The New Corsair Football Jersey
Samaiya Kirby | Culture Editor
The Corsairs debut SMC’s first navy-blue-and-white home jersey.
Santa Monica College (SMC) is rich in history, especially in the athletic department. Before royal blue, black, and white, the Corsair football team wore orange and black. It wasn't until the 1980s that SMC changed its school colors to blue and white. Ever since that shift over 30 years ago, the team’s uniforms have gone through various hues of royal blues and whites, but never navy blue and white.
On Sept. 1, the Corsairs played the Victor Valley College Rams at their first home game of the season. The players came out wearing a true navy blue Under Armor jersey with a white SMC logo and their numbers displayed on the front in bold block font. This is the first uniform change the football team has had since 2018.
“We knew we needed to do better with the quality of the jersey and we needed to make sure that it fit within the school colors and guidelines,” said Corsairs Football Head Coach Kelly Ledwith.
Typically, coaches are responsible for designing the uniforms. They can select the vendor for quality and material preferences, as well as the color scheme. Each coach then consults with Athletic Director Reggie Ellis, who approves or rejects the design. Ellis said, “As long as they’re representing the school and representing our city with the school colors, which are supposed to be royal blue, white, we are okay with it.” At home games, players wear the true navy blue jersey and at away games they typically wear the traditional white jersey.
White has become a less favorable color amongst players to wear during games because it can be hard to keep clean. To combat this issue, teams such as basketball and volleyball have incorporated more gray into the uniforms. According to Ellis, the only issue that arises with this is that it's difficult to find the right shade of gray. It needs to be a light enough gray such that it appears white. “White gets dirty really easily and its stains easier than the grays, and shows up darker than the grays, so we try to go with gray whenever possible.” He said that it all depends on the type of gray.
This year, the team purchased their uniforms from Under Armor. Coach Kelly chose the design because it has a tighter fit and doesn't stretch, discouraging opponents from grabbing excess cloth for a competitive advantage. Typically, players want something that's durable so that it can support their body movements. Under Armor worked within the team's supply budget to provide quality jerseys that will not need to be completely replaced after the season.
“They’re a good sturdy jersey. I think we’ll be able to get good use out of them, if not maybe replace one or two here and there, but these look like they’ll last us multiple seasons,” Kelly said. The most important outcome of this change, according to Kelly and Ellis, is that the players look and feel good, and can perform well on the field.
Players had a positive reaction to the new jerseys. Wide receiver Myles Parker said, “I like the Under-Armor type of jerseys more because they fit your body pretty well. Last year's jerseys were fine, but they were too long at the shoulders.” Tight end Neeko Wagner added, “I don’t normally have trouble fitting into my jersey, but these are really comfortable. I love the home jersey because it looks black at night, and the white and royal blue is really beautiful.”
