It’s a pity that, for years, Monte Vista has had a problem staring it in the face. Everything else about this school is perfect, except for this one issue that it cannot admit to itself. So it must steel itself, for the only thing that it has to fear is… the school’s mascot.
The failure of the Monte Vista Mustang makes itself evident in its apparent inability to present itself as respectable. It carpet walks as a herbivore in a district where every other high school claims a hardened carnivore as its mascot. It has a mascot that goes by “Musty the Mustang.” And, perhaps the worst of all, versions of its mustang logo, that one might originally think is simply a traced over copy of the Ford logo, is actually an imitation of the Southern Methodist University Mustangs logo. This logo happens to bear a remarkable resemblance to Ford’s, bringing up lots of chicken-and-the-egg-or-totally-unrelated questions, but (unfortunately, because this is a really interesting find) that isn’t really what this article is about.
Therefore, perhaps Monte Vista needs a mascot that’s more intimidating, something that inspires respect from the competition, or more importantly, inspires its swag, logo, and whoever-names-things designers. For instance, if it takes inspiration from the translation of its name (“mountain view” in Spanish), the school could be the Monte Vista Eagles, that soar high above the competition. (Yes, I know that Diablo Vista are the Eagles, but they’re a middle school, so we can ignore them). Eagles are inherently cool, so swapping the school’s mascot to them would easily solve these issues with no problems whatsoever!
Alternatively, it could give up its basis in reality altogether and choose something more…outlandish. After all, Monte Vista did have the same idea as 99% of high schools in the country, picking a horse as a mascot, so it can hardly do worse. In fact, perhaps it should do worse! UC Santa Cruz is famous for getting a banana slug as its mascot, so doing something similar at Monte Vista could be great for publicity! Like…the Monte Vista Alicorns! The slogan writes itself: “They’re horses, but better!” Other possibilities include the Monte Vista Aye-Ayes, Axolotls, Lizards, or Frogs.
However, if none of these options (tragically) prove to be possible, perhaps it would just be nice to see the logo getting upgraded and having more mustang-related merch (only including a smaller version of the current logo does NOT count!) It also might be nicer to see mustangs incorporated around the school in general. But one has to admit…the Monte Vista Eagles/Alicorns has a nice ring to it.
