Tuesday, 5th July 2005 (4186 views)

High school US football players have always sought to follow in the footsteps of the professionals in the National Football League (NFL) – and now they are trying to accessorise like them.

Students at high school teams in the US are now chasing a ring – valuable winner's pieces that echo the long-standing Super Bowl tradition of a Championship ring.

The Super Bowl rings are typically 4.94-carat, diamond-encrusted affairs, with other US sports and now school children following suit.

Eisenhower High School athletic director Tom Hoak told the Daily Bulletin that the trend had gradually grown out of professional football and then college football.

"I think high school kids started talking about rings after watching Super Bowl teams get them. Then Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl teams started getting them and it became a regular thing," he explained.

Other school sports have followed the trend, with the Rim of the World girls volleyball team that won the CIF-State title last year also getting in on the act.

Rim coach Linda Pattison said: "I thought it was kind of silly, but now that they have them, I really like it.

"I thought it might be kind of a showboaty thing, but the rings aren't that big and the girls just love them. They wear them all the time."

Super Bowl rings have become something of a US institution, with the jewellery covered by a subsection of the NFL's Game Operations Manual – rings must be made of 10K plumb gold.

 

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