After a seven-week campaign in the spring of 2014, Catawba Valley Community College selected a new athletic mascot — the Red Hawks.

The announcement was made at CVCC’s annual Spring Fling hosted by the Student Government Association on Wednesday, April 9, 2014.

The Red Hawks beat out the Coyotes and Thunder to become the new mascot for CVCC athletics. In a week-long vote for the three finalists, the student body and local community placed more than 1,000 votes. The Red Hawks emerged as the clear favorite.

“I was amazed at how many people voted and expressed their opinion on the new mascot,” said Nick Schroeder, athletic director at Catawba Valley. “Everyone was excited about the new mascot, and in the final vote, the Red Hawks accumulated 63 percent of the vote for a run-away win.”

The Red Hawks name was first submitted to CVCC’s assistant volleyball coach Mark Wimberley by Travis Bowman, a student at East Lincoln High School. The Red Hawk was selected as a finalist by a committee because of the “red” making a clear connection to CVCC’s primary color and the “hawk” due to the intense and ferocious imagery that a hawk represents.

The actual Red Hawks mascot will be patterned after red-tailed hawk common in North Carolina.

The “red” is meant to pay homage to CVCC and its proud history.

“While we never planned on changing the color scheme of CVCC, we felt that placing the Red before the Hawk was great way to pay homage to our history,” Schroeder said. “The Red represents the history of all the previous programs and successes that have been adorned by the red, white and black of CVCC.”

T he “Hawk” portion of the mascot represents the future.

“Hawks are seen as one of the most intelligent birds in the sky, and I can not think of a better way to represent our students, faculty and staff at CVCC,” Schroeder said.

CVCC Advertising & Graphic Design alumnus Nathan Banks has been commissioned to design a primary and secondary logo for the CVCC Red Hawks. A Red Hawk with two tail feathers is being incorporated into the design. CVCC will continue to use the interlocking letters CV, which has become a mainstay for the college’s athletic teams and sportswear.

Banks is currently the vice president for the Hickory based company, "The Sock Factory," and was the creator and chief designer for Crazy Compression socks — http://crazycompression.com/.

“We are all sad to see the Buccaneers retire, but we can not wait to see how high CVCC and the Red Hawks will fly in the future," Schroeder said. "These Red Hawks will be soaring over the Catawba Valley for a long time.”