Long Island town holds ‘Save the Chiefs' rally in defiance of state ban on mascot
The town of Massapequa is pulling out all the stops to preserve its Chiefs team nickname — with the backing of President Trump and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon — including holding a festival Saturday at the high school's parking lot to fundraise for a homegrown legal battle against the state and its 2023 ban on Native American team names and logos.
'The kids identify with the Chiefs — we all do as a community,' proud Massapequa mom Tara Tarasi, who started a foundation to finance the years-long court fight and sells 'Save the Chiefs' shirts, told The Post.
'This whole town, street names, everywhere you go, is related to something Native American,' added Tarasi, whose four boys are proud to have worn the logo.
4 Kerry Wachter, president of the school board, poses outside Massapequa High School holding a T-shirt featuring the school's Native American mascot and an American flag on the front, and the phrase 'Long Live the Massapequa Chiefs' on the back, along with a quote attributed to former President Donald Trump from a visit to Long Island.
Kevin C Downs forThe New York Post
4 Lori Triail, Connie Versichelli, Julia Catoggio, Eileen Trainor, and Delores Hurst came out to show support for Massapequa High School, where they graduated in the early 1960s, amid efforts to preserve the school's Native American mascot.
Kevin C Downs forThe New York Post
The demonstration — drivers passed by honking loudly in support — comes on the heels of McMahon's recent visit to Massapequa High School, where she warned the state to drop the ban or face the wrath of the Justice Department.
'That's how serious we are about it,' she said in the school gym. 'You've got the Huguenots, we've got the Highlanders, we've got the Scotsman. Why is that not considered in any way racist?'
After McMahon's commentary and Massapequa's amended lawsuit, which called the state's actions discriminatory for applying solely to Native Americans, New York threatened Thursday to broaden its ban to all different ethnic team names the department finds offensive, such as the nearby Seaford Vikings, prospectively.
'That's their workaround … we've demonstrated that this regulation was not a good idea,' Massapequa School Board President Kerry Wachter told The Post at the rally.
4 Tim Ryan, Stacey Roy, Linda Rowse, Janice Talento, Oyster Bay Town Supervisor Joe Saladino, School Board President Kerry Wachter, and School Board Vice President Jeanine Caramore pose for a photo outside Massapequa High School during the rally.
Kevin C Downs forThe New York Post
In Massapequa, a forced rebranding would run the district about $1 million, Wachter claimed.
'Now you're wanting to put another unfunded mandate on top of all these districts who are just barely making it, just to not give Massapequa the win?'
Once a Chief, always a Chief
The issue hit home for Dolores Hurst, class of 1961, who came out with her fellow alumnae in their golden years to root on the Chiefs Saturday afternoon.
'Hopefully, we'll be Chiefs now and forever,' Hurst, whose husband and father were fire chiefs in the volunteer Massapequa Fire Department, said.
'It has meant so much to this town for decades since the 1950s.'
Now 81, Hurst called it an 'astonishing' double standard for the state to try to remove the term from schools, considering it's present in so many other official capacities.
President Trump's intervention — his now locally famous 'LONG LIVE THE MASSAPEQUA CHIEFS!' quote was also sold on shirts Saturday — became 'more than we could have expected, but it's what we needed,' Hurst said.
Andy Kuzma, 73, dressed up as Uncle Sam out of love for the town — and disdain for the state's bureaucrats for attempting to get rid of the team name.
4 The Massapequa Chiefs logo is seen in the school gym during a press conference and visit with U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon at Massapequa High School in Massapequa, N.Y. on Friday, May 30, 2025.
Heather Khalifa for the NY Post
'This is all BS,' Kuzma, of nearby Levittown, said. 'Massapequa shouldn't have to spend a penny … I've never seen somebody in town be derogatory with it.'
Rather than erasing local roots, Tarasi is also using her foundation to try introducing additional Native American programming in the school system — allowing students to further learn about the town's origins.
'They want to understand and actually feel connected,' she said. 'Just getting rid of one piece of it in the school district is not going to get rid of the whole meaning behind the town.'
And, for Wachter, she only cares that the tradition remains — even if it costs her job.
'We want to preserve this identity, we want to preserve the Chiefs,' she said. 'If we have to sacrifice our seats to do it, we will do it.'
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