This school year, many of the WJ athletic teams underwent uniform redesigns to mark a new era in their histories.
Typically, each sports team at WJ receives new jerseys every four years. This year, it was football, boys’ basketball, and baseball that added a new attire and style to their game days.
“That’s usually the life, you take four years with varsity, and when those varsity uniforms are done, they go to JV and varsity gets new uniforms,” Athletic Director Larry Hurd said. “You want to make sure you have uniforms for everybody, and you want to make sure they’re relatively nice.”
For the designs themself, they are all made and submitted by each respective coach after team captains and coaches work to create their new jersey.
“Our wildcat head is our logo, it’s our mascot. So we try to stay within that within our uniforms, but also have an individual type of flair too,” Hurd said. “Nothing comes just from me. In everything we do, there’s student voice and coach voice.”
One of the new jerseys that will be debuted in the spring is the new baseball jerseys, designed in large part by head coach Stephen Sutherland. Sutherland is extremely excited for the debut of these uniforms.
“After seeing Notre Dame pull off the all kelly green look, I sent some of the older [players] a screenshot of what they look like,” Sutherland said. “The boys love them and can’t wait to wear them on opening day. We were deciding on whether to use the black uniforms that the boys wore in states last year or to go with the new green ones and ultimately, we decided on going with the greens.”
Coming off their 4A state championship-winning season, the baseball team intends to build on their identity to continue winning state championships.
“We want to make sure that this team understands that they are not last year’s team and that they need to create their own new identity,” Sutherland said.
Senior captain and Stevenson University commit Sam Weston approves of the new uniforms, which include the “Big Train” icon representing Walter Johnson’s iconic nickname.
“I think it is a cool way to incorporate some of the history we have, especially with the big train logo on the sleeve,” Weston said. “My personal favorite are the white jerseys with the pinstripes. They’re the classic jerseys we have.”
As for the football team’s refresh, the design was not the only aspect to change. With a change in brand, jerseys can also have a change in the fit on the athlete.
“Honestly, I prefer the Under Armour ones just because they were a little bit more tight-fitting around the pads. But these are better aesthetically,” senior Hank Amaditz said.
For boys’ basketball, the new uniforms mark what they call their “New Era” as they welcome new head coach Chase Rieder.
“I think [the jerseys are] new, fresh and emphasize a new look to WJ basketball,” Rieder said.
Rieder made it a point to switch the uniforms from Under Armour to Nike.
“I have been working with Nike for a long time through the Washington Wizards, once I was hired, I made sure that the team was outfitted by Nike only.” Rieder said. “Nike is a basketball brand, and we are trying to become a name in the basketball world.”
WJ’s history of basketball success was taken into account in the process of designing the uniform.
“We showed the history and paid homage to the older teams from WJ,” Rieder said.
