Valpo softball’s 19 uniform combinations for 19 girls: “It’s all about the socks.”
When college athletics fans think about uniform combinations, the school that comes to mind first is usually Oregon. The big jersey sponsorship and what seems like different tops, bottoms, helmets, cleats and socks for every game.
Well Oregon, meet your match. Valparaiso University softball introduced 19 uniform combinations this season on Friday Jan. 13.
“Over (winter) break, we as a coaching staff tried on every conceivable combination we could,” said Head Coach Kate Stake. “Then we picked the 19 we wanted for the photo shoot. We put all of their uniforms in their locker and then pulled out a specific combination for each player and put it on the bench in front of their locker. And they didn’t have any access to it until that night.”
The team wasn’t allowed to go in the locker room or see anything until the coaching staff physically unlocked the doors. They were told to arrive for the photo shoot game ready. Hair up, not down or eye black if they wear it, however they would look for a game.
“We let them in and told them they had 10 minutes to throw on the combination that was laid out for them. Check each other out, see which ones you love, which ones you hate and in-between,” said Stake.
We're #downinbrown & #boldingold! Here's the 19 members of #t35 rocking 19 different uniform combos for this season. Proud to be at @ValpoU! pic.twitter.com/ojYOtAqt8t
— Valpo Softball (@ValpoSoftball) January 13, 2017
The players have weighed in on the combinations they definitely don’t want to wear and which ones they love but it will be up to the coaching staff to decide. One of the assistants will most likely be in charge of what to bring for weekend series.
“One of the big important pushes of doing this is Valpo being brown and gold. Not many schools are brown and gold and not many people would say they want to be brown and gold,” said Stake. “We don’t want to get away from our colors so all of our uniforms have brown and gold and white. We want people to see our uniforms and know that’s Valpo.”
Stake and the other coaches replaced last year’s white uniform top and gray uniform top and kept the brown. There is a new pair of white pants, gray pants and gold pants.
“That’s really no different than what we had last year,” said Stake about the number of tops and bottoms. “What made the big jump is that we designed our tops and our bottoms to be able to intermix better with each other and then we went out and bought a ton of different combinations of socks.”
There are seven pairs of socks in every combination of school colors. Starting with three different colors of base socks in white, gold and brown. Then there are white stirrups with striping, gold stirrups with striping, a white standard stirrup that has a small gold piping and those can go over any of the base socks. In addition to those, there is a brown striped sock from last year.
“It was really purchasing different socks and stirrups that allowed us to create the combinations,” said Stake. “It’s all about the socks.”
New uniforms. Socks on socks on socks. Lots of combos. #downinbrown #boldingold #t35 pic.twitter.com/B8DxLnbRup
— Valpo Softball (@ValpoSoftball) January 11, 2017
