This Iowa School Has The 2025 Best School Mascot In The U.S.

We never forget our school mascots.

Whether you loved high school or hated it, one thing you always remember from it: the mascot. In recent years, some mascots have become controversial, whether they're American Indian-inspired or, in the case of one school in Illinois who are the Mighty Midgets, you can see how that would be deemed problematic.

That Controversy: Illinois Takes Another Step Towards Banning High School's Mascot

But on the other side of the mascot interpretation are beloved mascots. And Iowa is apparently home to the best in the U.S.

In an NCAA-tournament-style bracket from Sports Illustrated, it's one high school mascot to rule them all.

The winners are the Center Point-Urbana Stormin' Pointers.

The Stormin' Pointers beat out 68 other high school mascots to win the title.

In round 1, they beat the Somers Tuskers (New York), and round 2 saw the Iowa school win over Annandale Atoms (Virginia). In round 3, they beat out the William Allen Canaries (Pennsylvania), and in the Elite Eight, they beat Wilde Lake Wildecats (Maryland), and in the Final Four, they won over Bryn Mawr Mawrtians (also Maryland).

Then in the final battle, the Stormin' Pointers beat Morse Shipbuilders (Maine) to claim the 2025 Best Mascot title.

How The Stormin' Pointer Mascot Came To Be

The Stormin' Pointer mascot happened when Center Point schools merged with Urbana schools, back in 1989. Center Point's mascot was a Pointer and Urbana's was a cyclone, so they merged the two mascots together to create the Stormin' Pointers.

Center Point-Urbana aren't the first Midwest school to win SI's Best Mascot in the U.S. In 2022, the Rhinelander Hodags from Wisconsin won the title.