Grizzly gets students in an up…ROAR

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when someone thinks of Granite Bay High School? Grizzlies.

Being the backbone of any school’s personality, a mascot is what produces school spirit, motivates sports teams and ultimately affects the way people view the school.

So what do the students here at GBHS think of the ever-so-humble grizzly that belongs to our school?
Most of the students here would agree that this beast of an animal does an accurate job at reflecting our school’s character.

“I think the grizzly is a great animal to reflect GBHS’ sports life,” sophomore Michael Geraghty said. “It shows we are very fierce and want to win, and as you can see from our tribe, we love to cheer like the wild grizzlies that we are. Plus it has the same logo as California, which is cool because that’s where we live.”

The competitive edge that the grizzly bear has in the wild is also reflective of out athletic performance over other schools.

“Being the grizzlies means that we’re fierce mammals,” sophomore Marc Ellis said. “They’re at the top of the food chain, just like us as a school, plus they are very intimidating.”

The fact is, a school’s mascot is a major factor in stimulating a school’s spirit, a competitive quality that GBHS seems to have quite a lot of recently.

“Regardless of the occasion,” Geraghty said. “If it’s a school sports event, I’m always down to unleash my inner Grizzly. If we were any other animal, I wouldn’t get nearly as fired up.”
That is the purpose of a mascot after all, to inspire school spirit and get students excited about school events.
“A good mascot has to really fire you up,” sophomore Owen McNiff said. “You have to want to be that mascot. You have to feel it, and the grizzly makes me do that.”

Without the Grizzly, some students would venture to say that we would lose a lot of our drive, that the spirit which pushes our sports teams to victory just wouldn’t be there.

“Mascots are 100% important. It’s … the symbol of our school, and it’s the life and breath of our spirit,”
Geraghty said. “I really don’t think we would be as aggressive if we didn’t have the mascot we do.”

Not only does the mascot get students more excited about school events, it also helps athletes perform at their best by increasing crowd support.

“I was in the grizzly bear mascot costume on Sports-A-Rama night,” sophomore Jackson Rodriguez said. “I definitely would say that the way people get fired up over the mascot makes the people in the event try harder.”

Lots of Granite Bay High sports fans even think that the effect of the grizzly goes beyond that of a conventional mascot.

“It’s more of a community rather than just an animal,” sophomore Owen McNiff said. “I feel like everyone who cheers for Granite Bay is part of an association of people who are automatically friends with one another. Like a secret clan of GBHS fans.”

Although most students are proud to be a part of the grizzly community, some still see room for improvement when it comes to our mascot.

“I’m happy being the Grizzlies, but if I could be any mascot, I would definitely be the dolphins,” Marc Ellis said. “They are … as dominant as grizzlies, only they live in water and are way smarter.”

Mascots are generally either ‘hit or miss’ when it comes to selecting a good one. Although we seem to be on the lucky side, some other local schools’ aren’t as popular as our grizzly.

“The Rocklin Thunder is literally the saddest excuse for a mascot I’ve ever heard of,” Ellis said. “How are you supposed to get intimidated by a mascot that isn’t even tangible? It’s a sound, and it’s not even dangerous.”

Ellis isn’t the only GBHS student to find some local schools’ mascots to be uninspiring.

“The Del Oro eagles are pretty lame,” McNiff said. “What are you going to do, fly all over me?”

Overall, the students and surrounding community of Granite Bay are, for the most part, happy to be considered Grizzlies, and wouldn’t settle for anything less when it comes to what represents our school.

“Having the grizzly as our mascot makes it easy to have pride in our school,” said Ellis, “How can’t you when you have such a powerful animal.”