Nyack Gets A New Mascot

By Laila Bermudez  

   This summer, Nyack High School made the very brave yet fated choice to change the “Indians” name and mascot. It was a unanimous decision by the Board of Education to remove it, as they concluded that “Indians” was not the appropriate term for what we were claiming to represent: Native Americans. 

   Our Athletic Director, Joe Sigillo led the selection process. He gathered 27 people to be members of the official mascot committee. It consisted of teachers, students, alumni, parents, and various other community members, myself included. 

   We  brainstormed over 30 names, narrowed it down to 15 and launched community surveys. The survey results came down to the top 3: Redhawks, Riverhawks, and Spartans. After releasing the final survey to the student body, Redhawks was overwhelmingly favored by all grades. 

   We understand that Redhawks is not what everyone wanted, but it is our responsibility as members of the Nyack community to embrace the new name and create new traditions around it that will last lifetimes. Nyack has proven over and over again to be a loving and accepting place, and we hope that we will all come together to appreciate the new mascot, just as we did each other’s opinions when agreeing a change needed to be made. #NyackRedHawks