Introducing the Baxter Bolts

BAXTER — After months of uncertainty following a departure from the 28-year CMB sports agreement, the Baxter Community School District’s announcement Thursday of the student body’s choice for a new mascot was “electrifying.”

In a district-wide assembly with many Baxter citizens in attendance, staff announced that beginning in fall 2017 the school will be known as the Baxter Bolts.

The new mascot and colors of purple, silver and black were unveiled in a video produced by Baxter CSD Technology Director Eric Padget. Set to the theme from “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the video showed the four mascot finalist — Railriders, Bulls, Knights and Bolts — and slowly eliminated them one by one with each musical phrase.

The music was accompanied with soaring rhetoric which read:

“One era draws to a close, a new one opens. Your voices have been heard, your votes have been counted. Our future has been determined, and it’s just beginning. Our time is now ... Do you hear thunder?”

The video climaxed with the new logo and colors of the Baxter Bolts to the tune of AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” with purple, silver and black balloons falling from the ceiling.

Baxter K-12 students chose their new mascot and colors via ballot, and staff said only students took part in the vote.

The new Baxter Bolts logo, and several variations for the different sports team uniforms, were designed by Baxter K-5 Principal Josh Russell. They were displayed at the end of Thursday’s assembly on sample football helmets and uniforms modeled by Baxter High School students.

The video also included some congratulatory messages from central Iowa sportscasters including Keith Murphy and Andy Fales of WHO TV-13, radio personalities Ross Peterson and Andrew Downs from 1460 KXNO, former Baxter High School student athletes and Iowa State University head football coach Matt Campbell.

Baxter CSD Superintendent Todd Martin said Thursday’s event was meant to rally students and the town after several months of tough negotiations with Collins-Maxwell CSD which failed to resolve differences in a proposed whole-grade sharing agreement.

“Part of our goal today was to bring us back together, to unify us as a school and as a community and all get behind our new mascot and school colors,” Martin said. “What better time of year for the excitement. Hopefully, that will take us into next year and we’ll be able to keep the momentum going.”

One life-long resident sitting in the bleachers to witness the Baxter Bolts unveiling was class of 1951 graduate Alice Robinson. She was a Baxter Bulldog and a part of the first class to have 8-man football in Baxter. The construction on the first football field wasn’t complete when Robinson was in high school, and she remembers the team playing four away games that first season.

There to witness the transition from Bulldog to Raider, Robinson is excited to see the shift back to a sole Baxter identity as the Bolts.

“I like the name. I think it will be exciting for the community. It turned out well,” Robinson said.

A few bleachers over sat Baxter eighth-grader Olivia Aker. She joined hundreds of Baxter kids in stomping as the thunder began to roll in the video. She may not have cast her ballot for Bolt, but she’s proud to wear the new school colors and emblem nonetheless.

“I’m so excited about Baxter Bolts,” she said. “I’m excited to have hometown spirit and go for something new. I’m excited to be our own people, not share with someone else but just be ourselves.”

The staff and administrators have known the results of the vote for 23 days. While warming up for the post-reveal student/staff basketball game, Baxter High School Principal Rob Luther said the students’ reaction was more than he could have hoped for.

“It’s a relief,” said Luther, who is also the current CMB head football coach. “I’ve known for quite a while. It’s like Christmas when you’ve bought the presents but you can’t have your kids open them yet. It’s great to let the kids know what we’re going to be, to be able to start planning with our kids for uniforms and colors and rebranding our school. It’s exciting right now.”

To add to the electricity of the Baxter Bolt unveiling, Luther announced Thursday that the school has been given the OK by the Iowa High School Athletic Association to play 8-man football in the fall, although the Bolts will not be in an official district. The Baxter school board accepted an invitation in November to join the Iowa Star Conference in the fall.

With that clearance by IHSAA, the football coach said it’s “full speed ahead” for Baxter.

“We hope to be able to play every sports team there is just at a smaller level,” Luther said.

Luther took to the podium before the announcement and told the students that change can’t happen quickly, character is important and school spirit is “the most powerful thing anyone can have.”

“Let’s make sure we honor the letters across the wall that we see all around us for the rest of the (school year),” Luther said pointing to the Raider symbols painted around the gym. “We are proud CMB Raiders, and we’ve been proud CMB Raiders since 1988. Our seniors sitting in here and all of our student athletes will finish this year CMB Raiders.”

Contact Mike Mendenhall at mmendenhall@newtondailynews.com