Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

In an on-line and on-campus presentation last week, the multple mascosts across the Coastal Alabama Community College system became one — The Coyotes.
According to officials with CACC, college is ready to meet all challenges, and challengers, as a unified institution under one mascot for the first time in its history. Since its creation from a consolidation from three former colleges in 2017, Coastal Alabama has fielded teams with three different mascots, depending on which campus its student athletes competed. But after April 26 those teams — which regularly played one another — saw for the first time the new brand of their college, which stretches from Gilbertown to Gulf Shores.
The Coastal Alabama Coyotes have arrived.
The college held a live broadcast event of the college’s campuses as well as its social media channels on April 26 announcing the new athletic identity, which will officially take the field and court in August as student athletes return from the summer.
“From the students, they all wanted to be united under one name, so we can move forward as one institution of strength and be a powerhouse across the state,” said Chief Communications Officer Sara Davis on the day of the presentation. “We’re celebrating the history of the past, and understanding the loyalty to all our former mascots. But today we make history and all become Coastal Alabama Coyotes, and for generations to come, we will all be very proud of that.”
“Go Yotes!” will be a familiar cheer as the teams compete in their familiar colors, but this time emblazoned with a Coyote that was designed to look lean, hungry and aggressive. The new brand was designed by the national marketing firm RARE Design, which is based in the south but creates athletic identities for professional teams spanning the NBA, MLB, NFL, NASCAR and many more.
Representatives of the company traveled to Monroeville, Brewton and Bay Minette, where the three different mascots were rooted, and spoke with individuals ranging from the students and student athletes to faculty and legacy holders. Above and beyond, they associated the word “family” with athletics, along with “fight” and “aggression.” That was rare, and informed the college’s naming committee’s decision to move forward with Coyotes as the mascot, as the beasts are not only very common across the Coastal Alabama Community College footprint in southwest Alabama but are also very loyal to each other.
“Once we started discussing names that hold the characteristics that described the college, the Coyote was the obvious choice,” said Director of Marketing Lloyd Wing, who spearheaded the rebranding efforts over the last year. “Coyotes value their pack, their family, and we perfectly understand that.”
The prolific animals have other relevant traits as well, according to Coastal Alabama Community College President Dr. Craig Pouncey, who supported the unification and rebranding.
“While we had become Coastal Alabama Community College, we had not fully united as a family, as we now have,” Pouncey said. “And coyotes are resilient, and that’s something everyone at our entire college — regardless of where they are from — can relate to.”
Wing believes the Coyote mascot and subsequent branding sets the entire college apart from its competition, especially within its conference — the Alabama Community College Conference — as well as its governing association, the National Junior College Athletic Association.
“Once we reveal this, it will be obvious that we have the best athletic brand, not only in the ACCC, but the whole NJCAA as well,” Wing said. “That’s how proud we are of this. Go Yotes!”