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Would Name Put Plant City School In A Jam?

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By MARILYN BROWN | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 4, 2008

Updated: 11/04/2008 12:05 am

TAMPA - Perhaps the toughest part of naming a high school after the strawberry is finding a mascot.

Young people in Plant City wonder: "Wouldn't it be tough to go out on the football field being 'strawberry something'?"

That comes from Faye Blount, who is leading the push to name the high school opening in August near Plant City after her late father, Osburn M. Griffin, instead of the fruit.

"I've heard some kids say we'd be called 'the fruities' or the 'Plant City tarts,'" she said.

The high school's campus is on some of the 50-plus acres that Griffin's wife, Grace, sold to the Hillsborough County School District. Her wish before she died in January was for a high school to be named after her husband, a longtime strawberry farmer, Blount said.

On the other hand, former school board member Joe Newsome, who has a high school named for him, said naming the school after the strawberry would honor all of the farmers who made Plant City the winter strawberry capital of the world.

Along with land sold by Newsome and a third land owner, the district has more than 100 acres for the high school, a middle school and an elementary school. The high school and elementary school open in August just south of Interstate 4, east of McIntosh Road.

Strawberry Crest is the name agreed upon by Newsome's group to present to the board, although Strawberry Palace, Strawberry Patch and Griffin's Strawberry Ridge are all on the list to be considered.

"The group felt you couldn't go down to the board with five strawberry names," Newsome said.

The competition is stiff: Newsome said he comes armed with a petition of "700 or 800 names." Blount said her petition has 1,400, and her campaign includes donated ads in local magazines and T-shirts.

Newsome said the mascot is no problem. The school could readopt the former Plant City High Planters mascot or call themselves the Packers or the Strawberry Crest Knights, he suggested.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Share your thoughts at the school board meeting at 3 p.m. Thursday, when the board will vote on names for the elementary and high schools set to open in August near Plant City as well as middle and elementary schoolsin the Lake Hutto area of south Hillsborough County. The meeting is at school board headquarters, 901 E. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa.

Reporter Marilyn Brown can be reached at (813) 259-8069.

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