Photo: Getty Images North America
In the wake of woke concerns, something as seemingly innocuous as a sports team’s name is subject to drawing fire. Many school districts are forcing school teams to reconsider names that imply Native American lineage, like “Braves” or “Warriors.” Even franchises in professional sports, such as the Washington Redskins and Cleveland Indians, have been forced to change the names their fans have used for generations. So, when New York State told the Massapequa school board in 2023 that they could lose funding under the moniker Massapequa Chiefs, the board filed a lawsuit and prepared for the worst.
On Monday, however, Massapequa discovered it had a big fan in its corner, as President Trump posted his support for the Massapequa Chiefs on Truth Social. Kerry Wachter is the Massapequa school board president. She appeared on 710 WOR’s Mendte in the Morning program to describe the elation at seeing a statement from Trump that ended with “LONG LIVE THE MASSAPEQUA CHIEFS!”
Wachter told host Larry Mendte that efforts to talk to Massapequa tribe representatives to keep the name got nowhere, possibly for a reason: “Basically, they just wouldn’t speak to us. They just kept pushing it off, and again, I think it was just pretty clear that they were not going to do that, despite all of the, you know, the state not supporting the tribes and them having their own problems with the state. I guess they didn’t want to get involved and make the state angry. The Montauk Indians are trying to get recognized as a tribe again, which the legislature voted for and [Governor] Hochul vetoed, and the Seneca tribe was in a thing with Hochul and with the gambling… so I think they just don’t want to get involved and go against the state.”
But the commander-in-chief had no reservations making his stance on the team name known, which boosted Wachter’s hopes immensely. “He doesn’t forget the little people. He doesn’t forget the people who work hard every day … [and] the whole town is just abuzz and cannot believe that President Trump took time out of his busy schedule to recognize us.”
Photo Credit: Getty Images