School officials welcomed their new mascot, a life-sized horse that will cheer on and motivate students, parents, faculty and others. The idea of having the school mascot is to “charge up” sports games and generate plenty of excitement at these sporting events.

The new unnamed mascot was recently unveiled and has already appeared at three basketball games. It appeared during the Joe Armijo Tournament in the East Gym at Academy where the horse-charger motivated all the Academy students to support and encourage their varsity basketball team.

So, what’s the origin of the Academy mascot?

There were a number of juniors who had the idea to bring a mascot to the campus to represent sports teams and the school as a whole. Simon Lane ’24, led the charge for a mascot. He then took the idea to 10-12 Division Head, Bob Anderson, who liked it. Anderson then proceeded to get the necessary approvals and found funding—a lot of which was donated by the Athletic Department—to make it happen.

The horse was born.

“A lot of times if you watch our students at sports events, they just sit…they don’t cheer. And that’s what the mascot is supposed to do… they are sort of like a dressed-up cheerleader,” said Taryn Bachis, Albuquerque Academy’s Athletic Director.

Bachis said the role of the mascot is to encourage the crowd to cheer. She says this is a good thing for the Academy.

Lane, Finn Thompson ’26, Mason Huslig ’23 and Jack Hubbard ’23 are among the current Academy students who have dressed up in the horse suit to promote the school and cheer on the teams. Other students are welcome to be the mascot as well.

Anderson also pointed out why the mascot is an important part of Charger culture and the Academy community.

“The goal of having a mascot is to promote school spirit and spectator engagement. In addition, I hope the mascot can bring a stronger sense of identity and community to events at our school. Since this was a student-driven initiative, I think it can serve to highlight Charger pride.”

Anderson also believes the mascot can make appearances outside of sports.
“Our initial thought was to have the mascot at sporting events, but I see no reason it can’t be used elsewhere as well. Again, the idea is to promote school spirit and spectator engagement, but I suppose that could be expanded to include the concept of community interaction and engagement.”

Some students on campus support the idea of having a new mascot representing the school.

“Honestly, I kind of love the mascot,” said Reagan Hines ‘24. “I think it definitely brings more energy to the crowd when watching the games, and I think it’s good for Academy because it has brought a lot of school spirit since it got introduced.”

Miel Padilla ‘25 agrees that the mascot is a great addition to the Academy.

“I think that the mascot shows that our school has more spirit, and it makes it more exciting at games.”

There are also some students who have mixed feelings about the new lead charger cheerleader that is motivating the crowds.

“I definitely like the idea of the mascot. I feel like the costume could be a bit better, but it’s ok,” said Abbott Carothers ‘25.

Josh Simon ‘23 has some reservations about the mascot as well.

“I really like the mascot for sports like basketball and football. I’m just worried about sports like volleyball and tennis that require concentration. I hope it won’t bother those athletes too much. I love school spirit, so I’m always for an extra push for it. I’m interested to see how our school can benefit from it.”

So keep your eyes open: you’ll likely see the latest Charger running, jumping and high-fiving students and parents at upcoming games.

And you can get even more involved—there will soon be a poll emailed to students, asking for suggestions to name the new mascot.

Go Chargers!