When senior Solomon So joined the Varsity Boys Volleyball team his junior year, he received a fresh pair of newly-designed home and away jerseys personalized with his name and number on the back, along with Nike shorts and a MVHS Boys Volleyball jacket. Each player makes a team donation that allows them to access this gear, and the customization is one of the perks exclusive to the team. 

For this year’s jerseys, So took on the challenge of designing them with help and feedback from his teammates, as his coach gives players creative freedom with their jerseys and only helps with inputting the order. After becoming familiar with tools such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, So’s next task was to figure out what design he wanted on the jerseys.

“I did a couple quick Google searches and tried to find designs with Matadors or inspiration from other team jerseys that I’ve seen online, and our volleyball clubs also have a lot of great jerseys that we like to reference back,” So said. “I used that as inspiration and found ways to incorporate our own designs. What we currently have is pretty nice and I think everybody likes what we have so far.”

So submitted his design for review on Dynasty, a custom apparel company, to check if any elements were copyrighted. Additionally, Dynasty professionally redesigned the jersey in accordance with the artwork and concept idea that So submitted. 

The Varsity Boys Volleyball team is one of the few teams at MVHS that receives personalized uniforms every year. For other sports like Girls Water Polo, senior Courtney Yuen says that the school provides them with the uniform. Girls water polo receives an ensemble of a one-piece swimsuit and a cap.

“The swimsuit is really tight and we have a zipper on it so you can take it off and put it on easier,” Yuen said. “Normally in water polo, people grab each other’s suits, but if it’s tight, it’s harder to grab and there’s also less drag in the water. I think it works really well for the sport it’s made for.” 

However, junior Lucy Yung says the Girls Tennis jerseys — a dark purple shirt with “Monta Vista” on the front for home games and a light purple shirt for away games — have room for improvement due to the loose fit. Yung finds that better tailored shirts allow her to move with more ease across the court. 

“The shirts fit really weird, since the dark purple ones are really big and I feel the extra shirt fabric gets in the way sometimes,” Yung said. “I normally wear a size medium but the medium for the purple shirts fits like an extra large and for the light purple ones, the sleeves are too tight for me and the shirt itself is incredibly long. It’s just uncomfortable to play in shirts that don’t fit because it inhibits my range of movement.”

Apart from a standard uniform for games, Yuen says that water polo players can wear a one-piece swimsuit that suits their personal choices during practice. However, Yuen prefers to wear a two-piece suit since that’s what she usually wears at club swimming. She finds it more comfortable and easier to swim in and believes it would be better suited for practice. 

“In club water polo and swimming and school swim, you’re allowed to wear two pieces,” Yuen said. “But when we tried doing that, our coaches were like, ‘You can’t do that because you’ll get hurt’ or something like that, which is [confusing] because in club, which is at a much higher level than high school, people are allowed to wear two pieces.”

Meanwhile, for Girls Tennis, the players are allowed to wear their own choice of athletic clothing during practice. Yung likes to wear a tank top because she likes having less material in the way when she plays. Additionally, for volleyball, So says players can also choose an athletic outfit to wear during practice, which usually consists of a t-shirt and shorts. He adds that many players, including himself, choose to wear Slunks, which are shorts that various volleyball clubs design. Players can purchase this merchandise from the website or from other players, and also trade them with other volleyball players across the nation, such as when they attend tournaments. 

Apart from the outfit, volleyball players can also accessorize with various gear such as volleyball or basketball shoes, knee pads, various braces and straps, finger tape, headbands and more accessories intended to prevent common injuries in volleyball according to So. 

Similarly, for tennis, Yung notes that players can choose to wear a visor or sunglasses during games. In tennis outside of school, Yung can also choose to wear either a skirt or shorts, and she used to wear a skirt for school tennis and likes the range of movement it provides.  

“Last year and my freshman year, we wore black bottoms, so I was able to wear a skirt as long as it’s black, but this year, we got black shorts [for] the uniforms so I stick with the black shorts,” Yung said. “I think it’s easier to move in a skirt and I think skirts are just cuter. We always play other teams that wear skirts as their uniform and we’re always like, ‘Oh my God, that looks so cute.’ Sometimes the shorts look goofy, but if I find the right pair of shorts, it seems like basically the same thing.”

When the season comes to an end, Yuen has to return her uniform but Yung and So get to keep theirs since they purchased them. So treats his jersey as a souvenir from the season, especially because the unique customization allows it to play a role in the team’s identity. 

“I use my jerseys as memorabilia for whenever I’m on offseason or when I’m going to go to college, because It’s a great reminder of what I did and enjoyed,” So said. “The jersey definitely helps me remember that and I really like the concept of having personalized jerseys.”