Fishburne Military School keeps tradition with Caisson in running for best mascot in the country

By Mandy Bartholomew

Published: May. 30, 2023 at 11:51 PM EDT|Updated: 12 hours ago

WAYNESBORO, Va. (WHSV) – Fishburne Military School is sticking with traditions.

The all-boys military school spent some time over the last few years rebranding, but when it came to the Caisson mascot, the school said students of past and present years were adamant it stays.

“The Caisson is a … it’s basically a war wagon that was designed to carry ammunition to the battlefront,” Todd Livick, director of advancement at Fishburne Military School said. “With Fishburne’s affiliation with the Army, an honor school of distinction since 1928 people started to voice their opinion about keeping Caisson’s as our mascot.”

The Caisson is not only a symbol of history at Fishburne, but it’s something the cadets use as a learning tool as well.

“It’s very symbolic because it’s precision we have cadets that actually load the blank casing into the cannon after I’ll say what is extensive training to make sure that they can do it safely,” Livick said.

When the school fires the Caisson, the impact can be heard around different parts of Waynesboro, so the school always notifies them when it will be set off.

Livick said Fishburne Military School has a great relationship with the city of Waynesboro.

“The traditions are so steeped here that sometimes you’ve got to stick with tradition you can change a little bit but you know what when something works and it makes sense, it just works to keep that,” Livick said.

They are keeping the tradition alive and making it big.

Fishburne Military School is in the running for best high school mascot in the country on one public-voted website.

The voting is done bracket style and Fishburne and the Caisson are currently in the Elite 8.

More than 60,000 people have voted and you can keep voting multiple times until 11:59 on Wed. May 31.

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