For years, the tiger has been the face of Tenafly. “Let’s go Tigers,” THS cheerleaders have chanted through the decades. Signs of the tiger have adorned the football fields. Tony the Tiger even made an appearance at the annual Olympics.

However, this month, the creator of Tony the Tiger decided to update the mascot from a tiger, which solely represents masculinity, to a liger, which also provides representation to women and children. 

“Tony the Tiger was good while he lasted,” Massey Cott, the original designer, said. “The problem was that he didn’t represent all of Tenafly.” 

After watching a riveting documentary about the role of parents and how they are important in the lives of children, Cott started searching for inspiration. He read textbooks, self-help books, and listened to audiobooks to broaden his knowledge. However, it was only after reading Families in Tenafly, a magazine written by a self-help psychologist, that he thought about the parents of Tony the Tiger. Did they exist? Where were they? Are they happy that their child decided to represent a high school?

“Families are much more integral to Tenafly than the students themselves,” Cott said.

With this, he proposed the addition of Tony’s wife, Lina the Lion, and their child, Lenny the Liger, to the Tenafly Board of School Mascots. In a tie-breaking vote, the council voted 16-15 to accept the changes. In fact, the head of the board loved it so much that he nominated Lenny to become the new face of Tenafly. 

“It’s just so important to include diversity into Tenafly, especially with how diverse Tenafly is itself,” he said in his nomination speech. “Lenny the Liger not only represents Tenafly’s familial-like bonds but the change and modernization of Tenafly.”

The following Tuesday, Cott accepted the award for “most inclusive town mascot designer of Bergen County” from the annual “Most Inclusive Town Mascot Designer of Bergen County Competition.” Tenafly celebrated the icon with a massive parade in which the 2 new mascots were revealed and passed out t-shirts commemorating the event. 

The ramifications of this new change in mascots are immense. Firstly, the high school’s Olympics would become 3 times as long, as each mascot gets their own opening ceremony and events. Secondly, construction would take place in all places in which the traces of Tony the Tiger are and would be replaced with Lenny the Liger, an icon resembling the former mascot but with a lighter variant. The construction is planned to only occur during the hours of twilight, as the board wants all sleep to be disrupted to remind Tenafly residents of the town’s advancements towards representation. The construction is estimated to take two years to complete, according to a prediction by the professional Mascot Replacement Company.

Yet,  the most revolutionary change is the addition of all three Ligers to the American flag. Starting this month, every flag at THS will be replaced with the Liger family superimposed on the stars. Instead of the pledge of allegiance, students will pay homage to the Liger’s legacy with a brand new song and 20-minute long homeroom. 

Finally, there have been talks to officially change Tenafly’s T to an L as the final mark on establishing familial representation in Tenafly. Starting next week, the town will be referred to as “Lenafly” in honor of Lenny and all signs will be flipped and cut apart to appear as an L. This initiative would be headed by LHS’s newest sign-cutting elective class, which will receive a varsity letter for virtually performing free labor. 

“Honestly? I’m really digging the new mascot,” Noah Jackson (’26) said. “Like, every school has a tiger mascot anyway. It’s overdone. A liger, on the other hand, has never been done before. I’m team liger.” 

Jehee Nam (’27) held a more opposing opinion. 

“I mean, doesn’t it seem a little odd how they plan on converting this school into a liger praising ground?” she said. “A mascot change is fine, but this all seems a little extreme, like borderline indoctrination.” 

Shortly after, Nam found her food delivery bags ripped apart by feline marks. All that was left was a ketchup-stained liger paw print.

In response to the allegations of dictatorship, Massey Cott stated, “All mascots are equal. It’s just that some mascots are more equal than others. Remember, Big Liger is watching you!”

If only Lenny the Liger could be a real thing. Happy Early April Fools!