Which Columbus-area high schools have the best football uniforms? Here's our top 10
This story started with a Columbus Dispatch social media post that read, in part: “Which central Ohio school has the best football uniform? We're going to put together a top 10 list and want your input.”
We received dozens of responses via Twitter and Facebook over the next few days. This was predictable because football is king here, but the input gave The Dispatch’s high school sports staff — writers Frank DiRenna and Dave Purpura and editor Andy Resnik — a starting point.
Each of us used those suggestions to help select a top 15, instead of a top 10, to make sure we had enough variety.
Point values were then assigned — a school ranked first received 15 points, a school ranked second received 14 points and so on — and the scores were added up to determine the top 10.
So, without further ado, here are The Dispatch’s picks — with your assistance — for the top 10 high school football uniforms in central Ohio.
1. Watterson (37 points)
Watterson's classic look of cardinal red — it's not maroon — and Vegas gold is special. Maybe it's the helmets, which shine whether the game is played under the sun or under the lights.
The bright white numbers and letters on the Eagles' home jerseys allow the other colors to stand out even more. The Eagles look so sharp and clean when they take the field that you'd think the school has a sponsorship deal with a laundry detergent.
Watterson did more than look good in its uniforms last fall. The Eagles went 12-2, reaching the Division III, Region 11 championship game.
After the season, coach Brian Kennedy said the Eagles "set the standard" for the program moving forward.
Watterson also sets the standard for high school football uniforms in central Ohio.
2. Olentangy Berlin (36)
Berlin wasn't just the fourth Olentangy high school when it opened in August 2018, it was the fourth to have blue in its color scheme. But when school officials announced Berlin's second color also was going to be blue, well, it's OK if you questioned whether they understood the assignment.
"It's unique and it pops," principal Todd Spinner said when the school colors of blue and light blue were revealed in August 2017.
As it turned out, he was correct. Once we got a look at the Bears' football uniforms when they took the field for their debut game — they beat visiting Briggs 53-22 on Aug. 24, 2018 — it was immediately clear that the decision-makers had aced the assignment. The blue and light blue were an A+.
At Berlin, where the rallying cry is "Claws Up," the color scheme is called "Double Blue." So, at No. 2 on our list, two big Claws Up for the Double Blue.
3 (tie). Independence and Marysville (23)
Nothing is more patriotic than red, white and blue, and the 76ers and Monarchs both display all three as their colors.
It was only natural for Independence to do so. The school opened in 1976 — our nation’s bicentennial year — hence the school’s name. Red, white and blue soon followed as the colors, and some variation of the New England Patriots logo has been a constant almost as long, keeping up with the times of course.
Marysville’s story is far different, not to mention much older. Football coach Brent Johnson shared that blue and red were introduced as school colors in 1901: “Apparently, the first football team went to the local dry goods store in town to purchase extra pads and team sweaters (jerseys). The store didn’t carry enough of one color of jersey to outfit the entire team, so they decided to purchase red and blue sweaters.”
The Monarchs mascot was picked in a 1941 contest held by the Marysville Journal-Tribune. Student Beula Butler reasoned that calling Marysville athletes Monarchs was appropriate because “they are rulers in athletics and because they wear royal blue.”
5 (tie). Dublin Jerome and Pickerington North (20)
With a name like Dublin, it has to be green.
Jerome, the third and the newest high school in the Dublin district, although it opened 19 years ago, puts its own twist on the city’s primary color. Celtics uniforms go forest green, considerably darker than Scioto’s Kelly green and a little darker than Coffman’s “regular” green, first established when it was the district’s only high school prior to 1995.
Jerome also mixes iron ore and white into its repertoire, per the Dublin City Schools website. Gold helmets invoke thoughts of Notre Dame.
Likewise, purple has long been the primary color in Pickerington schools, although for the purposes of this list North’s road uniforms made the cut. Those are a snazzy mix of black, white and silver, the first and last of which distinguish Panthers colors from those of crosstown rival and original district school Central. “Pick North” is written across the front, an acknowledgement of the verbal shorthand many use to refer to the school that opened 20 years ago this August.
7. Olentangy Orange (19)
No, we didn't pick Orange's blue jerseys.
When your school name doubles as a color, you're obliged to have matching jerseys — and helmets and pants — and Orange's triple-orange combination is a home run.
Like Olentangy Liberty and Olentangy Berlin, Orange is named for the township in which the school is located. Its football uniforms and helmets heavily resemble those worn by the Florida Gators, which didn't always sit well with everyone.
When the school opened in 2008, Ohio State had recently lost men's basketball and football national title games to Florida.
“Nobody around here liked Florida much then, but they say that time heals the wounds, and those colors have really grown on me since,” then-Orange football coach Brian Cross told The Dispatch in 2011. “The uniqueness of the colors really stands out in my mind. No team in this area, or in all of Ohio that I know of, wears blue and orange.
“When you see our helmet or our uniform, you know right away that it’s Olentangy Orange, and I like that.”
We like it, too.
8 (tie). Gahanna Lincoln, Harvest Prep and Pickerington Central (18)
Gahanna wore its black jerseys six times last fall, and they became the signature look for a season to remember.
A construction project forced the Lions to play all but their first two games on the road or at neutral sites. Still, they went 13-2 and reached a Division I state semifinal — it was their first state appearance since 1982 — and coach Bruce Ward referred to them as "the road warriors" because they kept winning without having a home-field advantage.
In one of its regular-season neutral-site games, Gahanna wore its black jerseys during a 22-20 "home" win over Pickerington Central at Thomas Worthington. The Lions hadn’t beaten the Tigers since 2001 and were 2-20 against them all-time.
Once the playoffs arrived and Gahanna was the home team for its first four games by virtue of its No. 1 seed in Region 3, the Lions chose to wear black over their traditional blue. They won all four games, defeating Lancaster (49-8), Hilliard Bradley (29-7), Central (38-14) and New Albany (25-17).
Speaking of black jerseys, Harvest Prep's official school colors of maroon, gray and white blend perfectly in this sharp look. The Warriors wore them during last year's 40-35 home win over perennial power Hartley in Week 2 — a building block in a 13-1 season that ended in the Division V, Region 19 final.
Harvest Prep has become the best small-school football program in the Columbus area, so it's fitting that it has a uniform worthy of the status.
And speaking of status, no central Ohio big-school program has enjoyed more success than Pickerington Central, which won Division I state championships in 2017 and 2019 under the now-retired Jay Sharrett. The Tigers' all-purple look is more class than flash, but that's why we like it.
Also receiving votes: Big Walnut, Hilliard Bradley (15); Grove City, Hartley (14); Bloom-Carroll, Westerville South (13); Hilliard Davidson (12); Thomas Worthington, Upper Arlington, Worthington Kilbourne (9); Dublin Scioto (3); Delaware Hayes, Whitehall (1)
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Central Ohio high school football: Top 10 uniforms in Columbus
