COXHEATH, N.S. — The principal at Riverview High School says the sports team re-brand process is underway, but the name likely won’t be used until next year.
Joe Chisholm told the Cape Breton Post last week, the school recently began taking name suggestions from the school community and hopes the new team name will be in effect for the start of the 2020-21 school year, at the latest.
“Our school advisory council thought a good way forward would be to ask the students if they had some ideas,” said Chisholm.
“The students are going to have a big say, but we have a coaches council, school advisory council and our own staff, so everyone will be part of it, but we’re hoping that it’s a student-driven process.”
In June, the Cape Breton-Victoria Regional Centre for Education confirmed the Coxheath high school would be removing the name “Redmen” from its hockey program.
The news came two months after McGill University in Montreal removed the name “Redmen” from its men’s varsity sports teams after students argued the term was a racial slur.
In an interview with the Post in June, CBVRCE spokesperson Michelle MacLeod said re-branding discussions took place for more than a year before being released to the public.
The process was expected to begin the first full week of school, however, post-tropical storm Dorian forced the postponement of the process until recently.
“We met at the end of last year and the school advisory council told me what they felt was a good way forward and we’re trying to follow that,” said Chisholm. “We’re trying to get as many students as we can in the process.”
Riverview High School first opened in August 1950 and was built on the former site of the Keefe farm in Coxheath.
The school’s first championships, on record by the Nova Scotia School Athletic Federation, came during the 1970-71 season when the school captured both mixed badminton and hockey provincial titles.
In June, MacLeod said the history of the name “Riverview Redmen” in the beginning did not refer to First Nations people, but the colour of the team’s jersey and candy cane socks.
When the name was created close to 50 years ago, a consultation process occurred with community leaders from First Nations communities, and at the time, the name was not found to be offensive.
The “Redmen” name is only attached to the school’s hockey program. Riverview is known as the Royals in basketball, Reds in soccer, Rugrats in rugby, and Redettes for cheerleading.
The new name will be attached to all sports teams.
With the high school hockey season scheduled to begin on Oct. 21, it’s expected the team will continue to go by the name “Redmen” for at least this season.
“I’m not trying to get this done before they start the season,” said Chisholm. “We want to do this right and we don’t want to do it just for one thing.
“I think the larger community knows that we’re in the re-branding process, so I think they’re going to give us some time to get it done, so it’s done properly.”
When asked about the feedback of changing the name, Chisholm said he had one phone call from a former hockey player wanting the school to keep the name “Redmen.”
“Mostly, it’s a general understanding about the times and to be politically correct now, we have to make sure all our names are appropriate and that our names are being respectful towards everyone in our community.”
Once the team name is decided, Chisholm said the school will have to do fundraising in order to get new uniforms for its teams.
“We don’t have money put aside so we have to buy uniforms for all teams,” he said. “We usually do a three-or-four-year cycle for a set of uniforms, but when you have 22-25 teams, you can’t do them all at one time.”
Chisholm doesn’t expect the centre for education to provide any funds for the re-brand.
“They help us out with other things, but not that sort of thing,” said Chisholm.
Although the overall goal is to have the new name in place for the start of the next school year, Chisholm hinted they may be able to use the new name for the rugby, softball, and track and field seasons in the spring.
“We will start getting new uniforms and you will start to see whatever it is that we’re going to come up with.” said Chisholm.
McGill and Riverview aren’t the only groups planning to change team names.
Earlier this year, the Collingwood Minor Hockey Association in Ontario announced plans to remove the name “Blackhawks” from its association in 2020.
Meanwhile, last year, Major League Baseball’s Cleveland Indians removed their Chief Wahoo logo and removed the Native American caricature this season from the club’s jersey.
In the past, Native American groups, as well as former United States President Barack Obama, have pressured the NFL’s Washington Redskins to change their name, but nothing has come of that to date.
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