Have you ever walked through the hall and stopped to take a look at the trophy case? The big glass cabinets filled with our school’s victories and accomplishments? Dating back to 1985, these are a huge part of our school’s history and they hold the memories of students who reached excellence and further inspire others to achieve that status.
The trophy cases should be changed every so often so that students can acknowledge and take the time to look at them. We walk through the halls and don’t even know what is surrounding us. Writing this article, I saw things that I had looked at for years without realizing how cool they were.
By the main gym, there are a couple of jerseys hung up to show off graduates who went pro. Below that, outside the wrestling room, there is a freshly updated display case. Athletic Specialist Larry Hurd Jr. set up team photos from the current year and a TV that displays team videos, the daily schedule and leadership promotions.
When you walk into the gym, you see the walls filled with banners; however, not all of them have been updated. Last year, girls lacrosse won regionals, but their banner hasn’t been raised yet. There are a lot of processes that go behind updating the trophy cases and the banners that are more complicated than one might think.
“To be able to redo the banners and the way that I want to do them to, you know, highlight every team and make sure they get updated is a $20,000 to $25,000 operation,” Hurd said.
With Hurd’s recent arrival in the position of athletic specialist, he has made many updates to the trophy cases that have gone unnoticed. I highly recommend students take the time to look at the trophy cases, look at the banners, and read the posters about the pro alumni. It only takes a few minutes to acknowledge our school’s accomplishments.
However, the track and field and cross country trophy case is different from the rest. It is put together by retired teacher and current track coach – Thomas Martin among other track and cross country coaches.
Although space is very limited, I think there should be a case that holds the historic trophies from before the 2000’s. Although doing that would be a large amount of money, there could be an opportunity for students to earn SSL hours to help put together the case or use it as a fundraiser.
To bring more awareness to the cases, there could be some sort of morning news special – “trophy case Tuesday” where each week they give recognition to one trophy WJ has won. This will allow WJ student-athletes to feel more recognized for their athletic achievements and can better educate all students on our school’s accomplishments as a whole if we can celebrate the little things.
