Lisbon Activities Director Eric Ries publicly apologized for an incident involving the uniforms worn by Lisbon girls’ basketball players at the Starmont game Tuesday, Dec. 7.
Lisbon is in the process of purchasing new away uniforms for the girls’ basketball team, but those uniforms have not yet arrived. In the interim, Ries has been contacting teams ahead of the games and requesting that opposing teams wear darker colors if they can, and Lisbon will wear white uniforms.
That went okay until the competition against Starmont, when Ries failed to communicate with the activities director at the Starmont school. Both Lisbon and Starmont were wearing white jerseys at the contest, and to help distinguish between the two teams, Lisbon players were asked to put on red mesh vests over their uniforms.
“It was my intent to communicate with Starmont Monday ahead of Tuesday’s game, and I failed to do that,” Ries said. “I feel terrible that my actions put our players in a situation where they were embarrassed on the court, and I’ve apologized to all those players for that. We have great players who overcame that situation and were able to get the win against Starmont.”
New away uniforms have been ordered for the girls team from Iowa Sports Supply, and those uniforms should be available for their contest Jan. 7. Ries has now been in communication with all the other athletic directors about the situation and that the competing schools may need to wear darker uniforms until those new uniforms arrive, even if they are playing a home game against the Lions.
“Our kids did not deserve to be in that situation, period,” Ries said.
Lisbon School Board member John Prasil said that he received a text from a person in the community regarding this situation, a text he followed up with a phone call. He’s also received numerous emails on the subject and that there have been discussions about the matter going back years now.
“As a board member, I’m frustrated that things were not handled better,” Prasil said. “I want to say that I wish we as adults would work together to make things as great as possible for our sons and daughters, and that we would put our own personal issues aside to do the best things for our kids. Communication is the key to all of this.”