JetHawks fly new colors

New affiliation with Arizona leads to new look for Lancaster

By ED HARBOUR
Valley Press Staff Writer

Starting with a franchise switch in September, to the managerial change that went with it, the JetHawks completed their facelift Tuesday by introducing a new logo and uniforms for the club effective next season.

"It was a little tired we felt," JetHawks vice-president Matt El-lis said of the logo. "It was time to update it, but I wouldn't call it a facelift."

What Ellis and Co. didn't want to do was scare away the positive play, and regular season titles, the 2000 club established.

"Hopefully, that won't change," Ellis said of the club's winning ways.

With the new designs, the JetHawks were careful to not com-pletely stray away from the pre-vious, so as to not alienate their fans.

"I respect our fans too much for that," Ellis said of the option to completely redesign the logos. "We wanted them to still be able to wear the things they bought before and not have it look out of place."

By keeping with that theme, the club simply went with a differ-ent color emphasis in the designs while keeping the familiar scream-ing JetHawk a part of the design.

The team also felt with some slight alteration, the designs could more properly emphasize the aero-space tradition linked to the Val-ley.

Instead of the familiar "L," and jet that still adorn the home caps, the away caps now feature a styl-ized profile of the JetHawks mas-cot KaBoom wearing a test-pilot's cap and goggles.

"As a team we understand that aerospace is a big part of where we are here in the Antelope Valley," Ellis said. "We just wanted to repre-sent that a little more."

The man who designed the logo the first time around, Dan Simon, was called upon to create its re-placement.

In the five years since Simon first helped introduce the Valley to the JetHawks, he has designed the new look Anaheim Angels and sev-eral minor league clubs including the Mudville Nine and Yakima Bears. Simon now works as the Di-rector of Creative Services for the Dodgers.

The JetHawks now have in stock some apparel and souvenirs with the new logos and artwork.

Uploaded No-vember 22, 2000