Stoney Creek High School embraces culture with new mascot statue

ROCHESTER HILLS — If you’ve ever been to Romeo High School, home of the Bulldogs, you’ve seen the bulldog statue near the football field.

It’s fierce and strong, and its uniqueness brings a smile to your face, but more importantly, it embodies what it means to be a Bulldog at Romeo.

It also laid the foundation for Rochester Hills Stoney Creek High School’s brand-new mascot statue this year — a 5-foot-tall bronze statue lurking just outside the library.

“In 2021, we were coming out of COVID, and there was a group of five of us that said, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to get a mascot?’” Jennifer French, a member of the Stoney Creek athletic booster club, said. “We saw one at Spring Harbor, and have you seen Romeo’s? Romeo was our inspiration, but we didn’t quite get there, though. All of us started putting our shift work in the concessions towards what we called an ‘alumni project.’”

Time passed, and it almost seemed as if the funds were going to be put towards another purchase for the school, but fate revealed its hand.

“I got this guy’s email that said ‘bronze blowout,’ and the statue was within $9 of what we had earned,” French said. “It was just one of those meant-to-be’s. It was light enough where we could take it to graduation. It’s not going to be anchored like Romeo’s is. It’s kind of the spirit animal now.”

The bronze statue, which sits on a base, cost $1,729 and portrays a cougar methodically climbing down a rock as if eyeing its prey.

Similar to Romeo’s bulldog, it has a fierce and empowering look to it, and Stoney Creek principal Brian Shelson said it caught the attention of students immediately.

“They were very interested,” Shelson said. “I think they were excited to have a tangible thing they could put their school spirit with. You see the word ‘Cougars’ everywhere, but we don’t really utilize the Cougar mascot really at all. We do have a mascot costume, but to have that is kind of neat. During spirit week they’ll put a pink shirt on it for pink day or a hat on it for hat day – just silly stuff like that.”

It’s still undecided if it will make the trip to graduation, which takes place at Oakland University, because of the statue’s weight, but its home near the library doors is an attention grabber for students anytime they walk past it.

Aside from rocking spirit week attire better than any other mascot, it does one thing that Shelson said you can’t put a price on – embody the culture of the school.

“I think the value we try to teach the kids is being men and women of character,” Shelson said. “We have our core values that we go through with perseverance, respect, integrity and character, but we want the kids to feel like this is a second home where they’re all welcomed at the end of the day. We really work on our culture, which is why the statue is one of those things that really embodies that. We can all rally around that thing.”