By Kristen Shepard
Staff Writer

If Coppell High School students wanted to wear a different T-shirt every day for three months, most could pull it off.  As ridiculous as this sounds, Coppell prints, wears and buys T-shirts for every occasion and organization on campus.
Whether you adore the craze, or let it drive you crazy, you cannot deny the fact Coppell loves T-shirts. You’ll find the more you’re involved in, the more T-shirts make their way into your closet.

Senior Mattie Daily keeps herself busy dancing with the Lariettes, serving as President of the Kids for Kids club, broadcasting for KCBY and helping lead the school through Red Jackets. Daily also headed the production of the junior powderpuff shirts and this year’s Lax Lover shirts.

“Honestly, I probably have 150 T-shirts. I keep T-shirts in stacks at the top of my closet because there isn’t room for all of them,” Daily said. “Kids for Kids didn’t make a shirt this year because we all already had so many shirts for various clubs. It was getting excessive.”

At this year’s talent show, the MC’s took a stab at the T-shirt craze in their short skit, putting dozens of Coppell shirts on a student at one time. The skit was a huge success, making a joke out of the trend that is taking Coppell by storm.

For Coppell resident and parent Laura Swaldi, building town spirit is a cause worthy enough to start up her own company. Together with her friend from college, Becky Carver, Swaldi started up The Spirit Round Up.

“When we moved from Southlake to Coppell in 2004, I immediately noticed that the town didn’t have the same level of school spirit Southlake had,” Swaldi said. “Everywhere you go in Southlake, someone is wearing a Dragon shirt or carrying a Dragon purse. I thought to myself, why isn’t Coppell offering the same types of merchandise?”

This year especially, The Spirit Round up has taken the Coppell T-shirt business by storm. Shortly after Swaldi released a line of neon Tyler’s style T-shirts, the halls at Coppell High School got significantly brighter.

“Neon shirts are fun; that’s what people want to buy,” Swaldi said. “I’m really not in the business for the money; I want people to have spirit wear that is trendy and fun. I want to give people stuff they will wear to football games and around town.”

Business has only grown for Swaldi, who plans to continue producing Coppell’s hit spirit wear to sell at trade shows such as Holiday House and even through in-house sales and the Spirit Round Up Facebook page.

Even the Coppell administrators are on board with the trend and support the many Coppell related T-shirts worn around the school.
“I support any kind of T-shirt that supports a Coppell organization, whether it’s soccer, an academic club, or the band, it’s important that we support our school, and T-shirts certainly help that,” Principal Mike Jasso said.

Other than school spirit, T-shirts are also a great tool to motivate students. When former CHS Principal Brad Hunt introduced the “I Rock CHS” shirts, students became even more motivated than ever to get involved and work hard.

“I have worked in four or five different high schools and I have never seen any award been as appreciated as the I Rock CHS shirts,” Jasso said. “You would think we are handing [the students] gold. It’s phenomenal motivation. I think that speaks a lot about the pride that [students] have in the school, that the community has in the school.”

Students feel the same way, even a simple T-shirt has the power to motivate students to work hard and support their peers. All types of support is represented by these shirts; shirts saluting athletes such as sophomore Solomon Thomas and 2011 graduate Bennett Okotcha have been a huge trend among Coppell students.
“T-shirts in general give people an identity and an association with a club or activity,” Daily said. “When people join a club or show up to an event just for a T-shirt, that’s a different story, but at least they’re coming. With Lax Lovers and Diamond Dolls and such, more people are coming out to support Coppell teams than ever, and what’s wrong with that?”

Even greater than the shirts, Coppell’s T-shirt craze represents the pride and unity that defines Coppell.