Every three years for Brophy sports teams there are new players, new chances, new coaches and new jerseys. Just this year a handful of our teams such as football, basketball, baseball, wrestling, and lacrosse. here on campus have received new jerseys purchased by the school for the upcoming seasons.
As Brophy’s Athletic Director, Mr. Josh Garcia ’07 manages and ensures that the jerseys are designed, ordered, and received by Brophy sports teams.
“Being the Athletic Director, in charge of all things athletics, puts me in the role to make sure that our jerseys are fitting with our branding requirements [such as] our school colors, and our certain logos that are approved for our uniforms,” said Mr. Garcia.
One emphasis Mr. Garcia has with the new sports attire is making sure, “it’s not a flashy kind of cool look, it’s a clean, respectable uniform. You can see that across the board with all of our sports.”
This is important because Brophy is unified with the Catholic church and the representing the Jesuits which comes with a huge honor. This is displayed on and off the field starting with our jerseys, looking professional, and simple.
The process of gathering new jerseys includes communicating with coaches, the varsity shop, and Baloncesto Superior Nacional. BSN is a sports company that sells uniforms to high school and college sport teams across the country.
Every three years, coaches are responsible for keeping the old jerseys and equipment maintained to be able to pass down to JV and freshman teams in their sport. When Mr. Garcia receives the new jerseys for those Varsity sports teams, the old jerseys are passed down to the lower teams such as JV and Freshman.
“First it starts with the coach. We have to have home and away jerseys. Each sport’s a little bit different, but with football, they have a black and a white set. Basketball uniforms are a little bit cheaper, so we actually get a red, white, and black set for them,” said Mr. Garcia.
The football jerseys cost more than basketball jerseys because of the number of uniforms that are ordered. The football team orders about 200 sets of uniforms for the entire team.
The uniform expenses are “A top costs anywhere from $120-$140. A bottom costs $70-80,” said Mr. Garcia. The top for the basketball jerseys is about $80 and $50 for the bottoms which allows them more of a budget to buy an extra jersey set.
Head coaches who have been at Brophy for some time know when it is their time to create new jerseys for their team. Typically teams swap out old jerseys for new models every three years, but the timeline may vary. Brophy’s Varsity Shop works through BSN to order the jerseys, handling all of the sports attire.
The deal with BSN to purchase the jerseys is “I think it’s something like 60% off all Nike custom uniforms. So, we have a really good deal with BSN,” said Mr. Garcia.
Coaches are wholly responsible for designing their own jerseys that will last the Varsity team for the next three years. The Varsity shop is the one that approves the designs with the requirements from the National Federation of State High School Associations, and the Arizona Interscholastic Association.
These requirements dictate what coaches and the athletic department can do with the jerseys.
One requirement with the jerseys is the colors. “It can’t be two dark colors. The base can’t be a dark color and the number can’t be a dark color, so the dark colors have to be distinct,” Mr. Garcia said.
The Varsity shop helps with whether it is a good look or if the design should go in a different direction, such as fonts, colors and style.
