By Patrick Lanni | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
#NJmascotchallenge: Who is the top N.J. HS mascot?
Matt Smith | For NJ Advance Media
WOW. This first leg of the #NJmascotchallenge has been a blast. Mascots for 25 schools submitted videos to be nominated N.J.'s best HS mascot. The videos are tremendous (you can still see all of them below) and the voting this week has been intense, with over 130,000 votes cast.
We have finalists - and a twist.
We have drawn inspiration from today's top reality shows in creating a last-minute surprise in naming our finalists. Before you scroll on to see who they are, please be sure to understand that this is not the end, and we have not yet named N.J.'s top HS mascot - that won't come for weeks.
What's next?
We will now start the process of reaching out to the mascots and school officials to arrange for our video crew to show up and film the finalists ourselves - how and where, to be determined case by case. This may take a few weeks. We may tease a few of our videos of the finalists as we get them to keep you interested.
When they're all done, we will post all the finalist videos in one place and set up the final round of voting.
One more thing: HUGE thanks to all those who have participated in this challenge so far - ADs, lots of cheer coaches, video crews and entire school communities who voted like mad.
So check out the finalists, and stay tuned for more. Keep an eye on hashtag #NJmascotchallenge for more info as we have it.
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Finalist No. 1 - Gateway's Gator
The Gateway Gator, with this awesomely fun nomination video, finished first in the voting with an astounding 29.525 votes came in first in this round of voting.
Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Here's another shot of the Gateway Gator we snagged at a 2015 playoff game - whispering sweet nothings.
Finalist No. 2 - Whippany Park's Wildcat
Whippany Park's Wildcat finished second in this round of voting, right on the Gator's heels, with 28,837 votes. This is a super video - congrats to the group that put it together and to those who voted.
Finalist No. 3 - West Orange's Monty
Congrats to Monty, who finished third in this round of voting, with 18,862 votes - also a huge number. West Orange delivered on its promise to get Monty the Mountaineer nominated and delivered with a solid voting campaign - and possibly the most involved principal (yeah, we saw you). Major props, all around.
Here's another pic of West Orange's Monty, this one submitted by Perry Bashkoff.
Finalist No. 4 - Rancocas Valley's Red Devil
I hope teachers are able to keep students at RV awake on Friday, because overnight votes for the Red Devil surged like ... well ... The Dickens. The climb to 13,377 passed Vineland's Rowdy the Rooster, leaving us in a difficult position.
Andrew Mills | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
The Red Devil keeps guard of the RV cheerleaders on the road at Lenape this season.
Jesse Bair | For NJ Advance Media
SURPRISE!!
Wait for it ...
Finalist No. 5 - Vineland's Rowdy Rooster
Yes, inspired by all the TV reality shows, where contestants are miraculously rescued from disastrous voting results, we have stepped in to save Rowdy, Vineland's tough-as-nails, yet lovable Rooster. We couldn't let such an amazing effort on the video portion of the competition go for naught. So with a big thanks to our video crew, who unexpectedly now has another mascot to shoot, Rowdy is in, with a still-impressive 13,199 votes.
Jesse Bair | For The South Jersey Times
Here's another shot of Rowdy we grabbed on Oct. 14. Looking good, Rowdy.
Now, keep scrolling for the rest of the entries, and some excellent videos. They're listed alphabetically by school.
Belvidere's Bandit the Raccoon
Belvidere's Bandit the Raccoon is awesome in this high-energy video.
Burlington Township's Merlin
Merlin the Falcon is nominated with this terrific video - nice job BTHS.
PLUS: Over 100 great mascot photos, some ours, some yours - send more!
Colonia's Patriot
Colonia's Patriot adds a personal touch to this fun video
Cranford's Cougar
The Cranford Cougar getting it done on the sidelines - we love the energy.
Saed Hindash/The Star-Ledger
From the archives, the Cougar loses her head celebrating Cranford girls basketball's North 2, Group 3 sectional championship in 2010.
Elizabeth's Minuteman & Minutewoman
Elizabeth's Minuteman and Minutewoman performing with the marching band. Nice job Minutepeople!
Matt Smith For NJ Advance Media
Here's another recent shot of the Minuteman from this season.
Golda Och's Roadrunner
Golda Och Roadrunner, you are in with this short film reminiscent of Federico Fellini, only more fun.
Immaculate Heart's Rosie the Blue Eagle
IHA's Rosie has all the moves in this rockin' video - congrats.
Kearny's Kirby the Kardinal
Kirby is nominated. Nice job Kearny - welcome to the challenge.
Reena Rose Sibayan | The Jersey Journal
Kearny extra
Here's a shot we grabbed of Kirby - and we want that selfie too. Whoever has it can send it in with the form in our huge mascot photo gallery.
Middletown South's Eagle
Middletown South's Eagle runs the gauntlet and has some moves. Nice video
Northern Burlington's Greyhound
Northern Burlington's Greyhound is nominated by way of this brilliant documentary footage.
Larry Murphy | For the Times of Trenton
Here's a photo we got of the Greyhound on Oct. 14.
Nutley's Raider
The Nutley Raider is doing his thing - nice job.
George McNish | For NJ Advance Media
Nutley extra
Here's a shot we picked up of Nutley's Raider on the sidelines.
Ocean City's Howie
Meet Howie, Ocean City's Red Raider Hawk, a very civic-minded mascot. And we tip our cap to the HS journalists who delivered this nomination video.
Old Bridge's Obie the Knight
Obie, Old Bridge's Knight, gets a refined intro and then gets it done on the sidelines.
The Orange Tornado
Major shout-out to Orange, who centered a pep rally around the making of this video. The Tornado is nominated.
Passaic Tech's Spike and Princess
PCTI embed
Nice job PCTI, and please welcome to the N.J. mascot world - she's a new arrival, and we need the scoop on her origin story. Spike & Princess are nominated.
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Pennsville's Eagle
Pennsville's Eagle is nominated, and it can dance!
St. John Vianney's Lancer
Congrats to SJV - Lancer is nominated. And congrats to everyone else, since this video defines Lancer for us. Super job.
Scott Faytok | For NJ Advance Media
We caught Lancer in this shot at the 2015 girls hoops Non-Public state semis in 2015.
Union Catholic's Viking
The Viking is nominated - nice moves!
West Milford's Bucky
Bucky the buck, pride of West Milford, you are nominated with this very fresh video. Nice job.
Westwood's Cardinal
Just hours after we threw down the gauntlet and challenged Westwood to deliver, deliver Westwood did with this original video. Congrats.
Matt Smith | For NJ Advance Media
Westwood's Cardinal. It's the most photographed mascot in our archives, AND the most submitted pic by NJ.com users. Westwood loves its mascot.
It's voting time
Below is the poll that will, in good measure, decide the four finalists that our video crew will film in the weeks to come. Our staff will consider the top vote-getting mascots and then will select the four finalists by 1 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 27.
IMPORTANT: We know you take these polls seriously. We do, too. We encourage you to come back and vote often, and to organize voting campaigns among the extended school community. Please note, the poll will view rapid-fire voting from any individual IP as an attack and will put that IP in a time out. All tallies must be from individually voting humans. Any technical efforts designed to automate voting and skew results may result in mass voiding of votes.
THE POLL
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