Letter Jackets

[epchick]

I've never seen it done at the middle school level. I agree with KsigKid, if it hasn't been done at your son's school, its probably best not to do it. Middle school kids can be CRUEL and if other kids don't have it, your son might not even wear it.

At my high school, some organizations/sports just gave you the letter, while others gave you both. If you were top 5 in the class, you got the academic letter jacket. My best friend and I were football managers, so when the football team got their letterman jackets, we got ours as well.

I used it in high school, and now its collecting dust in the back of my closet.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by KSigkid

I would hesitate on doing it, for the reasons you mentioned. . . .

Originally Posted by nittanyalum

I agree with this, . . .

Originally Posted by epchick

I agree with KsigKid, if it hasn't been done at your son's school, its probably best not to do it. . . .

Ditto here, as well, unless you go this route:

Originally Posted by crescent&pearls

How about taking your idea to your school's PTA. PTO or booster club? They might be interested in selling jackets as a fundraiser. That way, all the kids who want one would have a chance to purchase one, and your kid wouldn't be the stand out.

You would also get some degree of uniformity.

[Army Wife'79]

I have never heard of anyone wearing a letterman's jacket w/o "earning" the letter first. It's not like the class ring where just anyone can buy one. The schools I am familiar with (being military my kids went to 3 different HS's in 3 different states) guarded their "letters" and only gave them out at an award ceremony. You couldn't just buy them off the street. The academic letters were given to the top 5% of the students in each year group. I see this as similar to non-greeks wearing greek letter t-shirts on campus.

[Senusret I]

In Junior High School, they sold school pullover jackets. We had a championship football team so their jackets said that on the back, but the regular school jackets just had the school logo or something.

Cheaper than a letterman's jacket but VERY nice to have. Everyone didn't get them, but anyone could.

In high school, I lettered in a sport but the damn "boosters" only gave out jackets to the class of 95 with a sprinkling of junior 96ers. When it became apparent that I wouldn't get a jacket, I went to the local store and got my own damn jacket.

I actually still have my own letter because the people told me it was a little too big for my style of jacket.

One or two of the coaches looked at me sideways when they first saw it, but they knew the boosters sucked and if I had the money, I should be able to wear my own letter on my own jacket.

I like the notion of academic letters which was previously mentioned. I may bring it up to my school's current principal.

[ComradesTrue]

It has been awhile since I was in middle school, or even had contact with boys that age, but isn't there a growth spurt that occurs around that time?

In other words, if you bought it this year for Christmas, would your son even be able to wear it in 7th or 8th grade?

I agree 100% with the posters who stated that kids can be cruel and that it might rub some of the older members of the cross country team the wrong way.

The best suggestion was to go to the PTA, but instead of expensive letter jackets (that again could be outgrown) how about the pullover mentioned above? It could say "SchoolName" Cross-Country. They could sell them for all sports/cheerleading etc., with only those truly on the team eligible to buy them. This would be a great fundraiser and also a nice reward for those kids making the team. And... if a growth spurt happens they are much cheaper to replace every year!

[speedsters]

I think the pullover style jacket would be a good thing for middle school. My cheerleading squad got jackets when I was in middle school and I wore it as much as possible in 7/8th grade, but as soon as I moved onto high school that went into the closet.

In HS, I loved my varsity jacket, as it is starting to get cold now, it reminded me of the days when everyone would start wearing them. At my school only those who received the V letter were able to get the jacket. You had to bring the letter and the certificate from the school stating you lettered in the specific sport to the store. They were a big deal and in my school only athletes wore jackets, no one in marching band or academics wore jackets. I wish it wasn't so horrible to wear them after hs, because that was one warm jacket! I miss wearing it!

[AGDee]

This is the emblem embroidered on the back of her jacket, with her school name above it and Marching Band below it.

[alum]

In high school, our daughter was a 3 sport, all 4 year varsity letter earner so we bought her jacket for Christmas of freshman year. It was the kind with the hood that unzipped so the high school's name could be embroidered on it. I sewed on all the applique but the store did the embroidery. It was expensive but no worse than buying a decent coat...and she did wear it all 4 years. Our school system here does not have middle school athletic competition although there are plenty of kids who run around in travel team paraphenalia during school.

When I was in jhs, our school competed against other junior high schools in our school system. We did earn varsity letters based on specific criteria. However, we had them sewn on nylon windbreakers. The nice wool jackets were for the high school kids.

[GeekyPenguin]

I wouldn't do this for junior high - you're going to be shelling out enough money for it in high school. My poor parents probably shelled out $500 or so for that silly jacket - I think it was $250 or so to buy (and this was 11 years ago when I was a frosh!) and then they had to pay extra to get your name. My school doled out a crapload of letters and patches - class year for being on a freshman team, little letter for being on a junior varsity team, then the big letter for varsity. There were also letters for band, math team, physics team, general academics, forensics...I think I "earned" 6 letters and a lot of people layered theirs but I just wore the athletic ones and then pins for everything else. One of my high school boyfriends was an All-American athlete and his poor mom had it way worse because she was sewing on medals after every meet and patches for conference champion, state champion, etc. Now it lives in my mom and dad's coat closet!