The story below was originally written and posted by Samantha Galicinao, August 28, 2012:

Students, who have had to endure the stinky odor and the sweaty aftermath of wearing the Sammy the Saint head, fear no longer. Sammy the Saint has gotten a face lift, literally.

Mr. Adrian Salazar, SMHS Activities Director and 1993 SMHS graduate, ordered a state-of-the-art Sammy the Saint head before the end of last school year.  Sammy made his debut at the Welcome Back Rally on August 24, 2012. Valerie Canas introduced our mascot, and Sammy entered to the song, “Eye of the Tiger.”  With ASB students and other Saints, Sammy danced the “Caballero Dorado.”

The new Sammy head has highly advanced features.  It has a more comfortable design due to the installation of head and chin straps.  To reduce the sweaty smell and stuffiness of the head’s interior, it has been fully furnished with an air ventilation system with a battery life of five hours.  Perfect for those long football games!  The blueprints of the head represented a more traditional Sammy.  Salazar said, “ASB students had a chance to see and vote on the different sketches that were given, [and] at the end, even the current students love a more ‘traditional Sammy.’”

Sammy not only had some surgery done, but his closet has broadened.  You can expect to see him in his traditional red graduation gown at rallies and graduation.  But at sporting events such as football, Sammy will be showing off his mega muscles in a football uniform just as he did at the Saints’ first football game last Friday against Bishop Diego.

ASB President and SMHS senior, Jason Macias, has given some wise words to current and future Saints: “Appreciate him, he not only represents a school, but you as well.”  Salazar takes pride in his high school mascot in his statement, “I hope that students understand that they are part of a great school full of tradition and highly respectable alumni.  What I try to do is instill in our current students that same pride in tradition so when they leave and become successful members in our community or society and that they look back with pride and say I went to SMHS and I remember Sammy ‘The Saint.’”

Sammy is not only the face of SMHS, but also a representation of the pride and wisdom of all the Santa Maria Saints who have graced these halls.  So, what is next for our beloved mascot?  Will his friend, Samantha the Saint, later accompany him? Time will only tell.