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Girls Soccer: SWR receives state championship rings

By popular demand, the patient Shoreham-Wading River High School girls soccer team finally received its state championship rings.

Those rings had been sitting in coach Adrian Gilmore’s basement since late March. “I kept joking to the kids that I was going to teach Zoom with all the rings on,” she said.

The Wildcats were finally able to try their rings on for size at a socially-distant presentation ceremony at a player’s house last Wednesday.

“It was fun to see their faces,” Gilmore said of her players, who wanted the rings before graduation, which was held Friday and Saturday. “Some of them teared up.”

Twenty-four rings were distributed, 22 to the players and two to the coaches, Gilmore and assistant coach Brian Ferguson. Cones were set up six feet apart for each player. On top of each cone was a player’s name on a piece of paper on a gift bag, with the ring on top.

“S.W.R. WILDCATS” is inscribed on the ring, flanked by blue stones and in between the words “STATE CHAMPIONS.”

“Oh, they’re beautiful,” Gilmore said. “I love them.”

SWR won its first state championship last fall, topping Spencerport, 2-0, in the New York Class A final at SUNY/Cortland. It capped a dream 17-2-2 season for the Wildcats.

Gilmore said the ring presentation ceremony “was just a perfect ending to a great year.”

She took note of how rare it is for a high school athlete to receive a state championship ring.

“It’s something you always aspire towards, but it’s not something that always happens,” she said. “You have to have everything go your way. You have to have a little luck.”