While strutting their eight-year-old uniforms, the Antioch Community High School Softball team played exceptionally well the past two years with top-four finishes at state. However, these old and out-of-style uniforms do not cut it anymore.
Every four years, a varsity sports team gets the chance to order new jerseys of their choice. However, COVID-19 threw off the softball’s chance to update their uniforms. With the black Under Armour jerseys being eight years old, the coaches had decided it was time for a new design.
“Obviously, there is a budgetary limit of what you can pay per uniform,” Head Coach Anthony Rocco said. “You get a general idea of what you are looking for, get it approved, and then when actually going to design it, you know what you are working with.”
Regarding the options of the jerseys, players and coaches have a wide range of brands, styles and designs to choose from as long as it is approved by the athletic director. Getting the chance to receive a new jersey was important to the senior players. Collectively, they suggested changing brands from Under Armour to Nike because of team interest. Once he picked a brand, Rocco decided to hand over the designing process to Assistant Coach Hilary O’Donnell.
“The designing process goes through multiple steps… I created a couple of different designs within the budget, sent them to the girls, and then they gave me feedback on what they liked or didn’t,” O’Donnell said.
One thing that was important to the coaches was making the font and colors on the black jerseys pop. Adding larger numbers with a white outline made it show through the black. After multiple different outlines were created, O’Donnell finally created an online jersey with the senior’s requests that were agreed upon.
“The uniforms mean a lot to the team because we believe that in order to play good we need to feel good and comfortable in what we are wearing,” senior softball player Grace Green said. “New jerseys play a big part in how confident we are on the field.”
Make sure to check out the team’s new uniforms when their seasons begin in the spring.
