Exciting Upgrades Provided to the Berean Athletic Programs

Thank you to everyone who came out for the community tailgate party on September 12! The night was a big success. I hope you enjoyed a hot dog courtesy of the Berean Board, purchased a gorgeous mum to benefit the junior class, took a family picture, and enjoyed a hard-fought Warrior victory on the pitch. As we completed Berean Community Night, I was reminded of all the support the Berean community provides for its various educational programs. Below is a highlight of the support provided to the Berean athletic programs over the past year.

The next time you enter the high school gym, you might notice some changes. As you enter, draw your attention to the south wall, where an anonymous donor blessed Berean with a brand new Nevco scoreboard with customizable team names and statistic side panels. The new scoreboard will enhance the game day experience for supporters and teams with the information that will now be visible on the board. Those of you who volunteer to do the scoreboard at games, do not fret! The board is the same brand you are used to working with, and the new controllers operate very similarly to what you are already familiar with. We will train you on the differences. In addition to the scoreboard, the donation also covered shot clocks for the high school gym. Those will be installed over the summer as the shot clock becomes mandatory for Berean in Heart of America League and KSHSAA postseason play beginning in the 2026-27 academic year.

Staying in the high school gym, the Booster Club purchased brand new padded chairs for the team benches that feature the Berean Warrior Head, along with new, branded floor mats for underneath the chairs. The old chairs have been repurposed for the junior high gym. Now, all student-athletes at all levels of Berean athletics will have padded chairs on game days in the gyms. No longer will metal folding chairs be used as bench seating.

The annual Warrior Golf Tournament was on Saturday, September 13. Proceeds from that tournament allow us to cover the cost of KSHSAA State Tournament/Event competition travel, as well as to cover some smaller projects or needs. This year, junior high volleyball received new uniforms from these proceeds. The previous uniforms had started to tear, and numbers were falling off. Now, instead of having to play in multiple different styles of uniforms, the team has matching uniforms for all levels of players.

Finally, Berean is occasionally named as the recipient of memorial funds.  Multiple projects are currently being completed using memorial funds. A couple of projects that will be completed soon will impact your visual experience as you come to high school games. Soon, the old Berean athletic record boards will be removed, and the current art displays will be relocated further east to the current record boards' location. In their place, brand new graphic athletic record boards will be installed. If you haven't noticed the Berean record boards before, you indeed will once the new ones are installed! The second memorial project that will be part of your experience on high school game nights is an additional trophy case in the high school athletic hallway. The new trophy case will enable us to display the current collection of KSHSAA State competition trophies and provide a dedicated space for showcasing the achievements of this year’s athletic teams. Both of these projects are scheduled to be completed before the end of the calendar year.

Thank you, Berean community, for all of your support. Go Warriors!

Hans Nickel

Berean Athletic Director