Looking for some thoughts on alternatives to medals to award at our host tournaments. Anyone received anything that was a little unique and more interesting than the traditional options?
The best trophy that I have seen presented was a piece of wood carved into the shape of home plate. The home plate was painted and had state champions inscribed into it.
If you can find a local sawmill, they can usually turn a small replica bat (about 18' long), router or burn out anything you want to say on it, stain and finish it. We had this done for one of ours last year and not only was it unique, but cost less than the slew of trophies we usually handed out.
All I know is NEVER give t-shirts to the runners-up that say "BLAH BLAH Tourney Runners-Up." Because NO ONE will ever wear those. Some yahoos gave those to my DD's team once and everyone was just looking at each other like, Are you serious right now?
I am enjoying this thread! When I ran the local rec league, we did the stereotypical shiny-plastic-on-a-marble-base trophies for our season and tournament champs with all girls getting medals for playing.
I tried numerous times to change things up ... suggested t-shirts, engraved mini-bats, spending the money on a party, or even just getting different styles of trophies ... and I was met with resistance at every turn by coaches and board members.
... and some men just want to watch the plastic sparkle.
DD got at 15$ gift certificate to Dick's Sporting goods for winning a tournament last Spring (in addition to a trophy or medal or some other dust collecting object..cannot remember what it was)
At some point you just don't want/need any more hardware.
Sheesh, a coupon for a free frozen yogurt would be more appreciated than another trophy at this point. But I get that at each tournament there might be girls who have never won a ring/trophy before.