By Marc Hardin
NKyTribune contributor
Villa Madonna Academy sports teams have ended an era and begun a new one this academic year with the changing of their mascot. No longer will they be known as the Blue Lightning. From now on, they are the Vikings.
Villa Madonna Executive Director and High School/Junior High principal Pamela McQueen said the decision comes after four years of lobbying from students who wanted a new symbol to show their sense of school pride at the Villa Hills Roman Catholic academy. She said students voted on a name change in the spring, and the Vikings were approved.
The mascot change was initially announced last week in the school newsletter Villa Vistas.
“The change is exciting because it was student-generated,” McQueen said in a statement. “They advocated for a return to the Viking mascot, and we all look forward to continued athletic successes as the Villa Vikings.”
Brooke Meier (Photo provided by the Meier family)
It’s the first change in mascot at Villa Madonna in 17 years but it links the academy’s sports teams to the past. The elementary boys’ teams were known as the Vikings in the late 1970s and ’80s. For one year in the 1990s, the high school boys’ teams were called the Vikings. The girls’ teams were known as the Vixens up until 1992. In 1993, boys’ and girls’ teams were known as the Vipers. In 2001, all school teams became known as the Blue Lightning.
Elementary principal and Villa Madonna alumnae Soshana Marx Bosley (1991) has seen some of those name changes.
“I am a proud Villa Vixen and will always cherish my days at the Academy as a Vixen,” she said. “Now, as the elementary principal and as a parent of an eighth-grader, I’m excited to celebrate our school spirit as a Villa Viking. Look for me showing my Villa pride by wearing a Viking helmet at home games throughout the school year.”
The academy said the name change will be launched at a K-12 pep rally Thursday on campus at 2:15 p.m. On the docket is music, chants, and a giant giveaway. Amy Holtzman in Villa Madonna communications said students will learn a traditional Viking chant and try out horns similar to the gjallarhorns used by Vikings. Each student will receive a Viking hat and t-shirt. Students also will be encouraged to submit original Viking drawings that can be used as a template for the new school mascot. Students, faculty, and alumni will vote on the mascot drawings to determine the new look.
Senior Frankie Stoddart, a Villa Madonna multi-sport athlete, said he’s up for being a Viking because it’s more of a personified mascot and it’s pretty manly.
“I like the nickname change,” he said. “Before, we had Bolt Man. Now we can all dress up as Vikings.”
Stoddart’s close friend Brooke Meier, an all-conference athlete in several sports at Villa, is still getting used to it.
“I have all this stuff since the seventh grade with Blue Lightning on it so I’m going to miss the blue lightning bolt,” she said. “It had a cool hip vibe. We could play the song “Thunderstruck” and we could play around with it. I’ll miss it for sure but I’ll support the new one.”
The academy is quite aware that the name change may not be immediately popular with all members of the student body but McQueen hopes that over time everybody will be on board. In the Villa Vistas issue announcing the change, a cartoon in the 1992 school yearbook capturing some of the sadness over the Vipers name change was reprinted. In the cartoon, a sad Vixen says, “Maybe it’s for the best, but I have to leave all the same.”
“We know that a change like this may evoke mixed feelings among our current families and alumni,” the school said in a statement. “In fact, we stumbled upon an old cartoon drawn by Matthew Meeker (class of 1993) showing a sad Vixen and Viking leaving campus when Villa changed to the Vipers, but we hope that our families and alumni will join us in our excitement over this change. While the team name may change, we remain committed to our tradition of excellence on the field, on the court, in the pool, in the classroom, and in our community.”
