Princeton Secondary adopts Rapids name

Professional sports teams like the NFL franchise in Washington, the MLB team in Cleveland and CFL squad in Edmonton have recently come under the microscope for their nicknames. But the scrutiny doesn’t stop at the pro level as the local Princeton Secondary Rebels decided to drop their name in 2020.

Former SD58 Board Chair Gordon Comeau spoke to Q101 in 2020 about why Princeton choice to change their name.

“The administrators at the school were going through several things and they came across a number of items and pictures of previous logos that were linked to the confederacy, including the confederate flag on one uniform,” said Comeau.

“Looking at the fact that they haven’t used a lot of these logos in years, and we know that these kids don’t have that relationship to the confederacy. It was time to look at changing that and giving them a name that they can associate with that reflects their community,” added Comeau.

Over the past year the student body at PSS along with a steering committee have been working to pick a new nickname, and finally settled on the Princeton Secondary Rapids.

“We settled on the Rapids, apparently only the second Rapids in the province,” said Bill Lawrence.

To help with new uniforms and the creation of a logo, the SD58 board voted to approve $35,000 in funding to the school.