Sounding off on uniforms
It amazes me that I even have to read about a parent that would complain about a free uniform their child received. No parents have paid for any uniform in the last six years that I have been an officer. For the last three years we have sent out bids to every local business that prints uniforms and yes, for the last three years HSG has under bid their competition. We have chosen to use the lower bid each year. The previous years we tried to use a different business every year so no one would get mad and think we were biased. We decided to try to get the most for our money by making it more fair and competitive. The majority of our parents have been extremely happy with the quality and workmanship. By having our all-star players sell the pizza cards, this does help with the expense. It by no means covers the total expense of each player’s uniform and the coach’s shirts for each team. You’re certainly not out one penny of your money. The free shirts you complain about were actually given to our players. This year they were practice jerseys. These actually cost more than the team shirts with the player’s names on the back. As far as the socks and under shirts, each coach had the option of getting these or not. Most teams in the past have not bought socks and many players have had undershirts that would work if they chose to wear one. I’m sorry that you feel like you have been cheated and not gotten your money’s worth. The league, in fact, is very pleased with the products and quality we have received. It is extremely difficult to get the screen printing and the numbers to match perfectly due to the cardinal red the Hartselle is known for. I too wish the numbers and the screen printing were a perfect match but I have never seen this with any business in Hartselle or Decatur when using these colors. It would be impossible to screen print each players number to match the other part with out costing a fortune. These numbers are pre-manufactured and the same for all the vendors. I have spoken to the boys league and found out they give their teams $240 towards each team for their uniforms and the parents have to pay the other $115 out of their own pockets, which they don’t have fundraisers for. I have also spoken to the other softball leagues in our district and they get no money to help with their uniforms or the hotel expenses when their teams make it to State or the World Series. The last several years we have been able to offset all hotel expenses and even some travel expenses due to the money that is donated or raised from for these teams. Every person I’ve spoken to from any other league has been completely amazed at how fortunate our parents have been not to cover these expenses out of their own pocket. Maybe a few people, and I’m sure it’s only a few have become too spoiled over the last several years to realize how good it really is to be from Hartselle and get the support they do.
Kevin Holder
League President