The athletic department has announced that for the 2017-2018 school year, it will be a Nike school. Being a Nike school means that Perry is recognized by Nike, and all of the sports are required to wear Nike uniforms.

Principal Dan Serrano said, “to be a Nike school is kind of a big deal, it adds to your credibility as a school, and we would be the only school in the district that doesn’t do it if we don’t do it.”

Many students value and respect the Nike brand, and Nike is one of the biggest sports brands on the market today. Junior swimmer Lucas Mattson states, “I’m sure Nike has a lot of really cool things that we could use next year.”

Besides only providing a partnership with the sports programs, the Nike deal will also benefit the Physical Education Department. Serrano shares, “Nike works with a company called BSN and BSN is huge in selling equipment for PE.”

Badminton coach and PE teacher Lorraine Johnson said, “any time we can get PE equipment is going to be awesome.” Johnson did express concerns, as she has raised children who played sports.

“My only worry is that I need to fundraise more with my athletes,” said Johnson.“My athletes are in more than one sport and I know that they have to pay a lot of money [for multiple sports] so I want to keep mine low cost so they can continue to play on my team.”

Along with Johnson, swim coach Stephanie Carrasco expresses her own concerns for her team.

“Nike suits are not cut the way we really want our swimmers to wear,” said Carrasco. “ We are going to have to look at a lot of different suits to make sure they cover where they need to cover.”

Carrasco also shares that the swim team is partially disappointed because Nike does not allow them to design their own suits as they have previously done, but Mattson states, “we had to design all these generic [brand] suits in the past, so it is probably going to be a good thing that we have a name brand company behind our swimwear.”

Two teams on campus that currently wear Nike uniforms are Girls Soccer and Basketball. Girls Soccer Coach John Roberts said, “I think it’s great because the Nike name brings a kind of prestige.”

Since the team already wears Nike gear, Roberts says about other teams making the transition to Nike, “Nike is #1 for a reason so they make quality products.It shouldn’t be that big of an issue for most sports to move over to [due to the quality of Nike].”

Junior basketball player Ashlee Colborn said, “I think it is a big accomplishment, it shows that Perry is well known and Nike’s support adds to it.”

All players and coaches agree that getting the Nike deal is a very big deal for our school, and this prestige is now evident due to our athlete’s new sportswear.