This article was previously published on GuelphToday.
After a year of discussions, a Guelph high school has adopted a new team name.
Our Lady of Lourdes will now be home of the Lancers, dropping the Crusaders name. The new name was made effective at the start of the school year.
"There has been discussions over the years about the name, and some concerns have been raised in the past," said Wellington Catholic District School Board director of education Michael Glazier.
"But really this was an opportunity for rebranding for the school."
The name Crusader dates back to medieval times. A crusader was someone who was involved in military expeditions by Christian powers to 'win' the Holy Land from the Muslims. The series of religious wars between Christians and Muslims spanned about 200 years between 1096 and 1291.
The school team name has gone over a couple changes over the years. Originally called the Blues, the school then adopted the name Crusaders.
The Wellington Catholic District School Board said in the past year, discussions began on “how to revitalize certain aspects of the school and unite the student body.”
Through it, one of the key things to update was the team name.
"Staff and students have said that the name doesn't really connect with them," he said.
The school has used iterations of the name in the last five years, including the Saders or just Lourdes.
Glazier said in that time, the school has slowly moved away from the term Crusaders, though Crusader logos could be seen throughout the school and on social media posts as recently as last spring.
"(The transition) is still in progress, so there is still some references to it," Glazier said of the continued existence of the Crusader name.
"If you were to go into the school now, you can still see the word Crusader on the wall. We actually have three or four different logos that have been used, so that was another chance to rebrand, and they sort of wanted to do that all at one time."
He said over the school year, you can expect to see the branding slowly switch over, both in the school and on social media.
That includes painting the walls, installing logos, updating the change rooms and performing landscaping work.
Students and staff were given the opportunity to offer input in the new name as part of the process.
Glazier isn't sure how many names were in the running, but students got to vote for a new name in June.
"The response has been very positive from the students and from staff," he said. "I think it's really a positive opportunity for them to enhance the school spirit, bring the students together."
As for the cost, Glazier wasn't able to offer an amount.
But he said with the change aligning with other changes the school wanted to make, it "isn't going to be a significant cost whatsoever."
