Newington panel picks new high school mascot linked to New England weather

NEWINGTON— Along-running effort to replace the Indian mascot for Ne wing ton High School’ s sports teams has been completed with the name change to Nor’easters.

The name change follows years of the Newington Board of Education slowly phasing out the Indian logo as many Connecticut districts moved away from historically inaccurate or offensive nicknames.

“It was a huge deal because we had so many different camps,” said Newington Schools Superintendent Maureen Brummett, herself a Newington High graduate who remembers the pride students, staff and the community took in the former mascot.

“I knew there would be resistance,” she said.

A committee was formed about a year ago with different segments of the community represented to take on the task of finding a new nickname and mascot.

The committee polled the schools and residents seeking possible new names. They received more than 140responses, including references to Mill PondFalls, CedarMountain, Berlin Turnpike, the AmateurRadio Relay League, Newington history, famous residents, town industries, animals, and other options.

The committee eliminated names that were related to Native Americans, gender-specific, similar to other towns such as the Southington Blue Knights andtheNewtown Nighthawks, werecurrently usedin town, hadnegative connotations, or were too gimmicky or not exciting.

The list was winnowed to 22 then 10 and then the top four, including the Nor’easters, Defenders, Narwhals, Ravens.

The committee said it chose the winner based on several factors, including alliteration, numerous options for logos and a mascot costume, possible themes for games and events and a new name for the school store to replace the Trading Post.

Brummett said the committee is now in the design phase for uniforms and the mascot and that she hopes that they will be able to unveil something in May or June, before school gets out for the summer.

Over the summer, she said, the plan is to replace Indian-themed items, such as the scoreboard, logos in the gymnasium and possibly a statue in front of the high school that prominent ly display san Indian head.

Brummett said she expected that the cost of the work would be between $50,000 and $100,000, but added that there were no plans to remove trophies that celebrate the name or image of the Indian.

“People are concerned about totally eliminating the Indian from our history and I’m sensitive to that,” she said.