On October 13, 2021, the Saint Vrain Valley School District held a board meeting in which the new mascot nominations for Frederick High School were announced. FHS will be abandoning its current mascot, the Warriors–which has represented the school for over a century–at the end of the 2022 school year. Three options were announced by Dr. Fox, principal of FHS: the Golden Eagles, the Mustangs, and the Hornets.

According to Fox, over 600 mascot names were suggested by students and members of the community. A committee of 20 people, including teachers, coaches, and prevalent members of the community narrowed the list down week by week before settling on the three choices. As he presented the mascot nominations to the SVVSD board of education, Fox was confident in the selections. “All three of these [mascots] are ones that I can lead the Frederick community around. All three of these are ones we can be excited about.”

Speaking on behalf of the Golden Eagles, Dr. Fox said, “The strengths identified by our committee is that Golden Eagles are prideful, patriotic, their colors match well with [FHS] colors.” Fox emphasized the importance of maintaining the color scheme at Frederick. “Even though we’re changing our mascot, Frederick has been and always will be blue and gold, and that runs deep in the community.”

There is also a deeper resemblance with the Golden Eagles. “There is a nice tie-in with our athletic logo. If you’ve seen, it, there’s an eagle feather as part of that. It’s a nod to our past and tradition as Warriors,” said Fox.

There are some complications with the Golden Eagles, however. Other Saint Vrain Valley schools–Silver Creek and Skyline–have bird mascots. There are concerns that the mascots will be too similar.

As for the Mustangs, Dr. Fox said, “Mustangs are strong, powerful, prideful. They can capture the pride and tradition of Frederick High School. Like the Golden Eagles, there’s also a nice tie between horses and Native Americans. It’s a nice nod to the past of our school and our future.”

However, similar to the Golden Eagles, there are drawbacks to the Mustangs mascot. “Even though there are no horse mascots in any secondary schools in Saint Vrain, Mountain Range just up the highway just south of us, and Fort Morgan, a school we play commonly in athletics are both the Mustangs.”

The Hornets, which seemed to be the least popular choice among the board, were also given recognition by Dr. Fox. “Hornets embodies the teamwork nature of Frederick High School. No one person is more important than the others–we all work hard and we work together. The other big strength is that it’s unique. There aren’t any hornets that we could find around.”

As for the concerns, Fox stated, “The logos that we could find were cartoonish. Also, the colors don’t naturally fit as well as the other two. Hornets are also often considered a pest, and we’re not sure if that’s the most appropriate mascot.”

After Fox’s remarks, the board discussed the three options for the mascots. The consensus among the board was that Golden Eagles seemed to be the most appropriate choice as the mascot for Frederick.

Chico Garcia, who is the district representative for Frederick and a former graduate from FHS, gave his praises for the Golden Eagles. “I appreciate the majestic nature of it, the power. It has a connection to the tri-town community. And its connection to the indigenous culture feels good as well.” Addressing the drawbacks to the Golden Eagles, Garcia stated, “I’m not concerned about other schools and their relations to having similar names.”

The rest of the board endorsed Garcia, and also expressed their disapproval of the Hornets mascot. According to Fox, the committee will be voting the final outcome of the mascot in the coming weeks.