Pueblo High School will always be known as the Warriors, but they are looking for a new mascot to physically represent them at games and school events.
Since the school opened in 1956 they have been the Warriors. The mascot was a caricature of a Native American named Wally Warrior, but it was controversial and led to walkouts at the school in the ’80s, according to Patricia Dienz, the principal at Pueblo.
Since then, the school adopted a nondescript image of a man wearing a robe, which the school has rarely used, according to Dienz.
“We always want to be the Warriors,” she said. “We have a saying here, ‘once a Warrior always a Warrior.’ We just need to find an appropriate image.”
The school’s journalism students teamed up with the student council to find a new mascot. They staged an online vote, but the Web site was hacked into and more than one thousand votes placed for the panda. Choices included a coyote, a cactus, a puma, a wolf, a roadrunner and a dragon.
Senior student council member Teresa Miranda said she and her fellow council members are in the process of figuring out a new way for all the interested parties to vote on the mascot. Some may think spending money on a costume and props for a mascot, in light of recent budget cuts, might be wasteful, but Dienz has a ready response.
“One idea is to vote with money,” she said. There could be different jars, each representing a different mascot choice. To cast a vote for a particular mascot, a student would drop any amount of money into that mascot’s jar.
“We (would be) raising money for the costume while voting,” Dienz said.
Costumes generally cost around $800 to $1,000.
Dienz said she is pulling for the Warrior wolf. “I like the alliteration,” she said.
Miranda also has a special place in her heart for the wolf. She thinks the costume for the wolf mascot looks “cool” and “less childish” than some of the other choices.
Other students at Pueblo aren’t as gung-ho about the mascot. Students Alexis Leyva and Rey Carreras said they “couldn’t care less” about voting on a new mascot. Still, the principal said she is optimistic the school will soon be able to decide how to stage their vote and make a decision. She hopes the new mascot will be ready to unveil by homecoming next fall.
