South City set to unveil new Warrior logos

After a 3-1 vote of the South San Francisco Unified School District school board approving the change, the new depiction of the Warrior mascot is now anglicized as “spartan or Trojan or knight-looking warriors,” said Aaron Boyd, a teacher at South San Francisco.

“The board didn’t vote to get rid of the Warrior, it just voted to get rid of the Native American imagery,” Boyd said.

The issue was initially brought before the SSFUSD board in February 2020, and the school formed a research committee a month later in an effort to develop a new mascot and logos for the school.

South San Francisco senior Jason Kwong was one of several students who formed the research committee. Boyd said the committee was comprised of the South San Francisco community at large, including parents and faculty members, including himself, but the majority of the members were students at the school.

Kwong and senior Junior Pedemonte made a formal presentation before the school board March 25. The new logos were subsequently approved by a vote of 5-0.

“Honestly, it makes me really proud,” Kwong said. “The main part was getting the logo. I’m actually really glad we have a logo again. And it actually makes me feel really cool that someday I’m going to be able to look back and say I had something to do with the school getting that logo.”

The variety of nine new logos will be unveiled to the student body Monday morning as part of the school’s morning video announcements, as South San Francisco students have still not returned to school in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Students are not scheduled to return to in-person learning until the fall, Boyd said.

Many Native American images will still be seen on campus for the time being. Boyd said the goal is to have many of them replaced by the time students return to campus in the fall. This may prove challenging, however, especially the Native American spear at the 50-yard line of Clifford Field.

“None of that’s been removed,” Boyd said. “We painted over a few things that we could paint over. But there’s a big, engraved stone in front of our main office that’s still there. There’s a spear on the football field that’s still there. There are spears on the new baseball and softball diamonds that are still there. None of that has been done yet. … I think Step One was to get a new logo and then figure out what we’re going to be replaced with.”

The new logos were designed by Varsity Brands, a company based in Memphis, Tennessee specializing in designing new logos. Boyd said the school also sought the advice of SSFUSD Director of Innovation Jason Brockmeyer, who previously served as the principal at Jefferson when the school changed its mascot in 2015.

“It is a big deal,” Boyd said. “It’s been such a contentious thing to begin with.”

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