Team's Jerseys vs Players' Jerseys

[HerLivingRoomHero]

Hi all.

Happened to find this forum the other day while surfing the Net at work, and I'm really impressed. Hoping to learn a lot here.

My question is this: What is the protocol for the girls keeping the jerseys at the end of the season vs the jerseys being team jerseys? I ask because another coach and I are splitting off from our current team (some girls have to move up and others we do not want to invite back). We'll be carrying about half of the girls from our current team and picking the rest up. We'd like to keep the cost to a minimum, so we'd like to reuse jerseys from this season and purchase extras to cover the new girls. Part of me says to just start over with a blank canvas and make it known up front that the jerseys are team jerseys and stay with the team after a player departs. I'm having a hard time with the idea of asking for jerseys back after this season because this was never brought up in the beginning when we formed this team in January.

I appreciate any insight you may offer.

 

[quincy]

DD owns her jersey , it was part of the fee we paid. #78

 

[plsjms94]

We've been on teams that have done both. Generally younger teams 10 u/12u have kept jerseys, older teams they stayed with the team. I have found that the older teams usually have higher quality uniforms so they were team property.

 

[CycloneSoftball22]

On our 14u team , the jerseys belong to the team.

 

[HerLivingRoomHero]

Thank you both for the responses. We're a 14U team moving into our second season of select. The idea of team jerseys is new to me, but it makes sense. But I also understand wanting to own your jersey. My daughter still wears hers from previous rec seasons. She's proud of who she was with those teams; they're still a part of her.

I'm thinking, that since having two jerseys seems to be a really good idea (but costly) is that maybe we can meet in the middle: commit to the team for two seasons and you'll own your jerseys after completion of the second season. I figure players will be less likely to abandon ship so quickly if they feel more vested in the team, and most jerseys may not last more than two hard seasons anyways. We can purchase extras for pickups/lost jerseys/whatever. The key is to keep the jersey(s) cost to a minimum as we'd like to use our money to play more instead of look good, but the realization is that girls/parents coming to our team with more TB experience want to look good and are accustomed to certain aspects of TB that we as newer TB coaches might be willing to sacrifice.

 

[David Carter]

It really does not matter and either way is fine you just need to make sure you know what the team fee you paid at the beginning of the season is for; if it said your fee is to cover the cost of the jersey the jersey belongs to you. It would be wrong for the team to keep the jersey then turn around and charge the next girl that comes to play for the team a fee and tell her it is to cover the cost of a jersey. The other reason jerseys are usually just kept by the girls is a practical one and that is sizes. If you quit the next girl is probably not the exact size your girl is and no team wants 20 jerseys laying around just so they have all the sizes covered

 

[HerLivingRoomHero]

I agree, David. Being up front is the best policy. I think what is getting us currently is we only intended this to be a one season deal, and now the other coach and I realize that with some subtraction and addition, we could field a really good team. We started this team to give our daughters a look at stiffer competition, but in doing so essentially combined 3 rec teams with a couple of pickups. The more I think about it the more in favor I am of blowing up ties to our current team and starting from scratch - with new uniforms. Valid point on not carrying 20 jerseys, but I worry about having to replace jerseys when losing and gaining players but not being able to match them. The goal would be to only pay for jerseys for the fall season and then use those funds for more games in the spring. We wouldn't build a uniform charge into the spring season. I could see a "uniform rental" fee being assessed (equal for all seasons), but I really think that's more trouble than it's worth.

 

[InsidePitch]

I think you will find that to get jerseys that last multiple years you 1. don't get names and 2. will spend dbl what the one year jersey sells for. Figure you will be buying at least 2 per player if you are a tournament team. You will also limit your color selections to those that don't show stains as much.

 

[HerLivingRoomHero]

Definitely not putting names on jerseys. Wouldn't be able to make them team jerseys if we did unless we used some sort of Velcro patch. Plus that would kill our cost. I really think using jerseys for one year shouldn't be too hard on the budget. The more I think about it, the more I think that giving the jerseys to the girls after two seasons may be the way to go. Should help promote commitment to the team by the girls and show financial responsibility by us to keep costs down but also give the players/parents what they've paid for.

 

[KevinC]

Another thing to think about is you'll get a better deal if you order 12 or more at one time than you'll get trying to order one or two replacements for the next season. If you don't go too fancy jerseys shouldn't be a big portion of your total cost.