As the South Huntington School District approaches its 100 year anniversary in December of 2024, we’re excited to unveil a new look for our beloved Wildcat mascot! After months of creativity, collaboration and feedback from all facets of our school community - students, teachers, alumni, administrators, PTAs, athletics, Booster Club, representatives from each school building, and board members - we’ve reimagined our Wildcat mascot and logo.
For decades, our Wildcat has roamed our halls, symbolizing strength, agility, and resilience. But over the years, the Wildcat has taken on a different face in each one of our schools. And in our primary and intermediate schools, separate mascot identities emerged - the Oakwood Owls, the Maplewood Mustangs, the Countrywood Cardinals, and the Birchwood Bulldogs. But as we say - “Once a Wildcat, Always a Wildcat” - we wanted to unify our district under one symbol that students of all ages, alumni and faculty could identify with and showcase the pride we feel in ourselves and our school community. Our students become a Wildcat the moment they step into their first day of Kindergarten.
The rebranding started several years ago when South Huntington adopted a new academic logo for the district - a globe with a graduation cap and tassel. “We wanted to bring us into the 21st century,” said Board of Education President Nicholas Ciappetta. “The next step was having everybody be Wildcats so that everyone will instantly recognize us and say, ‘Oh, that's South Huntington,’ and it will mean something rather than just any wildcat that you can get from clip art.”
The new Wildcat mascot and logo design were created in collaboration with the Spirit of Huntington Art Center under the direction of the district’s rebranding committee. They are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that ignites the passion of students of all ages and abilities for creative expression that transforms lives. Several designs are offered but all with a unified format and specific colors and fonts. For the Wildcat, there is a three-quarter profile head; a front view Wildcat head, with shoulders and claws; plus new fonts for the word Wildcats. We’ve kept our beloved paw print and redesigned our W. The new logo and mascot can be presented in the school colors of maroon and white, plus a tertiary gold highlight color. They can also be presented in black and white to give our different schools, sports teams, clubs and PTAs various design options.
Based on feedback from the rebranding committee, we’ve also created a Junior Wildcat for our younger students. It can be used in the lower grades where a friendly mascot is preferred over our fiercer-looking athletics mascot.
The South Huntington Board of Education approved the new look at a board meeting on March 6th. “The board liked that there was a consistent palette. There will be consistent colors and all the schools will have access to the proper fonts and colors to use through our Logo and Branding Guide. We're going to have a W that will be universally recognized as our W, and I also think the Wildcat is very modern and professional looking,” said Mr. Ciappetta.
Going forward, the new mascot and logo will be used for all types of school and club apparel and merchandise, team uniforms, signage inside and outside of buildings including the newly constructed press box tower at the Walt Whitman High School athletic field. Eventually, they will even be seen on new gym floors and athletic fields. Mr. Ciappetta admits some things will change sooner than later, but others will take time. “The turf field at Whitman will probably be the last thing because we have to wait until that needs to be replaced. But as we resurface a gym floor in Silas, for example, we'll do it right then. As we buy new uniforms, we'll have the logo. Some things are pretty simple like the football helmets or the lacrosse helmets, they just have stickers so we can do that more quickly. So it's a process and we're going to have a little mishmash of times with different W’s and different Wildcats, but eventually we'll get there,” said Mr. Ciappetta.
Community members are welcome to view the more detailed brand and logo guide here.
The three-quarter view of the Wildcat can be seen above.
Scratch marks are included in the brand kit and can be combined with other designs.