By Sharron Luttrell
The logo for the Mendon-Upton School District’s new mascot, the Coyotes, was unveiled at Monday’s School Committee meeting but not before school officials fielded a few more questions about the decision to retire the Nipmuc Warrior.
Before Athletic Director Christopher Schmidt presented the design, retired Nipmuc Athletic Director and alumnus Jim Grant told the School Committee he was surprised to learn about the new mascot and asked about the selection process. Grant, who spoke during the portion of the meeting set aside for community comments, said he and many others don’t use social media and aren’t on any of the school email distribution lists, which were the primary ways the schools solicited input into the selection.
“My question is, who and why brought this to your attention and what was your rationale for having a change?” Grant asked.
School Superintendent Maureen Cohen cited the number of people who participated in the selection process — more than 1,000 students and community members cast votes for the finalist — while acknowledging that, like Grant, many people felt left out of the process. The schools don’t collect alumni contact information, making communication difficult.
“I wish I could go back and change something to make more people aware,” Cohen said. “Hopefully tonight this will at least be able to inform you of the process that we did go through, but our intent was to get it out to as many possible people as we could, so please know that.”
Cohen gave a recap of the process and timeline, which began in 2016 when current and former students asked the district to retire the Nipmuc Warrior mascot amid concerns that it demeaned Native American culture.
Some School Committee members pushed back against the change and wanted to know how the Nipmuc tribe felt about it. Alumni and staff reached out to tribal leadership, who “conveyed a clear desire for their culture and identity not to be used as a sports character or athletic mascot,” Cohen said Monday night.
Addressing sentiment from those who consider the Nipmuc Warrior a symbol of school pride, School Committee member Sean Nicholson said the warrior was never the district’s to claim.
“The meaning of what a Nipmuc Warrior is has been taken from them and is now a school football team. That is truly a problem. That’s a problem that you can’t justify,” he said. “It’s their name. It’s their label. It’s what they represent.”
The district began phasing out the warrior mascot in 2021 by leaving it off replacement uniforms, banners and signs. In setting its strategic planning priorities four years ago, the district created an action item to “develop and adopt a unified mascot across all schools to strengthen brand identity, unity and school spirit.”
The work began earlier this year to coincide with summer’s construction of a new athletic field complex. The timing allowed the school department to incorporate a new mascot logo into the signage and turf as part of the project costs.
The department announced the mascot search in January, the 11-member selection committee representing administration, faculty, staff, students, alumni and community members was appointed, and suggestions were solicited via social media, the district website, and the superintendent’s and school newsletters.
The selection committee received more than 200 suggestions, narrowed those to eight, and put them to an online vote. The Top 3 were the Bears, the Nor’easters and the Coyotes. Using a rating system of 1-100, the Coyotes emerged the clear winner with 44.8 points to the Nor’easters’ 29.8 votes and the Bears’ 25.2 votes.
Cohen, at Monday’s meeting, also addressed concerns raised by former School Committee member Donna Cote at the Aug. 24 School Committee meeting, including whether the selection process violated the Open Meeting Law and whether state Senate Bill S.312 requiring school districts in Massachusetts to phase out Native American mascots would force Nipmuc Regional High School to change its name should it be enacted into law. Cohen clarified that the bill targets athletic teams and nicknames, not schools. She also confirmed that as an internal working committee, the advisory committee charged with selecting the mascot is not subject to the Open Meeting Law.
School Committee Vice Chair Kerry Buxton addressed suggestions that the district keep the warrior mascot by severing it from Native American imagery when she said the high school’s name makes that impossible.
“The real issue was the juxtaposition with ‘Nipmuc’ and ‘warrior,’ because then you’re connecting that imagery with the name of the tribe,” she said.
Screenshots top of page and above from Athletic Director Christopher Schmidt’s presentation to the School Committee on Monday show the variations of the coyote mascot design. These will be incorporated throughout the Mendon-Upton School District.
