With the culmination of the 2015 Gold Card program, the Sequim High School football team brought in a record-breaking $35,280 in sales. As a way of rewarding such the effort, players were surprised with custom Findlay team hats after practice on Oct. 15.

“Team prizes are a great motivator,” program coordinator Kathy Schock said. “They really encourage the kids to work together towards a common goal which helps foster team unity.”

The team’s goal for 2015 was to exceed last year’s total of $34,420.

“They had a tough goal to achieve and they begged to keep the program going longer just to try to meet it,” Schock said. “It was pretty inspiring to see them working together. The kids who were good at selling helped the kids who weren’t. They would go out in teams after their two-a-day practices to try and sell. Each player had to sell at least one card, and they banded together to make sure that happened.”

To honor their efforts for being the top in Gold Card sales, Johnnie Young, Ben Newell, Sebastian Goettling and Matthew Schock were the first to receive their custom hats adorned with limited edition silver laces. The following group of 14 players who brought almost $1,000 each into the program was first to pick their custom hats, sporting different lace color combinations.

“These kids worked really hard,” Booster Club President Tara Velarde said. “They deserved something special.”

Players had asked for Findlay hats as the team prize. For the past month, Schock coordinated with Tyler Hull of Findlay — a Portland, Ore.-based company — to come up with something special.

“When (Findlay) found out the kids had homecoming on the horizon, they pushed the order through to have them done in time,” Schock said.

The Findlay team  personally drove the hats to Sequim to meet the kids as they were coming off the practice field.

“A lot of these kids are previous customers, and I’m sure a couple recognized us,” Hull said.

“We’re flattered that the players picked our product for their team prize, and being able to witness the guys’ reactions when the hats were revealed was something we’ll remember for quite some time,” Findlay owner Jimmy Hickey added.