OKC Governing Board State Shirt Procedure

Team Managers,

We, on the OKC Governing Board, would like to clarify the role of our organization. Primarily, we exist to provide a State Championship Tournament for those teams who are eligible to advance from the regional level. As such, we do everything possible to make our tournament a positive experience for all the teams that attend—not just the ones that win.

To that end—especially in these financially difficult times—we do everything possible to keep the cost for participating at State as reasonable as we can; we have not increased our state registration fees for many years, and by carefully managing our money, we hope we won’t have to raise them in the foreseeable future.

Having said that, let’s talk about the OHDI State T-shirt ordering procedure. Again, our tournament is designed to be a special day for all the teams qualifying to attend, and part of that experience has always been providing teams with a souvenir OHDI State T-shirt.

Years ago, the Governing Board could afford to give each team moving onto the Global Competition up to nine free OHDI T-shirts so that Ohio’s kids would look and feel like a “team” during the opening and closing ceremonies and at special assemblies and activities throughout the week. To distinguish those “gift shirts” from the ones that every state participant could buy, we had “Ohio Champs” put on the back.

Sadly, we have been unable to incur the expense of the “T-shirt gift” for several years. Moreover, we cannot afford to pre-order numerous state souvenir shirts and be “stuck” with an item that can’t be sold again next year. Consequently, we have set up the “pre-ordering” policy. Our state t-shirts are not making us much money, but they aren’t costing us anything either.

What should a manager do when planning to attend the State Tournament, but hoping to move onto Tennessee? Wait and order the shirts after the tournament, or pre-order the shirts so your students will have them to wear on or right after the state tournament day? Of course, that decision is completely up to you.

If this is the first time you have earned a trip to Globals and you already purchased shirts, do not dismay. You can purchase iron-on letters and put Ohio Champs on the back of them yourselves, or you may know a local shirt company that will put something on the back of your shirts for you. We, however, will not accept shirts your team picked up on State Tournament day—even if they have not been worn—to place the logo on the back.

We are not able to guarantee that every shirt sent back to us will be “unworn,” and we certainly cannot guarantee that the shirts you send back will be the ones we return to you (the logistics of that would be impossible). You also need to be advised that “State Finalist” WILL NOT BE PLACED ON THE SLEEVES OF SHIRTS PURCHASED AFTER THE STATE TOURNAMENT. The order form online has been adjusted to correct that misrepresentation.

Finally, we appreciate your understanding and cooperation in this matter, and we know that you will continue to appreciate our attempts to make both our State and the Global Tournaments something your children will remember fondly all the days of their lives.

Good luck in Tennessee,
OKC Governing Board