Artists break with tradition

Mike Sciacca

Thursday was the first day of the school year at Laguna Beach High

and with it came the usual changes for students: new classes, new

teachers, a new grade level.

There also was another big change on campus, one that took place

for the first time in 66 years: a new school nickname.

Laguna Beach High athletic teams have gone by the nickname

“Artists” since the late 1930s, but last week, when students arrived

on campus to register for classes for the new school year, they voted

to change the school’s nickname, said Athletic Director Mario

Morales.

The new nickname Laguna Beach High athletic teams will bear is

“Breakers.”

The new mascot name was revealed during a noontime pep rally on

campus on Thursday.

“There has been talk on campus the past couple of years about

changing the school’s nickname,” Morales said. “The ASB coordinated

the voting and a ballot was given to the students when they came to

school to register for classes.”

Bryce Loidolt, a senior free safety on the football team, and

member of ASB was instrumental in getting the nickname vote to

ballot.

“It’s really good to be involved with ASB and sports because you

can represent athletics in ASB and push decisions through that an

athlete otherwise might be timid about or doesn’t know how to go

about changing things,” he said.

“I am the only athlete on ASB and I got the ball rolling on this

and it was great when the students rallied behind me. It’s a great

thing to be an athlete in leadership because it gives you the

opportunity to represent athletes, represent them well and get

decisions made that, normally, coaches or students otherwise wouldn’t

know how to go about getting something done.”

Seventy-two percent of the student body -- the school’s enrollment

is about 800 students -- filled out the ballot and voted in favor of

changing from the Artists nickname. Sixty-five percent of those votes

favored the nickname Breakers, Morales said.

Following the Breakers was the nickname “Titans,” which received

13% of the votes; “Coyotes” gained 7%; staying with and “Artists”

garnered 5%.

Actually, the newly selected nickname isn’t new at all -- it was

the school’s original nickname.

Morales said that to his understanding, Laguna Beach High opened

its doors in 1934 and for the first two years the school’s nickname

was Breakers. Two years later, he said, a vote was taken to change

the nickname to Artists, a nickname that stood until Thursday’s

official announcement that a majority of the student body who cast a

vote desired to change back to the original nickname.

The symbol for the Artists mascot was a painter’s pallet and

brush, Morales said, yet no Laguna Beach athletic team bared the

symbol on their uniforms.

Along with the new nickname, students will decide what the

Breakers mascot will look like: Morales said that it was announced on

Thursday that a contest will be held for a student-designed mascot

concept.

* MIKE SCIACCA covers sports for the Laguna Beach Coastline

Pilot. He can be reached at 494-4321 or by e-mail at

michael.sciacca@latimes.com.