Eastern Maine, meet the Coyotes.

That’s the nickname the Old Town High School athletic teams will go by from now on, pending approval by the school board at a meeting Wednesday night.

The decision was made Friday after three days of voting last week, Old Town principal Joe Gallant said.

He’s relieved the process is over.

“I think it’s time the kids got to regain some kind of identity,” Gallant said. “Certainly for the kids who participate in spring sports, they’ll have that kind of identity.”

For decades, the school had used an Indian as a mascot and the school’s athletic teams were known as the Indians. That changed last September, when the school board unanimously voted to stop using the mascot.

While some claimed the Indian was used to honor the members of the Penobscot Nation who live on Indian Island and send their children to middle school and high school in Old Town, others contended that the nickname and mascot were degrading to the people of the Penobscot Nation.

Soon after the school board vote, a steering committee of about 12 people was formed to start the search for a new mascot. There were students, administrators, parents, school board members and city council members on the committee.

Gallant said the steering committee developed a set of criteria for the new mascot and accepted nominations for a mascot from members of the community. About 36 nominations were sent to the committee.

The high school’s student council and the steering committee winnowed the list to nine nicknames, and after an initial vote, it came down to Coyotes, Ironhides and Riverhawks.

Ironhides was eliminated in another vote. In the final series of balloting, which took place last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, the Coyotes emerged with 59 percent of the vote.

High school students as well as eighth-graders from Old Town, Union 90 (Alton, Bradley, Milford and Greenbush), and Indian Island also voted.

There are no Maine high schools with the coyote as a mascot. There are at least four colleges, including Albertson College of Idaho, Cal State-San Bernardino, Kansas Wesleyan and the University of South Dakota who are called Coyotes.

The NHL’s team in Phoenix is known as the Coyotes.

But that’s a relatively low number compared to, say, the Riverhawks.

“[The students] were kind of interested in finding something that would make them unique,” Gallant said. “I don’t know if that’s the reason all the kids had, but that’s what the kids I talked to said.”

The next step for the steering committee is to determine how the coyote will look. Gallant said if the money is available the school would like to buy a T-shirt for every student in a way to start using the new mascot.

And once the school board gives it approval for the new nickname, the steering committee will start planning an unveiling celebration.

So just what is an ironhide, anyway, aside from being the name of a Transformer toy?

“It’s a bull,” Gallant said. “I had to ask as well.”

Western Maine schedule changed

Four Western Maine Class D games have been changed to accommodate Pine Tree Academy, a Freeport school which observes Sabbath from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

The No. 5 Pine Tree boys will now play No. 4 Hyde of Bath at 10 a.m. Monday, followed by a game between No. 1 Valley of Bingham and the winner of a preliminary game between No. 8 North Haven and No. 9 Greater Portland Christian at 11:30.

Two Class D girls games were moved to Saturday. No. 3 Kents Hill will face the winner of a prelim between No. 6 Buckfield and No. 11 Islesboro at 11:30 a.m., and then No. 2 Rangeley will face either No. 7 Vinalhaven or No. 10 Forest Hills.

All four games will still be held at the Augusta Civic Center.

Brewer freshmen coming on

When the Bangor and Brewer girls meet Tuesday for the second time in less than a week, Leah Jackson will likely be a factor for the Witches.

The No. 4 Rams and the No. 13 Witches are matched up in an Eastern Maine Class A preliminary-round game at Red Barry Gymnasium. The game starts at 7 p.m.

Jackson is just a freshman, but she’s put up impressive numbers as the season has gone on.

In the teams’ first matchup, a 45-34 road win for Bangor, Jackson scored seven points and had five rebounds.

Last Thursday, as the Witches pushed the Rams to overtime but eventually fell 57-55, Jackson logged a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 16 rebounds.

“She keeps getting better every game,” Witches coach Andy Nickerson said. “She’s come a long way and she’s played hard. And she’s getting everything she earned. She works hard in practice every day, works hard every day in games.

Jackson isn’t the only freshman in the starting lineup. Guard Caitlyn Wilson has also been playing well for the Witches – she hit a big 3-pointer late in the third quarter of last Thursday’s game to give Brewer a lead in the back-and-forth game.

Rams rely on depth for 2nd

MDI may have won the title, and Old Town may have set a record, but Phil Emery’s Bangor Rams emerged as the runners-up at Friday’s Penobscot Valley Conference boys swimming and diving championship with just one first-place finish in the 12-event meet.

Bangor, which has won 22 PVC titles since the meet started in 1980, scored 196 points in the meet at Aloupis Pool.

The Rams relied on depth the rest of the way – they had a total of 13 swimmers and divers score to help hold off Old Town by two points.

In the 50-yard freestyle, for example, no Bangor swimmers finished in the top seven, but Tyler Brookings was eighth, Tommy Wong was ninth and Ryan Warner took 10th.

Brookings, Wong and Brandon Frenette each scored in four events. The three, along with Wong, took second in the 200-free relay.

Frenette’s second in the 100 backstroke was the team’s highest individual swimming finish.

Brian Wardwell recorded the lone Bangor victory. He scored 320.90 points to cruise in the diving. Teammate Peter Buck was second overall.

Jessica Bloch can be reached at 990-8193, 1-800-310-8600 or jbloch@bangordailynews.net.