She’s a Lady: Bourbon County introduces female Colonel mascot logo

It’s a new era for Bourbon County Schools’ girls sports teams.

As head coach of the Bourbon Middle School softball team, Adam Wainscott said he saw firsthand the need for a separate mascot for Bourbon County Schools’ girls teams — one “that reflected and celebrated their identity and achievements.”

On Aug. 21, the Bourbon County Board of Education approved the addition of the Lady Colonel, who will be featured alongside the district’s Colonel mascot.

“We’re excited for this new era and can’t wait to see both mascots cheering on our students,” district officials said in a statement.

“The board was excited to approve this, as this was student driven and coach led,” Superintendent Larry Joe Begley said. “The Lady Colonel is giving our female athletes and students a symbol they can truly connect with.”

“We felt it was important that our female students have a mascot that represents them as well,” Wainscott said.

“As head coach of Bourbon Middle School softball, I saw firsthand the need for something that reflected and celebrated their identity and achievements. With that in mind, Terry Hays and I worked together to design the new logo, and the Board recently approved it.”

Begley said Hays is a local graphic designer.

What’s the norm?

In Kentucky, gender-specific mascot names are the norm for many private and most rural schools, like Bourbon County, but there’s little evidence of an actual, gender-specific mascot logo like the Lady Colonels.

Examples of other “Lady” team names include: Lexington Catholic Lady Knights, Lexington Christian Lady Eagles, Sayre Lady Spartans, Anderson County Lady Bearcats and Shelby Valley Lady Kats.

Then there are examples of mascot names being gender-specific without the use of “Lady,” such as Harrison County’s Thorobreds/Fillies, Ashland Blazer’s Tomcats/Kittens and Louisville Collegiate’s Titans/Amazons.

But there are private all-girls schools in the state who have gender-neutral nicknames, including the Assumption Rockets, the Notre Dame Pandas and the Mercy Jaguars.

West Jessamine remains an outlier among schools for its very specific Colts mascot for both its boys and girls teams even though the definition of colt is a young male horse.

The continued use of “Lady” among many Kentucky high schools runs against a nationwide trend that began in the late 1990s and early 2000s and still continues today. School administrators and coaches have turned away from it due to gender-equity concerns and the perception that referring to women’s teams separately as “Lady Mascot” might imply they aren’t as important as the men’s teams.

The University of Kentucky was among the pioneers of that trend, dropping “Lady” from its women’s basketball team and turning “Lady Kats” into the gender-neutral Wildcats in 1995. Other UK women’s sports followed suit.

The University of Tennessee is among the only major colleges to retain “Lady” as a part of their women’s team names despite attempts to drop it for all but its Lady Vols basketball teams over the years.

Among Fayette County public high schools, only Tates Creek officially includes “Lady” in its current girls team name.

Notably, before Frederick Douglass High School opened in Lexington in 2017, “Stallions” was unveiled as its team name in reference to its being built on land that was once part of the world-famous Hamburg Place horse farm. The clearly male-only mascot brought an immediate public outcry that led to Fayette County Public Schools changing course and adopting Broncos after a student vote.

In its high school sports stories, Herald-Leader does not refer to girls teams by gender-specific mascots even if the schools continue to do so, except in unavoidable circumstances such as Collegiate or Ashland Blazer.

Texas Monthly reported in 2024 that at least three schools in Texas have entirely separate mascots for boys and girls teams.

This story was originally published August 26, 2025 at 12:56 PM.