What do all high school teams strive for? To become state champions.

A state championship is a huge accomplishment that takes a lot of hard work, dedication and commitment.

One way for athletes to see the fruits of their labors is to see their state championship banner hanging in the gym.

This could not ring more true than for the Dimond High seniors. After this year they will no longer be able to walk into the gym every day and see their banner hanging next to the past championship teams of Dimond High School.  

Since 2015, Dimond have won six state championships. Varsity Volleyball and girls Soccer have each won two state championships. The varsity Boys Basketball and Girls Swimming won last year, as well.

All around the school, many sports players are very concerned about why they have not received their state banners from previous wins.

The past several years the athletic department has been given less and less money and have had to be very careful on how they spend it said Athletic Director John Snead.

Many of the players are beginning to worry that the school or state has cut the banners from the budget.

However, according to Snead, this is not true. The school has been working very diligently on getting the banners to each championship team.

The previous vendor raised the prices each year and  the cost of the banners became too expensive for the school to purchase. The athletic department has decided that it would be best to search for a new vendor that would have better prices.

Finding a new vendor has become more of a challenge than expected. The difficulty has been matching the material and color of the previous banners, Snead said.

It is the school’s goal to have the banners purchased and hung up in the gym before the end of the year.

“Each one of the state championships were won in a very short amount of time and it became to expensive for our school to purchase them,” he said.

The school administration and coaching staff believes it’s very important that each team receives the recognition and should receive the banner as soon as possible, he said

“I know it is very heartfelt for the Dimond students and community and we are trying our hardest to get the banners so we can hang them in the gym,” Snead said.

Varsity Volleyball coach Mrs. Lauwers said, “ I just want my team to get recognition for their hard work. It’s hard to win a championship in any sport, especially a team sport.”

“A lot of people still know we won regardless if we get the banner or not but it’s still cool to have the banner hanging up to show future people we won,” said Varsity Girls Soccer player Mallory Thoma.