Picture this: It’s a Friday, you and your friends are walking to Seacrest Field for the last Spartan football game of the season. The Spartans are under the lights and ready to put up a fight. You and your friends cheer every time the team scores a touchdown. One thing that doesn’t cross your mind is that you are watching the highest level of football at your school: varsity.
Varsity athletes are honored among the school, more for popularity than their achievements. Being a varsity athlete doesn’t just mean best game times, cool jerseys, and large crowds, it also means achieving the top level of competition at your school and receiving a great honor: varsity letter winner.
Varsity lettering requirements are different throughout each program in Lincoln Public Schools. Overall, students must be of good character, a teammate, and a team player. The requirements are determined by the coaches of the specific programs, choosing athletes that have hit a certain performance level or played a key role on a high school sports or activities team. The requirements chosen by the coaches are then looked over by athletic directors of the certain school, making sure that the qualifications seem reasonable. Ultimately, it is up to the head coaches to determine who goes home with a letter after the season.
Even though there is not a limit on athletes that can letter in each sport, it is certainly challenging at Lincoln East. Bringing home four State Championship trophies in both the winter and fall sports, East is known for its excellence. It can be hard to even make a team when the sport has the big goals of defending their State title. Lettering can increase motivation in athletes, making them want to work harder during the season, as well in the off season.
Lincoln East sophomore and varsity letter winner, Bennet Bacon, focuses on swimming even in the off season. This hard work led him to being a State-runner up in the NSAA State Swimming and Diving Championships in the boys 100 yard breaststroke, leading the team to their first State win in many years.
“I swim for a club team in the winter, spring, and summer months to prepare for the season,” Bacon said. “I go to practice as much as I can and I listen to my coaches, who will help me get to the next level.”
To achieve excellence, many athletes have resorted to focusing on one sport, decreasing the amount of multi-sport varsity athletic letter winners. East assistant athletic director, Joe Schlegelmilch, encourages athletes to participate in more than one sport over the athletic year.
“We are in an age of specialization where training for one sport takes place year-round,” Schlegelmilch said. “One of the strengths of East over many, many years has been the fact that so many of our athletes have participated in multiple sports. That has been a big benefit to so many of our successful teams over the years. Hopefully athletes feel encouraged to participate in other sports, and do not feel like they are ‘missing out’ if they are not training as often for an off-season sport. Participation in other sports should not be seen as a negative, but rather a positive.”
Multi-sport varsity letter winners are slim these days, but a handful of students have achieved this excellence. Every year, the Nebraska School Activities Association releases the ‘Nebraska State Colleges Multi-Activity Student Award Recipient List,’ which is an award that highlights students that have participated in at least three NSAA sanctioned activities throughout the 2024-2025 academic and athletic school year. 70 students from East received this award, showing how versatile the Spartans are. Because of the hard work these student athletes put in, East is one of the most successful high schools in the state.
