Chase County Longhorn school logo sports hometown roots

    It’s official—Chase County Schools has an updated Longhorn logo.
    The newly designed logo, now the school’s official design, actually has been coming for several years and has already been used on some uniforms, the website and letterheads, according to two CCS administrators.
    The logo designer, art teacher Chelsea Zuege, is also a graduate of the high school.
    CCS Activities Director Troy Hauxwell said he had just come on board at CCS and was attending the coaches clinic in Lincoln in 2013 when one of the sessions dealt with use of school mascots and logo, titled “Your Logo: Infringement or Identity.”
    “I looked up at the screen and there was our Longhorn football helmet up there,” Hauxwell said.
    He said Chase County’s, among other helmets, was being used as an example emphasizing that Nebraska school ADs might want to consider their logo design on equipment and whether it was too close to that of a college, university or professional team.
    “It was a heads-up for everyone there,” he said.
    At the conference, Hauxwell said they were told there was at least one high school facing legal issues with a university on the use of similar, if not an identical-looking school and team logo design.
    He called the University of Texas, and was told “no” to the use of that design.
    Hauxwell said it got him to start working on changing Chase County’s Longhorn logo that, at the time, was very close to that of Texas.
    CCS Supt. Adam Lambert recalled that Zuege’s work on a new design started before he came to CCS during the 2020-21 school year.
    Zuege creatively used the “L” and the “S” from Longhorns to represent the two horns in the design and gave it a more modern look overall.
    Hauxwell said the design has been used on some of the teams’ uniforms as of late, and Lambert said it’s prominent on the school website and letterheads, as well.
    “We’ve been using it pretty consistently recently,” Lambert said.
    He said Zuege designed it so it can be utilized with the “Longhorns” wording or a stand-alone Longhorn head. While there is no hard and fast rule, Lambert said the one without words tends to go on uniforms, football helmets, etc.
    “The words are hard to see from far away or when the logo is tiny on uniforms, which is why she created the two different versions,” he said.
    Lambert said the design is extra special because it was done by a current teacher and graduate.
    “Our art program is one of the best in the state,” he said.