Senior banners are an acknowledgment of one’s achievement, dedication, and love for their activity, and are a popular display at graduation parties, school events, and elsewhere, but why is it exactly that not everyone gets to be grand, and who decides which teams get the smaller banners? During the 2024-2025 winter sports season, controversy arose over whether the size of the senior banners was deeply rooted in misogyny, the girls’ wrestling banners were hardly half the size of the boys’, as well as a few other female activities, such as the school’s cheer and dance team posters. So, was this actually a blatant display of discrimination?

     Mike Manderscheid, the high school’s activities director, is not the one who chooses anything involving senior banners; this decision is left to the coaches. Each program selects the size based on the company they order from, and some even provide seniors with their own banner. The girls’ wrestling program allows them to decide how the banner looks while also giving them each their own. During the 2024-2025 season, it was Jason Lange’s first year as head coach for girls wrestling after around six years as the team’s assistant coach. Lange said, “Last year, being my first year in charge, it was a learning experience for me.” Read Photography has two banner-size options, and girls’ wrestling ended up with the smaller option, while the boys’ team got the larger-sized banner. This led to some misinterpretation of the reasoning behind the boys getting the larger banners while the girls didn’t. To right the wrong, the coaches assured both teams that they would receive the same, larger-sized banners the following season. 

     Marion’s cheer team also has smaller senior banners. While activities like this already face some discrimination, the choice of a smaller banner was the team’s coach, Emily Palmer, who made the decision. Palmer said, “The cheer program gives each senior a banner as a gift from the program. Therefore, the smaller banners are more price-conscious.”  Marion Cheer is a program that provides a senior banner, but the team had 14 seniors this year. Palmer also said, “The big banners are big. We thought the smaller ones would be easier to display in a home setting. The big ones just felt a little too big.” While the senior banners look small when on the gym walls or the fence by the football field, they look much larger compared to a bedroom wall.

     The controversy of the senior banners was never debunked; while some forgot about it and moved on, it still sparks a conversation in others about the motives. It’s vital to understand the full story behind situations like this, or it can lead to false allegations and rumors. The size of the banners is fully up to the coaches of each program, and they all have their own reasons, but one would not coach an activity they don’t support. If one finds themselves questioning whether something is misogyny or misinterpretation, they need to find facts before deciding that particular situation is something it’s not.