Leaving the Letters Behind: Varsity and JV letters are available for students

While students don’t roam the hallways sporting a letter jacket like high schoolers did 50 years ago, Varsity letters are still available for students qualified through various extracurriculars. 

School activities — whether it’s football or debate — have different criteria for Varsity and JV lettering in the KSHSAA rules. Many students qualify for a letter during their four years at East, however, under 10% of eligible students claim their letters, according to art teacher Jodie Schnackenberg, who’s responsible for distributing the letters.

Students have the opportunity to decide if they want to claim their letter, but Schnackenberg believes letters are significant because they represent success in high school activities.

“The reason that they’re important is because there’s always been a hierarchy in sports where you play Varsity or you do not,” Schnackenberg said. “Lettering I think is a symbol of what you’ve accomplished in your career in high school.”

In room 201, Schnackenberg’s room, students can pick up their Varsity and JV letters in a packet Schnackenberg puts together including a certificate and physical symbols depending on what they’ve achieved.

“If you letter in JV, you get the year that you graduate,” Schnackenberg said. “Once you reach Varsity status in a sport you get the large “E” — blue for athletics, white for non athletics — [and] you would get the symbol for that sport. After that, every year that you letter there’s a bar that you get. So in essence, the more you letter, the less you get.”

Any students that haven’t received their letters from their freshman year or their senior year are allowed to stop by Schnackenberg’s room and claim them until the end of the year.