Old Town High School is getting ready to unveil its new coyote mascot.

Not only is the student council planning to buy a coyote mascot costume, but the school will also be the beneficiary of an anonymous donation.

An Old Town graduate is planning to give the school a new stone sign for the main entrance on Stillwater Avenue to replace the old stone with its Indian head.

“We’re certainly very grateful for this,” principal Joe Gallant said.

The new stone sign could cost as much as $5,000. Gallant said he had worried a bit about how to pay for a new sign for the school since the school board voted Sept. 20, 2005, to stop using the Indian as the school’s mascot.

When word of the dilemma of replacing the sign spread, Gallant said he got a phone call from a man who agreed to donate money for the sign as long as he could be anonymous.

“I was thinking, ‘How am I going to do this?'” he said. “I was starting to think about fundraisers when he called and said it was taken care of.”

The school has discussed what to do with the old sign but hasn’t made any decisions yet. Gallant said he favors donating the sign to the town so it can be placed in a park or near the Stillwater River. Others would like to see the sign displayed somewhere at the school.

Regardless of where it ends up, Gallant wants to see the sign out in the open.

“It deserves to be displayed,” Gallant said. “The Indian is still a big part of the town’s history.”

The use of the Indian mascot was viewed by some as a way to honor the members of the Penobscot Nation who live on Indian Island and send their children to Old Town middle and high schools. Others felt the Indian mascot was degrading to the Penobscots.

The school has a new coyote design, although it’s not something original. Gallant said Wight’s Sporting Goods of Bangor showed Old Town officials some clip art, or stock images, of different coyotes.

Gallant said the coyote the school finally chose resembles the logo of the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes – except, of course, Old Town’s logo and mascot will have green and white accents instead of Phoenix’s red and white – so Gallant e-mailed the NHL team to clear the Old Town mascot with them.

“I haven’t heard back from them yet,” he said. “But what we certainly don’t want is a copyright problem.”

After a process that took several months and involved students, administrators, school board members, and members of the community, the Old Town School Board voted to make the coyote the mascot on Feb. 15. The two other final mascot choices were riverhawk and ironside.

The high school teams will start using the nickname when the spring season begins with baseball and softball tryouts Monday.

There are a number of events in the works to introduce the coyote.

Gallant said the school is also planning a celebration – hopefully, he added, before April vacation – with a howling contest as one of the ideas that was bounced around.

Once the coyote costume arrives, the new mascot might head up to the Hannaford supermarket to hand out candy. And Old Town residents shouldn’t be too worried if they see paw prints painted on the town sidewalk here or there – that’s another trick the school thought of to introduce the coyote.

Unity tourney off and running

Nine central Maine boys basketball teams are participating in the first undergraduate tournament at the Unity College gymnasium.

Tournament play started Sunday with games continuing until Thursday. The semifinals will be played Wednesday at 6 and 8 p.m. and the championship game will be held Thursday at 7 p.m.

The participating teams are Lawrence of Fairfield, Rockland, Skowhegan, Winslow, Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield, Mt. Blue of Farmington, Winthrop, Messalonskee of Oakland, and Waterville.

Admission each day is $2 for adults and $1 for students or seniors.

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