New Sherwood Sports Logo Is in the Works

by Riley Whelan ’18

Here at Sherwood, athletics are held in very high regard, with the football games selling countless numbers of tickets each week and the basketball bleachers packed to the brim. With such a successful athletic program, it seems almost obvious that there would be an established logo in place, yet this is not the case.

That is why math teacher Randy Thompson, who also is the JV football and JV boys basketball coach, has been trying to create a universal logo for the school. He wants to have something that is pleasing to the eye and easily identifiable–something that screams “Sherwood.”

When Thompson asked staff members last spring for their opinion on creating a new logo, about 70 percent were in favor, further indicating a need for an official visual representation of Sherwood athletics.

No one really seems to know the current logo … is it the archer holding a bow and arrow? Is it a big “S”? An arrowhead? Many of the sports teams create their own spirit wear, leading to multiple logo representations within the Sherwood athletic department. Wrestling coach Peter Siarkas, acknowledges that having a different logo for each team can sometimes be confusing. However, he says that the man shooting an arrow is not a strong representation of the school, and he took it upon himself to create a logo for the Sherwood wrestling program (an “S” and a “W” with “Sherwood Warriors” written around it).

Thompson has come up with about six different proposals for a logo. He was working closely with Walter Hardy and even began creating a T-shirt displaying an older design from former teacher Gene Orndorff. When Thompson spoke with Hardy about his ideas, “he was receptive to them and said he wanted to get a shirt made.”

Unfortunately, due to the passing of Hardy, the logo design process has come to a halt. However, Thompson wishes to continue, consulting with some of the digital art teachers about having their classes create a logo for the school.

In addition to the issue of how to visually represent the idea of “the warriors,” the colors amongst Sherwood sports teams varies. Thompson says that recently, red has become a much more prominent color in the Sherwood uniforms, and now “seemed like a good time to create a logo that had just a little touch of red in it.”

Some teams, such as girls soccer and both girls and boys basketball, have already incorporated red into their uniforms and merchandise, but it still remains inconsistent across the whole athletic program. With a new logo, the school colors will be much more evident.