Assistant principal comes up with idea for new logo
Loveland High School debuted its new mascot — images of the Red Wolves — this week.
“At the bottom of the wolf that’s howling and the L are Longs Peak and Meeker,” said Chris Stine, assistant principal and athletic director at the school, referring to the mountain peaks visible from Loveland.
“It’s the little details like that that make it unique to where we’re at. … The one that is howling is regal. It looks sophisticated.”
The Thompson School District Board of Education decided last August to change the Native American mascots at two Loveland schools — a decision that drew strong opinions on both sides of the issue — and administrators at Loveland High School and Bill Reed Middle School began a process, with student, staffers and community input, to choose new mascots.
At a school board meeting in October, Loveland High School Principal Todd Ball announced that the Indians were now the Red Wolves, and Bill Reed Middle School Principal Arnold Jahnke announced that the Warriors were changing to the Wolf Pack.
Then began the process of creating wolf images to reflect the mascots and what they mean for each school, and of integrating them into the team uniforms, the billboards, the gym walls. Some of that will take time, and money, as new uniforms are ordered and maintenance is completed.
Staffers and students, and now the community, got their first look at the Loveland High School Red Wolf logo last week, designed by VIP Branding but based on an idea and a sketch from Stine.
Loveland High School
Stine said feedback, so far, has been positive.
“It’s going to take a little time to wrap around that we’re the Red Wolves now instead of the Indians, especially for the people who have been here a long time,” Stine said. “But it’s been positive, and they’re excited to see what it has become.”
While Loveland High has technically been the Red Wolves since the mascot was announced in August, it has been referring to itself as just Loveland High School until there was an image to go with the mascot, and students have been wearing the existing uniforms.
That will continue for the rest of this school year, and some of the changes will begin to be made, such as the image on the gym floor, this summer.
Bill Reed Middle School
At Bill Reed Middle School, educators began incorporating the Wolf Pack into their academics and their extracurricular ideas.
“We got right on it,” said Jahnke. “There was a lot of excitement built around it. We felt it tied into the heritage when we were Warriors. The wolf is a very symbolic native animal that is honored. I think that is why it felt right and good and honoring history. We really wanted to honor the history and celebrate the future.”
One teacher designed two wooden wolf heads and installed them next to the scoreboard in the gym, as well as stencils of a wolf paw that a custodian used to hand-paint prints in the cafeteria. The art teacher designed “a new motif for the stone marquee outside,” Jahnke said, explaining that it will be installed over the summer as will new gym flooring.