Page 3 - HIWT Winter2016 World of Welding

December 2016

Becoming a “Criminal”

Throughout my travels for HIWT I get invited to give speeches, visit corporate clients, attend
trade shows and visit high schools. Each visit is a great experience and allows me to learn even
more about the incredible welding industry and the great people involved.
This fall I travelled to Yuma, Arizona and had the pleasure of vising Mr. Gonzolo Huerta’s
welding class at Yuma High School. What a great group of young people with over half the
class acknowledging their desire to enter the welding industry as a career. Even though this
appeared to be a traditional high school welding program, their school mascot was anything but
traditional. “Criminals”, Yuma High Criminals. Below is the unique story:

HISTORY

The school was established in 1909, when Arizona Territory taxpayers voted to organize a union
district from several elementary districts. In September of that year, Yuma Union High School
began with four teachers in three rooms near the corner of Main and Third Streets. At the end
of the first year, twelve seniors graduated. Yuma High’s distinctive mascot came when the
By Scott A. Mazzulla, President original school building was destroyed by fire in 1910. The school then used the Yuma Territorial
Hobart Institute of Welding Technology Prison, which had been closed, for the next three years. Classes were held in the cellblocks, and
assemblies took place in the prison hospital.

In 1912, the city of Yuma notified the school that the prison was needed as a city jail. The school board carried through a bond election to
build a new school, at 400 South 6th Avenue (where the current campus is today). In 1914, school began in the newly constructed “Main”
building. That same year, the Yuma football team traveled to Phoenix Union High School to play the Coyotes. Yuma High won the game
(and the consensus state championship), and the angry Phoenix Union fans dubbed the Yuma High players the Criminals. At first, this was a
fighting word to the school community, but by 1917, it had stuck, and the name was officially adopted by the school board. Yuma Union thus
became the only high school in the US to use the mascot; it is also the only high school in the United States whose mascot is copyrighted.
References are sprinkled throughout; the mascot wears a blue-and-white prison uniform, the gate to the school’s sports fields includes bars
from the old prison, and the school’s “Cell Block” shop sells themed apparel.

Mr. Huerta provides his welding students a fantastic welding environment outfitted with great lab conditions and state of the art welding
equipment. My trip and visit was extremely rewarding and I am thankful to Mr. Huerta and Yuma High School for the great hospitality.

HIWT prides itself on relationships with high schools and career center style education programs that support vocational education. HIWT
is a post-secondary option for graduating high school seniors, adult career shifters, military veterans and all others looking for great career
in welding.

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