Not all victories are won on the playing field. Sometimes, the winners can be found on the sidelines.

The Mars Area High School mascot, the Fightin’ Planet, earned the title of Best High School Mascot in America in the 2026 National High School Mascot Brackets competition. The competition was hosted by MLive, a Michigan-based media group. Contestants advanced by the number of votes the mascot received.

That’s a singular achievement for the Fightin’ Planet, who was only introduced in 2024.

In a bracket competition pitting the Mars mascot against 64 other high school sidekicks, the local mascot beat out stiff competition, including such opponents as the Poca Dot from West Virginia, the Yuma Criminal and the Willingboro Chimera out of West Virginia.

In the title match the local battlin’ globe beat out a fellow Pennsylvania sideline sidekick, the Boiling Springs Bubbler gathering 899,296 votes to the bested Bubbler’s 575,259 at the final bell.

Not bad for an up-and-coming orb that was the creation of the Mars Cheers Boosters. The boosters had to create the mascot from scratch after settling on a spherical red fellow decked out in boxing gloves, shorts, shoes and a headband spelling out “Mars.”

Of course, no champion wins alone.

The Fightin’ Planet has to share his victory with the boosters, the voters and the student body which has taken the mascot to heart and made the figure one of their own.

With such support, it’s certain the Mars mascot will be no flash-in-the-planet sensation.

— EF