Driving through a town today, I noted that the high school team was the “Foxes”. This made me wonder with a half-chuckle if the girls team was the Vixens. I doubted it, of course, and looking up the school tells me that they are the Lady Foxes.
My own school was the Trojans with the girls called the Trojanettes. Our crosstown rivals were the Mustangs and I could have sworn the girls teams were the Fillies. Looking now, it seems that “Fillies” is only used for the dance team and everyone is a Mustang regardless of gender. My son tells me that his school was the Lady Wildcats.
Is this still a common thing? Anyone know of a school where there was any push to change it?
We were the Cougars. I don’t even remember if the girls’ teams had a different name. Beyond track and cross-country, I didn’t pay attention to the sports side of things.
Where I coached, it was the Huskies and the Lady Huskies.
They just add “Lady” when it is necessary to distinguish. They also put “Junior” in front of the junior high team, when necessary. The band may or may not have the mascot name. It’s either “The ____ High School/Junior High Marching band” or “Your (Junior) _____ Tigers Marching Band.”
Our boys’ teams were the Squires. Our girls’ teams did not exist, as I went to an all-male Catholic high school.
My alma mater ceased to exist about 25 years ago, when declining enrollment led the diocese to combine the three Catholic schools (two all-male, one all-female) in Green Bay into one, new, co-ed school. Both the boys teams and the girls teams at the new school share the same name (Tritons).
I can’t find a cite, but I remember reading that years ago in Reader’s Digest there was an agricultural college somewhere out west where the men’s teams were called the Cattlefeeders, and the women’s teams were called the Cattlefeederettes.
The boys team, presumably. I think the normal area of overlap for team sports was in basketball. Otherwise, the boys had football/baseball and the girls had volleyball and tennis. Solo sports like track were just “women’s track” or “men’s swimming”.
I get the “why should the women be different for basketball?” which is part of why I wondered if any schools were changing it and just going for a single team name regardless of the team gender.
Yeah, I got it.
My high school did that “Lady” thing and I found it patronizing then as much as I do now. There is the implication that there is the real team, and then the lady’s team. Otherwise, why not differentiate via “Gentlemen”? It’s ridiculous that this is still going on and worse, that many don’t see it as insulting.
When I asked my daughter’s school if they used “Lady”, their response was “Why would we do that?. Teams are designated via “men’s” and “women’s”.
