[
THE SCOOP] lifestyles Tornado Watch
Georgetown Prep and Club Blue coach Mike Kubik in the eye of the ‘Sharknado’
G
ive credit where it’s due. Syfy debuted its popular TV movie “Sharknado” in 2013. “Sharknado 2: The Second One” premieres July 30. The frightening combination of a shark and tornado will spike yet another social media storm, but where was the fury fi rst unleashed?
Look no further than one of the
nation’s top high school boys’ lacrosse teams: Georgetown Prep (Md.). Mike Kubik, the Little Hoyas’ former assistant coach and favorite Latin teacher, came up with Sharknado more than fi ve years before the movie funneled through your TV.
Why did you come up with the “Sharknado” concept?
The Georgetown Prep [mascot] is the Hoyas. All we have on any of our gear is an interlocking “GP.” I’d love to have a mascot. People say we’re the Bulldogs, but we’re not. That’s Georgetown University. They didn’t adopt the mascot until the ‘70s. The kids here had to take Greek and Latin, so the Greek word for “what” is hoya, and the Greek word for “rocks” is saxa. Mechanically, our name is an interrogative adjective. When people cheer at the games, they say, “Hoya saxa.” And here’s where it gets complicated: The cheer means, “What rocks?”
It’s just a nonsensical term made up by Catholic school geeks. They started calling them the Hoyas not knowing what it was, since the newspaper started calling them the Hoyas after they heard this chant. The Hoyas of Georgetown are the Little Hoyas of Georgetown Prep.
And that led you to a shark and a tornado?
I always joked that a shark inside a tornado was the most terrifying force in all of nature. Of course that should be our mascot. But no one at the school likes it. It’s kind of underground. They would say, “We’re the Hoyas, not the Sharknados!” I’m not saying we’re not the Hoyas. The Hoya can be whatever we want. Can we please at least have a question mark, a rock man or a big rock, something other than our initials?
Describe the Sharknado logo. It’s a great white shark. When the Orioles had an actual oriole, it looked like a real oriole, one you would see when you walk around. They said it was an ornithologically correct oriole. So I would say this is an icthyologically correct shark. (Ornithology is the study of birds, while icthyology is the study of fi sh.) Then one of the teachers, who went to Iowa State, mentioned they have Cy the Cyclone, which is a cardinal inside of a cyclone. Our graphic designer found an old World War II airplane that was painted on the side
18 LACROSSE MAGAZINE July 2014>> A Publication of US Lacrosse
©MIKE KUBIK
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