Coyote, comet make the cut as Dixie narrows mascot choices to 6

ST. GEORGE — Now that the preliminary voting for a new Dixie State College mascot is over, it's time to say goodbye to the losers and get ready for the final round of voting.

"We narrowed the list down to the top six choices," said Phil Alletto, Dixie State College vice president of student services and a member of the mascot selection committee.

"All in all, we had great support with the online voting. We just want people to remember two important facts here. One, that we will still be 'the Rebels' no matter what the mascot is, and two, that this process has been under way since January."

So which of the 25 mascot choices made it to the second round? If you selected the red hawk, roadrunner, scorpion or coyote, then you had lots of company. If your vote was cast for the dragon/dinosaur/reptile-type creature, or for something along the lines of a blaze/sun/comet/fireball, then your candidate also made it to the list of the top six mascot choices.

For those who voted for a rock, bulldog, ghost or ox as the new mascot for Dixie State College, condolences are in order. Also dumped were the bat, bear, bobcat, bull/longhorn, chipmunk, crow, desert hare, raptor, Gila monster, horse/colt, mountain lion, pit bull, raccoon, rattlesnake and wolf.

"We really began this process two months ago when we started soliciting input for a new mascot," he said. "We had hundreds of suggestions and comments. We even had people ask why we had to change in the first place."

The old mascot, Rodney Rebel, was a Confederate soldier-turned Indiana Jones type of guy that the college decided to retire several years ago, Alletto said.

"He (Rodney Rebel) really had nothing at all to do with Dixie. Some people thought it meant Dixie had a Confederate past or that it had something to do with slavery," he said. "Dixie State College never had any connection to anything like that, so the Rodney Rebel image didn't make sense."

Several professional artists have been commissioned to create renderings of the top six mascot choices, Alletto said.

"These artists all have different backgrounds, so we think their renderings they produce will all have a different look. Once the renderings are complete, we'll post them on the Web and ask everyone to vote one more time," he added.

The artists' renderings should be posted on the college Web site, www.dixie.edu, within the next couple of weeks for public voting, Alletto said.

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E-mail: nperkins@desnews.com