This will be the last year that they are known as "The Raiders"

The South Colonie Raiders name will come to an end at the end of this school year. The new mascot will officially be "The Wolfpack" once the 2024-2025 school year starts.

The new mascot name was approved last night at the South Colonie School District meeting that took place to finalize the decision. Believe it or not, there were over 200 new mascot names that were submitted by the community. Now with the decision behind them, the district can get to work on what "The Wolfpack" design will be. 

The decision comes with a lot of mixed emotions as The Colonie Raiders name has been used for decades. While there are many people that don't agree with the decision to change the name, the district really had no choice in the matter. 

President of The Board of Education, Brian Casey said - 

“This has been difficult for a lot of us old-timers who’ve been in this district since day one.”

A senior at Colonie High, Michael Currao told News 10 ABC - 

“I hope the younger generation can adopt the new nickname just to bring in a new meaning, But I’ll always be a raider.”

As a proud alumni of Colonie High I can say that I totally understand why the name change was needed. The school district was put in a very difficult position and they had to do what was best for the district moving forward. I will always be a Raider as will all of my fellow alumni. While change is never an easy thing to accept, I hope that the kids going through the South Colonie school system now can embrace "The Wolfpack" the same way that the generations before them embraced "The Raiders".