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Fryer: Canyon, Fullerton among schools changing names, logos due to new law

April 30, 2026

Get ready for Canyon Cobras instead of Comanches and Fullerton Redhawks instead of Indians.

Canyon and Fullerton are among the California high schools that are changing the identity of their mascots and the looks of their logos to align with a new state law. Both schools will have their new looks incorporated with their sports programs and campus life in general for the start of the 2026-27 school year in the fall.

The California Racial Mascots Act, passed in the State Assembly by a 62-0 vote and signed in 2024, requires that public schools K-12 remove Native American team names, nicknames and mascots that could be viewed as derogatory. The changes must be completed by July 1. (The deadline can be extended to the 2028-29 school year under certain conditions.) Schools operated by a tribe or tribal organization are exempt from making changes.

Fullerton principal Jon Caffrey said the school’s changes are the result of a two-year process. School personnel met with Native American tribal representatives in an effort to retain the Indians name. The groups unanimously requested that Fullerton make the change.

Four meetings with the high school’s community of parents, staff, students and alumni were infused with the passion expected at a school that was founded in 1903. Eventually there were suggestions for a new mascot, and a final vote selected RedHawks.

The RedHawks image will be a fierce-looking, solid-red raptor. It’s similar to the RedHawk mascot of Seattle University. Fullerton plans to publicize the image to its school community by mid-May.

The school logo is an encircled “F” with a feather dangling from the circle. So any images, such as championship banners in the school gym, need to be changed.

Canyon, founded in 1972, has had logos that included a Native American brave in a circle. Other logos have only a capital “C.” Its student section has been known as “The Tribe.”

“Some things won’t change, like the big ‘C’ for ‘Canyon,’” said Canyon athletic director Nate Harrison. “We’re trying to get this done by next year.”

The new “Cobras” logo, featuring a snake ready to strike, is in the school colors of black and gold.

Woodbridge will continue to be the Warriors. The school got rid of its Native American depictions in 2004, said Woodbridge athletic director Ryan Brucker. He said a caricature was painted over in ‘04 and a feather attached to a lance that goes through a capital “W” was removed a few years later.

“We’re having discussions now of a new mascot,” Brucker said. “We’ll always be ‘Warriors’ but we’ve moved away from the Native American depiction.”

The Troy Warriors mascot is depicted as a Roman Empire-type of warrior, at least the ones we see in the movies. So no changes there.

Esperanza athletic director and football coach JP Presley recently had on the football helmets a capital “E” with a spear through it. The helmets previously had “Aztecs” written on them.

“Other programs are adding that,” Presley said. “It’s caught on.”

Presley said he has received no direction from the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District to make any changes.

Change can be difficult, especially changes to longstanding traditions.

NOTES

• The CIF Southern Section office is accepting applications for its newly-created position of assistant commissioner in charge of reviewing and determining eligibility of student-athletes. The starting salary is $175,000 (negotiable). …

• The CIF State Federated Council approved the proposal to hold baseball and softball state championships, starting with the 2027 season. The baseball and softball seasons currently end with the CIF Southern California and Northern California Regional finals. …

• CIF-SS first-round softball playoff games are May 14 and 15, with the second round May 16. That might look like a tough turnaround for a diamond sport that relies heavily on one great pitcher. As CIF-SS assistant commissioner in charge of softball Thom Simmons explained, “It’s nothing they’re not used to” given all of the tournaments that are played under similar scheduling, plus teams have the option of playing the second round on May 18 if both teams agree to that change. …

• With cell phones, memorizing phone numbers is not as essential as it was long ago. A phone number I will always remember is 714-998-5151 because that phone number — the office number for Orange Lutheran High School — would appear when Nancy Paul called with her frequent and consistently kind corrections to my horrible stat-keeping of Orange Lutheran football games. Miss Paul, as everyone called her, died last week. She served Orange Lutheran for 43 years in many important categories and is one of my favorite people in my 36 years of covering county athletics. …

• Fourteen CIF-SS teams will be selected to play in the CIF Southern California Regional that begins May 19. The number of SoCal Regional teams from the 12-team CIF-SS Division 1 group could be four, five or six teams, with that to be determined later. …

• Huntington Beach boys volleyball coach Craig Pazanti was in the Corona del Mar gym Wednesday to scout the CIF-SS Division 1 first-round match between Mater Dei and Corona del Mar. Huntington Beach plays Corona del Mar, which swept Mater Dei, in the second round Tuesday at Huntington Beach High. Not only do the Oilers have the challenge of playing an excellent Sea Kings team, they will have had a lengthy break. Their most recent match was against Loyola on April 21. …

• Also in the CdM gym Wednesday was former Mater Dei football coach Frank McManus. He is friends with Monarchs volleyball coach Jake Nuneviller. McManus coached Cardinal Newman of Santa Rosa to an 11-2 record and a CIF North Coast Section championship game this past fall, his only season there. McManus resigned after the season to return to Orange County for a business opportunity with former Mater Dei assistant coach Pat Dubar. McManus said that he enjoyed his time in Santa Rosa but missed Southern California. …

• Longtime Tustin football offensive line coach Sam Baker is now coaching the offensive line at Mission Viejo. Baker was an All-County lineman at Tustin, an All-American tackle at USC and played in the National Football League. …

• Jesse Mercado has resigned as boys basketball coach at Villa Park, the school reported. Mercado took over for the late-great Kevin Reynolds during the 2024-25 season when Reynolds became too ill to coach, and he coached the Spartans for the entire 2025-26 season. …

• Caleb Martin is the new boys basketball coach at St. Margaret’s. Martin has extensive coaching experience, most recently as an assistant coach at Vanguard University.

Orange County Register

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Fryer: Canyon, Fullerton among schools changing names, logos due to new law

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