When Waterloo East and Waterloo West merge into a new campus in 2028, that school will be called Waterloo United High School. KWWL covered the introduction of the new nickname, wordmark, logo, and colors last Wednesday.
I hate the word “United” in there. I understand it in this specific situation, because like the European soccer teams that call themselves “United,” there is actually a two-becoming-one situation. But “United” smacks of the Europeanization of soccer stuff in this country in the past decade. I probably wouldn’t have even had the same reaction to “Unified” — see the Los Angeles Unified School District.
The graphic elements, meanwhile, feel extremely late 2010s/early 2020s. The primary mark (the trident, er, pentant?) is not necessarily easy to draw, but the monogram would look pretty sweet on a football helmet. So, naturally, that is NOT what will be used on the football helmet; instead it’s a non-beveled version of the primary mark.
The new high school will be built as additions to the existing Central Middle School on Katoski Drive, south of the interchange of University Avenue and Greenhill Road. Longtime residents of the area (or readers of this website) may recall that that school was built as Waterloo Central High School, which only lasted 15 years (1974-88) before being converted to a junior high. That’s why it already has a football field with large sets of concrete bleachers and some extremely dilapidated tennis courts (according to the aerial imagery).
The new school is expected to open in 2028, meaning that this year’s freshmen will be the first “Waterloo United” graduates.