Two things I’ve always recognized as unique to Butler County high school athletics: The nicknames of Karns City and Mars.

To my knowledge, no other high schools in the United States refer to their sports teams as the Gremlins or Fightin’ Planets. Those schools stand alone in that regard.

But in reality, they are not alone.

There are many other high schools across the country that have nicknames possessed by no other. The following are my 10 favorites among those other schools.

No. 10. Frankfurt (Indiana) Hot Dogs. The nickname clearly fits, certainly better than it would fit anywhere else.

No. 9: City Baptist School (Indiana) Overcomers. Make no mistake. No lead can be considered safe against this bunch.

No. 8: South Portland (Maine) Red Riots. I’m a bit partial to this one, simply because the nickname was coined by a sports writer. He claimed this team looked like a red riot when it emerged from the locker room one game and it stuck.

No. 7: Chattanooga (Tennessee) Purple Pounders: Hard to get any more intimidating than that.

No. 6: Chinook (Montana) Sugarbeets: Not sure what to think of this one. Sounds sweet, but a bit physical at the same time.

No. 5: Cheyenne (Nevada) Desert Shields: This school came into being in 1991, a year after Operation Desert Storm. You have to admire the patriotism being shown here.

No. 4: Yuma (Arizona) Criminals: These guys didn’t steal anything, according to yore, except for a road victory at Phoenix in 1913. Don’t even know what the sport was, but the Phoenix folks called Yuma criminals because it won at their place. The name stuck and they gotta love it.

No. 3: Benson (Nebraska) Mighty Bunnies: Two things here. Think of the logo possibilities and the potential for the mascot’s outfit. Maybe these fans throw hard-boiled eggs at the opposition as opposed to just egging houses at Halloween. They are mighty, after all.

No. 2: Coloden (Illinois) Apple Knockers: The opponent’s knees must be knocking at the mere sight of this bunch. Again, the logo possibilities are endless. The origin of this nickname, I haven’t a clue. But I love it.

No. 1: Hoopleston (Illinois) Cornjerkers. This name quite simply has it all. There’s an intimidating nature to it, a regional nature to it and it’s something everyone can have fun with. This is at the top in my book.

Before closing this column on unique nicknames, I have to mention a couple I came across while working for other newspapers. There’s the Poca Dots in Poca, W.Va. No explanation is needed there.

There’s also the Cleveland Glenville Tarbludders. I can’t begin to guess where that one came from.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle