Autumn

Autumn is here and school has started once again. Excitement is in the air as students return to the classroom. New possibilities abound as athletes train, cheerleaders practice, the band rehearses and students attend school-wide pep rallies.

School spirit abounds and magic is afoot. Proud parents invite aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins to attend the first football game or volleyball match, hoping that their son or daughter will be making some star plays to kick the season into high gear and motivate the rest of the team. The community rallies around the youth playing their hearts out, whether they are on the field, on the court, or in the bandstand.

Each fall season brings with it these new opportunities, and for those of us who have lived through many a fall sports season, even just the feel of the brisk air and the smell of autumn leaves can trigger a wave of memories from seasons past, some much more recent than others.

As the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving quickly pass, a landslide of scholastic events takes place in an ever-diminishing amount of time: games are won, homecoming court is elected, spirit week commences.

The whirlwind of activity flutters by so quickly that those involved hardly have time to reflect on the accomplishments achieved over these few short months. Student athletes are juggling practices and matches alongside their studies, and some are actively searching for scholarships or even being recruited for college ball.

Luckily, before the dust completely settles, the local media latches on to some of the goings-on and makes sure to give these events adequate coverage in the daily papers. These articles, columns and features often focus on the student athletes themselves, complete with action shots and quotations, and are a treasured part of the atmosphere surrounding fall sports.

They are important for team spirit and unity, and reflect well on the students as well as the school. Yet, save for the well-meaning aunt or grandmother who arranges these various clippings into a scrapbook, many of these articles are often relegated to the bottom of a storage container somewhere in the attic, or worse, lost forever in the sands of time. An article that brings 15 minutes of fame to a student athlete or highlights a team’s accomplishments is important in the moment, but that same article can soon into oblivion without warning.

If the student athlete in your life has a veritable paper trail documenting their successes, or even lands an outstanding magazine feature, consider another approach: professional lamination and mounting. The article that so aptly highlights the victories achieved can be immortalized on a plaque, perfect for hanging on a office or living room wall. Each plaque is professionally created to preserve the original article, guaranteed to last a lifetime. Instead of resting forever in a storage closet or a scrapbook, the article can be proudly displayed for all to see. A unique item like this makes for a thoughtful graduation gift as well.

Plaques of this kind aren't limited to just relatives and their student athletes. The school administration may also find these plaques to come in handy. If you are a team coach or athletic director, it is of course in your interest to draw attention to your school’s athletic achievements.

You’re most likely keeping abreast of the media attention to these matters, and, much like the aforementioned doting older relative, are meticulously preserving newspaper articles that herald the school’s victories big and small. But how are you going about showcasing these articles?

Are you scrapbooking, or keeping them behind glass like you would a photo? Are they proudly displayed in a trophy case? Or do they sit in your desk drawer or a file folder somewhere in your office, collecting dust? If you are not properly displaying your team's achievements, consider taking those magazine articles which highlight those accomplishments and having them professionally preserved and mounted. Ordering these articles made into plaques will preserve them for years and years, so that the school's past athletic successes can hang proudly in its harrowed halls for many generations to come.

If you're not in a position to make this decision, consider approaching the dean or principal with the idea. It's even possible to order plaques right after publication, so as to stay current, preventing you from digging through old clippings after the culmination of the season.

It is all too easy to get swept up in the excitement of the fall sports season and fail to stop and savor the glory of the moment. Newspaper and magazine journalists are truly able to capture the energy of the event and preserve it in writing. You can in turn have that event immortalized by having an article professionally laminated and mounted to make a high-quality custom wall display.