By Sharron Luttrell
The Coyote howled past both the Nor’Easters and the Bears to take the title of the Mendon-Upton Regional School District mascot.
On the mascot selection committee’s rating system of 1-100, the Coyote won 44.8 points to the Nor’Easters’ 29.8 votes and the Bears’ 25.2 votes.
“When you look at it, it wasn’t really close,” Athletic Director Christopher Schmidt told the School Committee when he and fellow selection committee members Nipmuc students Sean Bailey and Caelin Squires unveiled the pick Monday night (presentation begins at the 14:00 mark).
The district began phasing out its Warriors mascot in 2021 in deference to the Nipmuc Tribal Council, which said Native American mascots misrepresent their culture and promote racist stereotypes. Nipmuc sports teams had been playing under their school’s initials, but with work set to begin this summer on the new athletic field complex, school officials set out to select a new mascot in time to be incorporated into the design.
A 12-member selection committee of administrators, faculty and staff, students, alumni and community members began meeting in January to choose the replacement. Its objective: “To transition to a powerful symbol that honors the geography of Central Massachusetts and the spirit of the Nipmuc people, entirely free from cultural appropriation.”
The committee invited submissions through an online form. The roughly 250 responses were winnowed to a list of eight finalists. The committee chose the final three and put them out to vote. The 1,079 people who weighed in were broken into four groups: faculty and staff, high schoolers, students in grades 3-8, and community and alumni. Each group was awarded 25 points for the ranking system. The Coyote won the majority across all four groups.
As a mascot, the Coyote offers possibilities to play off of and have fun with, Schmidt said, mentioning the “coyote howl” to energize the crowd for pep rallies and game days, and the term, the “pack” to unify student groups, clubs and community initiatives.
More importantly, the coyote meets the mascot selection committee’s objective, Schmidt told the committee.
“The coyote carried a lot of meaning to the Nipmuc people,” he said. “That’s one of the things that sort of stood out, is the coyote’s connection, historically speaking, to the Nipmuc people. That’s really important to us.”
The committee is working with a branding company on designing the Coyote logo and expects the new mascot to be integrated into the school district by the fall.
Image above: A screenshot from mascot selection committee members’ presentation to the School Committee Monday night depicts the winning mascot. The image is for illustrative purposes only. The actual logo is still being designed.
