https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g370BTD7kuw&feature=youtu.be

“Home – there’s a moment in your life when you realize you are part of something greater. Home – it’s that special place where you can be at ease – be yourself – where you can make memories that will stay with you forever. It’s time to come home Warriors. It’s time to come home to Brookline.”

The words reverberated across the Schluntz Gymnasium from a video projected on the ceiling during the Powderpuff pep rally on Nov. 26. The video about the meaning of being a Warrior concluded with the unveiling of the new, Spartan Warrior-themed school logo.

Last year, Student Council and Legislature issued a vote during Advisory to decide between a Spartan Warrior and a Revolutionary Warrior logo to represent the high school’s athletics. The Spartan Warrior won by an overwhelming majority, and a committee of 10 people, including faculty, coaches, deans, athletes, parents and alumni began creating a logo at the beginning of the school year to reflect the vote.

According to Assistant Athletic Director Kyle Williams, the committee submitted ideas for the logo to a program called 99designs, which allows for over 900,000 designers from around the world to submit ideas for the logo. The committee received 457 submissions from 81 different designers.

After about a month of communication with different designers and voting within the committee, it selected one logo that was approved by both Headmaster Deborah Holman and Athletic Director Pete Rittenburg. The committee worked with designer Himanshu Sharma to finalize the design before Thanksgiving.

The previous school logo was the arrowhead, which was removed around 9 years ago due to racist implications. Williams said that all uniforms that the school plans to order in the future will include the new logo. He also said that they plan to develop secondary and tertiary logos to complement the new logo, and are considering doing specific team logos that will mesh with the school’s branding.

In addition to the new logo, the athletics department also revealed four pillars that define what it mean to be a Warrior: pride, toughness, honor and community.

“I think a logo enables people to unite behind a common cause,” Williams said. “It also creates an opportunity to add in some of the educational athletics components and to tie different teams, different programs, even different groups—nonathletic groups—together under one Brookline umbrella and make them really feel like they’re a part of something bigger.”

Seth Coven can be contacted at [email protected]