Board has voted unanimously to retire the Yachtsmen name. The process started a year ago, when an inter-cultural and awareness committee through the district decided that the nickname and mascot didn't fully represent the entire student body. From there, students and faculty got behind the idea and began reaching out to community members and alumni.

Falmouth Athletic Director Jim Coffey will be putting a committee together to help select the new nickname and logo.

"We want to keep that ship wheel,” Coffey said. “We want to keep those colors, and so it will continue to be some type of nautical theme and that ship wheel will still be the prominent thing so it's a little easier in a way, because we can narrow our search a little bit and it's an easier transition for us maybe than other schools."

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Maine high school will do away with ‘Yachtsmen’ nickname

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FALMOUTH, Maine (AP) — Time for Yachtie to walk the plank.

A Maine school system has decided to ditch the nickname and mascot “Yachtsmen” for its high school sports teams. The Falmouth mascot had been portrayed via a costume character named Yachtie, a bearded sailor, who has not appeared at games for a couple years.

The “Yachtsmen” nickname drew criticism of gender-based bias and elitism in recent years. Recent student surveys also found that many students disliked it or were indifferent to it altogether.

The school board in Falmouth voted unanimously to put an end to the nickname Monday. It had been in use since at least 1950.

School officials hope to settle on a new mascot in time for next school year.

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Falmouth High School will do away with Yachtsmen nickname

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Time for Yachtie to walk the plank.

The Falmouth school system has decided to ditch the nickname and mascot “Yachtsmen” for its high school sports teams. The Falmouth mascot had been portrayed via a costume character named Yachtie, a bearded sailor, who has not appeared at games for a couple years.

The “Yachtsmen” nickname drew criticism of gender-based bias and elitism in recent years. Recent student surveys also found that many students disliked it or were indifferent to it altogether.

The school board in Falmouth voted unanimously to put an end to the nickname Monday. It had been in use since at least 1950.

School officials hope to settle on a new mascot in time for next school year.

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Falmouth High School drops mascot, school to change controversial nickname

FALMOUTH (WGME) -- Falmouth High School is dropping the "Yachtsmen" nickname and mascot.

It's been a source of controversy for several years.

[Scarborough parents, children ask Gov. Mills to help bring back in-person learning]

Some say it's not inclusive and doesn't represent the entire student body.

The school will keep its blue and gold colors and the ship's wheel logo.

[Maine high school sports make changes to mask requirements]

The district hopes to come up with a new mascot by the time students return this fall.

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Northern Forecaster

Falmouth’s ‘yachtie’ mascot could get the heave-ho.

Soon to be released are findings of a town survey on changing the high school's team name and mascot to be more representative of the student body.

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“Yachtie” Contributed / Falmouth Schools

If some students get their way, Falmouth High School will get rid of “Yachtie,” the school’s mascot, and the “snooty” Yachtsmen team name along with him.

The town, in a survey that closed Sunday, has been seeking residents’ opinions on changing the team name. The findings of that survey, conducted on behalf of the school board, and ideas for new mascots will be shared at a future meeting.

Falmouth High School sophomore Caroline Rozan said she and other students want a mascot that better represents the school.

The high school and middle school civil rights team presented the findings of their schoolwide surveys to the school board a few months ago. Of the students responding to the survey administered in their home rooms, 60% said they actively dislike the mascot. Representing a white man and the wealthy sport of yachting, the mascot and the team name do not represent the study body, they said. And, both lack the energy befitting athletes’ fighting spirit, they said.

“Being a minority, the only one on a team, and having a white mascot does not make me feel included,” sophomore Caroline Rozan, a student athlete and civil rights team member told The Forecaster.

“I remember I was playing in Casco, and a girl said ‘ you  go to  Falmouth ? That’s a white school. ‘ P eople give you a look,” said Rozan, who played hockey and is on the track team.

“P eople of different sex origins don’t feel included. The Yachtsman is a rich white man with a yacht. It m akes   Falmouth sound snooty,” she said.  Advertisement

She and other students say they’ve heard disparaging remarks about the Yachtsmen name and mascot from other schools. A student from another school told Rozan the Yachtsmen “sounds like daddy’s money,” she said. 

A undated newspaper cartoon portrays a player on the Yachtsmen basketball team. Courtesy photo / Falmouth Schools

The civil rights team’s survey showed that at least 60% of respondents find no school pride in Yachtie, as evidenced by the fact that his likeness is found nowhere on campus.  Students have more pride in the ship’s wheel depicted on the school crest and exhibited through campus, they said.

Working off the ship’s wheel, Rozan said one of her ideas for a name replacement name is the Navigators.

“Navigators has no connotations to race, sex, gender or age,” but also is still acknowledges sailing and the compass around the school, Rozan said.

At a February School Committee meeting, Chairperson Whitney Bruce said this issue is important to the board, and they want more input.

“The goal of a mascot is to unite rather than divide them or leave them feeling ambivalent,” Bruce said. “I t’d be a missed opportunity to unite and have spirit.”

Oddly enough, the Yachtsmen name came about because of a sports writer’s mistake, according to an old but undated newspaper article provided Bruce provided to The Forecaster.  The article said the sportswriter mistook a clipper ship depicted on a Falmouth basketball player’s team jacket for a yacht and called the team the Yachtsmen in a sports story. The name stuck.

According to David Farnham of the Falmouth Historical Society, the name first appeared in newspapers in a Dec. 12, 1948, issue of the Portland Press Herald, in a story titled “Scarborough Faces Tough Test Friday,” and the oldest reference to the name in the school yearbooks was in 1950.

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