Jayhawks Gear Up

Aside from the lasting friendships, exciting games, and fun, sweaty practices, one of the many perks of playing a school sport is the cool gear that players receive. As you traverse the School’s halls, you will definitely see Jayhawks proudly parading their green and gold fall sport hoodies, North Coast Section t-shirts, and long sleeve warm-up shirts. But the real question is: Where does all the sports’ gear and equipment come from? 

The system for replacing or investing in new equipment is fairly straightforward. The basketballs, volleyballs, soccer balls, etc. are replaced every year or so. Moreover, at the end of a season, coaches can make a request to Brendan Blakeley, the School’s Athletic Director, to purchase reasonable items that they think will be beneficial in some way. For example, in past years, coaches have asked for portable dry erase boards. This year, the baseball and softball teams requested a portable pitcher’s mound, which should be arriving soon. Blakeley relies on coaches to communicate their team’s equipment needs at the end of each season. 

The system to replace gear is more complex. Blakeley admits, “Gear has been a weak point of mine because it has been really hard to get organized and get a system. My fault is that I would always ask team captains for their input, which slows the process down…That was not fair because teams with captains on it would get stuff and teams without captains would miss out”. Learning and adapting this year, Blakeley designed and purchased standardized hoodies for all sports teams – the aforementioned green and gold sweatshirts modeled by students on the daily. The winter sports’ hoodies will showcase the same design in black and spring sports’ in gray. Additionally, the Assistant Athletic Director (AAD) position was switched from a part-time job to a full-time one this year. Coach Flynn, the School’s new AAD, can now dedicate more time to ordering and designing gear such as the warm-up long sleeves purchased each year for the basketball and volleyball teams. 

Last but not least, jerseys: the most important piece of gear on any team. Pre-COVID, jerseys were replaced every four years, so most athletes would have a new jersey sometime within their highschool career. However, with COVID and quarantine stunting or stopping teams’ seasons, jerseys didn’t receive much wear and tear. Therefore, the athletic department did not count those two years in the jersey life cycles.You might be wondering: What happens to the old jerseys once replaced? Well, the athletic department donates them to smaller sports teams in overseas countries that provide the uniforms a new home. 

At the end of the day, Blakeley’s main goal with gear is to “increase school pride.” So, suit up for your next game day or sit and cheer on the sidelines, draped in head to toe Team Tuffy merch.