A few years ago, after the 2022-2023 season, I was placed in a bad position after my basketball season when I misplaced the shorts of my basketball uniform. After a few weeks, I received an email from Carl Trainer, Associate Director of Athletics, stating, “I checked in all the basketball articles that you dropped off, and we’re still missing a brown pair of shorts, #4. There will still be a $50 charge on your account.” This experience has made me more responsible with my uniform, but I would have rather not lose $50.
The Philadelphia School District has a policy that says, “The school will LEND the required uniform to all student-athletes. It should be maintained and returned at the end of each season. Failure to comply will result in a charge of the price to replace the single uniform, which is significantly higher than its original cost. Often, the cost of a single replacement uniform is $35.00-$100.00. The specific costs are available from the Athletic Director.”
The FSS Athletic Department has the same process. The process starts with a simple email reminding athletes to return their uniforms at the end of their season. Students will return their jerseys to the Athletic Training Office. The uniforms will be sorted and put in the uniform closet for next year. According to Carl Trainer, “We have an internal system to keep track of who has what and if it returns.” The system allows them to identify who did not turn in their uniforms and if they may have turned in the wrong uniform. If the student does not return their uniform, according to Athletic Director Bill Klose, “If a uniform is lost, the family is charged for a replacement.” This can take a toll on families who are struggling to pay tuition, but will also make sure the student is more responsible for their uniform the next year.
Families who are charged for the students losing their uniform put parents or guardians in a bad position, especially when they have to pay tuition throughout the year. According to my Father, Eric Chiles, “When having to make sure your kid keeps up with their uniform during the season, then making sure they return their uniforms is difficult because kids can be irresponsible.” It also puts responsibility on parents so they don’t have to risk their child losing their jersey. Eric also said, “When your child loses a jersey and your account is charged for a replacement, it’s a hurt piece having to come out of pocket; it would be beneficial if the school kept the uniforms during the year.” Some families struggle with tuition already, and having to deal with uniform loss is another burden to worry about.
Student-athletes over the past few years have struggled with the responsibility of keeping their uniforms during the season. Carl Trainer says, “Student-athletes sometimes forget their uniform on game days, lose them, or just never return them.” There have been a few incidents when a student has forgotten their uniform on game day. Jalen Whitfield, senior on the Boys’ Varsity Basketball Team, says, “This year I forgot my Jersey before the Springside Chestnut Hill game; even though it was my responsibility to keep up with my uniform, it could have been avoided if the school handled uniforms.” For basketball, cleaning both brown and white uniforms and making sure to bring the right one to school on game day makes it very difficult to keep track of.
There has been a reason the school’s Athletic Department has not switched the process of collecting uniforms. When asked why haven’t the school collected uniforms after each game and taken the responsibility off of the students, Bill replied, “A long time ago, the process was to collect them after each game, but it is a way of teaching students responsibility.” This is understandable, but it also makes me question why the policy was switched to a method that may risk jersey loss and families coming out of pocket to replace uniforms. According to Carl, “With the success of athletics, every team growing in roster size and adding more games, the process became too time and space consuming.” There are other ways that we can make sure we teach student-athletes to be more responsible. If the policy were changed to collecting uniforms after each game, the athletes could rotate responsibility to wash their team’s uniforms before the game. This could be player-driven, so the teams would have to be responsible for all of their uniforms. This could also build team chemistry with the players, making sure that someone is at least washing the uniforms and being able to build a system within the team.
If the Athletic Department were to change its policy, it could solve the problem of uniform loss. There may be a problem if teams did not care about their uniforms, but it could also give them another way to learn responsibility and build team chemistry. If they consider this new policy, I think it could work fluently.
