MCLEAN, Va., April 1, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- USA TODAY High School Sports--the nation's leading source for high school sports news and information--today launched the second installment of its Best Mascots contest, which last year was the site's most popular online "America's Best" competition with more than 80 million votes cast to claim the title of the country's most unique high school nickname.

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This year, the contest--which will crown a winner on April 25-- returns bigger, badder and weirder than ever, with a pool of 408 top high school nicknames for fans to choose from at www.usatodayhss.com. The 2013 contest featured 255 of the nation's most unique high school mascots/nicknames, as determined by the editorial staff of USA Today High School Sports, with the Centralia (Ill.) Orphans taking top honors with more than 25 million votes in the final round.

This year's Best Mascots contest is the eighth installment in the America's Best series, which has drawn more than 100 million votes and attracted fans from all sections of the country. More than 1,800 different schools have been involved in at least one of the contests, and no state has produced multiple winners with past champions hailing from Missouri, Vermont, Illinois, Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Kansas.

The America's Best contest series launched in November 2012 with the first Best High School Football Rivalry competition, won by Brookfield vs. Marceline in Missouri. Other champions in the America's Best series include Hartford (Vt.), crowned as the People's Champion High School Football Team for the 2012 season; Philip Haywood of Belfry (Ky.) as the Best High School Football Coach; and North Carolina small-town matchup of Bunn vs. Louisburg as the second annual Best High School Football Rivalry. There have been two champions crowned so far in 2014: Shane Cowherd of Edmond Memorial (Edmond, Okla.) took the Best Boys Basketball Coach title, while Jesse Nelson of Olpe (Kan.) won America's Best Girls Basketball Coach.

For more information and to cast your vote, visit USA TODAY High School Sports.

About the USA TODAY Sports Media Group:
The USA TODAY Sports Media Group encompasses all sports initiatives across USA TODAY Sports and Gannett's more than 120 well-known local media brands. It also includes the sports photography wire service USA TODAY Sports Images; leading high school sports destination USA TODAY High School Sports; Sports On Earth, a joint venture with MLB Advanced Media dedicated to great sports writing in all its forms; the social news hub For The Win, and the hundreds of sites within USA TODAY Sports Digital Properties such as TheBigLead.com and mixed martial arts site MMAJunkie.com, among others. USA TODAY is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI).

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SOURCE USA TODAY High School Sports