Imagine being a member of the controversial student section of Troy High School, the TC Line. You are cheering the girls playing soccer against Seaholm High School, you are cheering so passionately and enthusiastically because your school is winning an away game. But, all of a sudden you decide to check next to you. She is gone. Yes, this is another story of Canela or, more recently, her sister Canela 2.0.
Canela is the unofficial mascot of the TC Line. For those who don’t know, Canela consists of a very old taxidermy deer head with a lot of history and years behind it, used at Troy High School games to “bring the spirit up” as the TC Line members stated.
This tradition actually started in 2003, the TC Line was united in one of their members’ houses and found this particular deer head that their parents threw away because it was old and dirty. The TC Line decided to keep it and take it to one of the school games to annoy and poke people with the antlers, which led to the athletic director at the time cutting the antlers off. From then, this deer head became a unique tradition at each of the Troy High School games. But this year something was different, the TC Line’s dear Canela was stolen and easily replaced for our brand new Canela 2.0.
Senior Leo Penoza, head of the TC Line, guided us through this mystery. When asked who would have committed this, he stated that students from Troy Athens High School did it at the girls soccer game in Seaholm High School. “They took it from the bleachers when our guys weren’t looking and threw it over the fence to their other friends” he stated. “They came to Seaholm when the girls soccer team wasn’t playing Athens, just at a random game.” Penoza added. Later on, seniors Selma Mawazini and Maya Saad, members of the TC Line confirmed it.
Trying to find and see the other perspective of this mystery, the student from Troy Athens High School, who stole Canela was contacted, but we did not get any sources or information from them.
Canela’s location has been a hot topic in the school. From cars to garages, she has been in a lot of different places. According to our previous articles about her, the paper had received information that the old Canela was for a certain time at the police station after Troy Athens High School students stole her. Currently, it is believed that she is at the Troy School District’s Central Office. We tried to reach out for further information, but nothing was confirmed.
While the original Canela is traveling around the city of Troy. Canela 2.0, her sister, was involved in a lot of conversations to define a place for her to be because of safety concerns. ¨How she is stored is a big talking point, whether she is kept with the district or with the TC Line,¨ Justin Nelson, government teacher at Troy High School, declared. When asked for more information, he added that, ¨From the district’s perspective, I think they initially wanted Canela to be housed in the school. So like they only get Canela for the games and outside of any game event they wouldn’t have access to Canela, but that is not the agreement that was eventually reached.¨ We asked Remo Roncone, principal of Troy High School, to share with us his thoughts about the impacts of this mascot. ¨I think the TC Line uses it to get kids energized or excited. Can they do the same without Canela? Well the answer is yes, and especially with the restrictions at away games things of that nature where Canela does not travel to and I think the student energy can be just as high,¨ he expressed, and when asked if there were negative situations with students related to Canela he didn’t share more for privacy reasons.
For some people, Canela is a great school spirit tool and for some others can be scary, but as Roncone stated, Canela is currently ¨adding to the school spirit and thinks there’s a benefit behind her, but there’s also a fine line that could be crossed to make it negative thing again.¨ There’s been times where the TC Line, as Roncone quoted, ¨has really pushed the envelope or line with it¨ referring to conversations about banning this mascot. Later on, he explained that, ¨Before the school year starts, set those boundaries as to what is and is not appropriate and when it crosses that line we intervene.”
After this deer-vious mystery was solved to the best of The Chariot’s ability, the administration of Troy High School is actively finding more ways to keep this new replacement of Canela safe and Troy Athens High School cooties free. Now, the TC Line is taking matters into their own hands to be more careful and alert, just in case there aren’t more hawks around to steal our dear Canela.
