Sports uniforms motivating athletes

In the ever-competitive world of college football, a team’s uniform can be the difference between losing a highly coveted recruit, and, in turn, the upper hand in the race for a national championship. The proper game day attire can also provide the psychological boost needed to motivate athletes.

While high school programs don’t have the stuffed coffers of college programs, the uniform arms race is just as competitive. And in Lauderdale County and surrounding areas, it’s no different.

Newton High School hired Ryan Smith in March to take over an embattled program. Smith, who coached in Texas and Mississippi before taking the Newton job, entered a less-than-ideal equipment situation when he arrived at his new school.

He didn’t waste any time stamping his name on the program.

“When I went in and took this job, I wanted to identify our brand, and then market our brand,” Smith said. “We went in, and we got official logos, we got an official N, we got a Tigers script and then we did an official Tiger head. We did an official Tiger paw, in case we wanted to use it.”

 Like many other programs, Smith worked with a local BSN — team apparel and supplier — representative to select, fit and finalize the new uniforms. In many instances, programs receive incentive-based deals to make the costly purchases more justifiable. After a lengthy selection process, Smith gave his approval of the new uniforms.

Once the decision was made, to further invigorate his newly inherited players, Smith held a uniform unveiling party at the school, but not before teasing the new digs on Twitter and even producing a video with the help of his wife.

The new purchases were well-received.

“After we did the reveal, we let every kid that was there try a jersey on — they were posting the pictures on social media,” Smith said with a laugh. “My kids loved it.”

As did Newton rising junior Zackariah Johnson.

“We have white-on-white, blue-on-blue, we have the new…blue jerseys with the gray numbers,” Johnson said. “I like how it has cut sleeves, which make them tight. We’re going to look good, and we’re going to play good.”

The cost to outfit teams can be exorbitant, but the incentive-based deals make the purchases less costly. In Newton’s case, outfitting players, according to Smith, would cost the school around $250 dollars per player. With the deal, the school saved around $50 dollars per athlete.  

Newton isn’t the only school that will undergo a change for the upcoming football season.

For the past several years, Meridian High School’s athletic teams have, for the most, worn Nike uniforms. But Meridian athletic director Chuck Butler said the school will soon switch to another brand for football — Under Armour.

Although Meridian didn’t have a contract with Nike, the Wildcats have used the company for a number of years. Butler said while high schools can’t recruit, the attraction of uniforms isn’t lost on teenage athletes, and they definitely have an impact.

“We’re not anything like Oregon — at the high school level, you don’t recruit,” he said. “But, obviously, the nicer uniforms and facilities you have, the more attractive it is to people who live in this area… uniform-wise, we outfit our guys really well. We try to replace uniforms every two years, we don’t wear things that are tattered. We put our people in the top-notch uniforms.”

 Uniform technology these days incorporates implementing micro-fiber fabrics that wick away perspiration as well as compression undergarments. The benefits are two-fold: In addition to keeping players dry, the tighter-fitting uniforms -- that have become commonplace in all levels of football today -- can also be the difference between a ball carrier’s play resulting in a big gain or being stifled due to having his jersey’s fabric being grasped by a defender. There’s a bit of a psychological boost that accompanies donning the right uniform combination, as well. Many athletes will agree that if they look the part, they can play it.

When it comes to motivating players, Kemper County High School Wildcats head coach Chris Jones said having name-brand jerseys and gear is a much bigger deal than people might think.

“It’s important these days,” Jones said. “Kids like style and fashion, and if you can get the bigger brands like Nike, Under Armour or Adidas, a lot of people are amazed at what that does for the coaching. You can get a lot of kids to come out because we’re wearing Nike or Adidas. It’s also a reflection of your school and community — half of it is looking the part. We try to look decent on the field.”

The Wildcats’ coaches try to get new uniforms for their players every two years on average, Jones said. Football uniforms are part of the school’s budget when new ones are needed. The biggest challenge, as far as getting new uniforms, isn’t financial as much as it is sometimes convincing school leaders it’s time for new ones. Activities like bake sales, car washes or revenue received by selling ad space in school programs, among others, help to fund what isn’t covered in a school’s budget. 

“My pitch to them is to represent (the school) well, look good and play good,” Jones said. “If it gets them to play better, I’ll do my best to do whatever I can as far as uniforms.”

 While Kemper County and Meridian typically rotate new uniforms every two years, Lamar School does so every year, according to athletic director Shane Adams, though not every sport gets new uniforms every season. Adams said the school uses a system where every year, four sports teams at the junior high and high school levels are given new uniforms, and those sports then use those uniforms for the next four years before they’re replaced.

 “Basically, what we did was come up with a cost-affordable way to keep everyone’s stuff in good shape,” Adams said. “The sports aren’t necessarily put in order of importance because no one is more important than the other. We include the junior high sports in this rotation because the ideal situation is to take the old high school stuff and pass it down, but that doesn’t work because they can’t wear what the bigger kids do.”

 The upside to that system is the school is not forced to break the bank on uniforms every single year.

 “The downside would be, if you’re having to get new coaches, one of the first things a new coach wants to do is put their stamp on everything,” Adams said. “They may want to get new stuff, but that may not be (in the cards).”