Honoring our athletes
Inside the Miami Dolphins stadium, there is the Hall of Glory. Lining this hall are busts of players, signed footballs, and blown up pictures of great moments. The room rises far above your head, every inch of space covered. But the most impressive part of the room is the jerseys. Lining one of the massive walls are jerseys in green, orange and white. All of them are signed, all of them are framed. They are the jerseys of past great players who have had their number retired. This scene is not exclusive to the Miami Dolphins, or even to football. Almost every team has a room full of numbers that are no longer used.
Numbers that are retired will never be used again by the team that retires them – it is a final honor to a player’s great career.
“It is one of the biggest honors you can get at the high school level,” Luke Wuesthoff, senior, said. “Not much else can be done above getting your number retired.”
This honor is heightened because some players develop a bond with their number through the years. Senior Shane Sipes is no exception.
“My number is 6, and I was born on March 6. It’s . . . a family thing where all of my family member’s favorite number is the day they were born. It wasn’t just like any old number that you’re wearing, it actually had meaning,” Sipes said.
The bond between player and number only makes getting your number retired even better. Keith Smith played football, baseball, and basketball in high school. He was drafted in the fifth round by the Detroit Tigers in Major League Baseball. In high school, he was quarterback of the football team during Newbury Park’s 1993 CIF championship in football, going 14-0 that season. His jersey, number 12, now hangs, framed, inside the football locker room.
Now a coach at the school, the honor of having his number retired still stays with him. “Being able to see my jersey in the locker room and in the stadium is super cool. (As) a coach at NPHS now, I always make sure and take a glance at the jersey every time I enter Panther Stadium. It keeps me motivated and helps me put all my efforts into the kids I coach at Newbury Park,” Smith said.
It is no small feat for an athlete to get their number retired. According to Wuesthoff, It is an honor saved for the best athletes to ever attend the school.
“Most of the numbers that have been retired are from the one (football) CIF championship we have had,” Wuesthoff said. “They were also record holders.”
Today, Smith still remembers the bond he had with his number, solidified when it was retired.
“Put it this way,” Smith said. “I didn’t feel right on the field if that number 12 wasn’t on my jersey.”
