Lincoln has a tradition of recognizing athletes after they win a League championship by adding the year they won on a banner displayed in the gym. However, when it takes months to get done, is it worth it?

Around 1995, according to Kevin Collins, Lincoln’s Athletic Director, Lincoln had a tradition to make banners for each sport and to honor the team after a championship win with the year they won. These banners are hung around the Main Gym.

This process, even though it is a nice tradition, takes time. Coach Collins found the company, King Embroidery, after the company they were using stopped providing the service for the banners. With the new company it now takes several months to get the banners back up with the new year on them.

I had reached out to the company King Embroidery for a comment, but I could not get a comment from them.

Senior Angelica Angeles explained how her sophomore year the tennis team won their league championship, but did not see the banner until the next year. ” the seniors that earned it never saw it” because they won in the fall of — and didn’t see it until her junior year. ” My sister was a senior when she won and she never got to experience what I did.”

Junior Kailee Kaui said that in the Spring of 2019 softball won their championship and it is now September and their banner isn’t up

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“It’s really frustrating to know that we all worked so hard to get 1st place and no one has said anything. Our banner was taken down in May and its still not there. All we are asking is for the school to give the same energy they give other sports. We’s all worked just as hard for our tittles. ”

After word spread that there was a football poster for the 2018 championship, many student athletes were upset. However, the banner that was posted on social media was a present for a coach from a player’s family.  There are many sports at Lincoln and each sport has a varying level of participants. During an interview with Coach Collins he explained “In theory [he] should take it down right when it happens and that’s what delays the process.” Collins then expressed his frustration with the company by showing me the receipts of many transactions with the company. Collins said he “took [the swim banner] over in late June early July” but the company seems to “keep putting it off.”

The poster that was a gift for one of the coaches funded by Gabe Florez and his family has nothing to do with Lincoln or Collins himself. It will not be hung anywhere at Lincoln.

There seems to be a pattern with projects taking extended periods of time at Lincoln. When the Lincoln center was remodeled it took months to finish. This 2019-2020 school year on the first day of school, classroom numbers were not displayed. Also during the 2019-2020 school year it wasn’t until mid September for schedule changes to finalize. Currently the dance floor is still being finished. Students also didn’t get their lockers until 3 weeks after school started.