Trophy stockpiles bring hard choices

March 28, 2006

JOEL DAVIDSON

Frontiersman reporter

MAT-SU - After packing away 1,500 trophies over the last four decades, Palmer High School administrators made a tough decision recently to finally clean house by giving away all school trophies except for first-place regional or state championships.

Past and present coaches had first dibs on the hardware - trophies are now free to whomever wants them.

While trophies memorialize triumphant moments of a school's history, over the years, display cases fill up and older trophies get stashed in dusty storage closets or darkened rooms.

Ultimately, the nostalgic merchandise at Palmer had to make way to the realities of limited space.

Palmer High assistant principal Cheryl Sullivan took on the task of paring down Palmer's trophies.

&#8220It's been talked about for many years, now we are finally going ahead with it,” she said. &#8220Some were in display cases but many have been in closets.”

A few head coaches are making mini-displays in school locker rooms, but most trophies are destined for personal homes, offices and recycling bins.

Sullivan said the school only will display first-place regional and state titles, along with trophies from the most recent four years. Anything beyond that, such as invitational tournament championships and holiday classics, will be discarded.

After coaching varsity football at Palmer for 15 years, Rod Christiansen said the decision doesn't sit well with him and suggested the school hang onto old trophies even if it means finding extra storage.

&#8220I have reservations about school trophies being handed out to the public,” he said. &#8220The school earned those, and storing them is better than giving them away. I know storage space costs money but maybe booster clubs could store them.”

The trophies build a sense of community, Christiansen argued.

&#8220Younger kids come in and they see those trophies,” he said. &#8220They're a kind of history of the community.”

Palmer isn't the only high school deliberating over excess trophies. Wasilla, Colony, and Houston also are struggling with growing stockpiles.

&#8220We have a room with hundreds of trophies,” said Wasilla High Principal Dwight Probasco. &#8220We just don't have space to display them all.”

Probasco said there's been talk at Wasilla of giving trophies away or recycling them but he said those are tough calls to make.

&#8220They are a bit of our history and background of who we are, but if they aren't out there to be looked at, then you don't get those feelings,” he explained. &#8220We could give them away or throw them away but that seems like a waste.”

Houston High hasn't made a decision on its trophies either. Assistant principal Phil Milton said they've talked about recycling some of them or possibly creating an area dedicated to the history of the school.

&#8220We don't really have a definite plan,” he said. &#8220We currently store them in little areas around the building.”

Long-time Valley coach Randy Magner coached football, basketball and track at Palmer and Colony high schools for 20 years before retiring from coaching in 2005. He said he sympathizes with schools.

&#8220Some programs like Palmer high where they've been so successful, you end up with all these trophies,” he said. &#8220After a while, what do you do with them all?”

Trophies, though, are important, he said because they build a sense of connection to past generations.

&#8220It establishes a tradition that kids need to see,” he said. &#8220Coaches can then build on that concept of tradition.”

Colony High School principal Cydney Duffin said her school unloaded some trophies a few years ago, but Colony, which opened in 1991, hasn't been around nearly as long as Palmer and Wasilla ,so they haven't accumulated the sheer trophy masses as other schools.

Duffin said she understands space is an issue when it comes to keeping trophies, but she said it's hard to get rid of them.

&#8220You have to celebrate all those great times,” she said. &#8220You have to be very careful about discarding old trophies because you are not just dealing with today's players. Alumni come back and they want to walk through the history of their school.”

Contact Joel Davidson at

352-2266 or joel.davidson@

frontiersman.com.