Dragons and Dallas Stars of the past have something in common and it's jersey related.

Written Thursday August 21st, at 2:20 PM

This article will be about the differences between the Lake Orion 2012 and 2013-2014 road football jerseys and why I think the 2012 jerseys were better than the current road jerseys this season.

When I played football we had the Russell Athletic jerseys with the opposite V neck on each jersey (Green- we had a white V neck and White-green V neck) with a big font size. The green jersey said DRAGONS and the white jersey said LAKE ORION. We also had last names on the back that recognized the players and I was one of them who played. Yes in 2006 there were some minor tweaking to the jerseys with the lines on the V neck but it made the jerseys unique. We wore green for the two State Semifinal games in 2008 and 2010 and wore white in the State Finals in 2008 and 2010. The Russell Athletic jerseys had an identity on them, it had pride and passion to wear that Dragons green or white uniform on Friday, Thursday, or Saturday night.

In 2012, the Dragons changed the jersey and brands, switching from Russell Athletic to Nike. Nike gave Lake Orion a new design to the jersey. The new white jersey had green lettering and numbering but the sleeves were green with the players numbers in white.

The nameplates were smaller but they fit into the new jerseys and the wording said DRAGONS with the Nike swoosh. The LAKE ORION name was gone but this jersey had an identity.

What made this jersey have an identity is the green sleeves, it reminded me of the Michigan State uniforms from 2010-2013. I wished they had the green shoulder yoke but it's all right.

Lake Orion did have issues with the green jerseys in 2012. I thought the greens looked sharp like Ohio University and Syracuse. Sadly there were issues with them and the Dragons ended up using it's green alternate uniforms from 2006-2012 for the rest of the season, including the playoffs but they still had those sharp white jerseys.

They went to the State Semifinals in 2012 with them as well.

In 2013, things changed.

The Dragons got a new white jersey from Nike. It had all white with green lettering and numbering but the green sleeves were eliminated. It ended up becoming a plain jersey.

The all white look reminded me of the Dallas Stars dark days in 2007-2013 when the Stars had all plain jerseys. Reebok made the Stars change their look from their classic Star template while the Dragons staff say they were the wrong order from Nike. The black and white jerseys had the word Dallas arched in the front, eliminating it's identity from itself. It wasn't the same team, I didn't like it because the jerseys had no connection to the city and the fans. It reminded me of Tom Hicks when he took the team into bankruptcy and $45 million dollar payroll. It wasn't right to see a team lose it's identity because of that.

Though Lake Orion and Dallas have had differences. The Stars went through a bankruptcy in 2009 and a ownership change. The Stars made the playoffs for the first time in five seasons last year and have a stable new ownership under Tom Gaglardi. Dallas has made changed to it's identity, even going back to it's own when they were in Minnesota. They changed their jerseys, belief, attitude, and have a new identity in victory green, silver, white, and black and are on the way up.

Lake Orion has made the playoffs 13 consecutive seasons and always have been a consistent state power no matter what they are wearing.

I was disappointed that the Dragons went to the plain white jerseys. Dragons coach Chris Bell said to me that the new white jerseys look sharp, I didn't think so. The plain white jersey just does not look good on camera. I thought the white jerseys of 2012 made them unique. It gave them an identity and looked good on camera.

The current Dragons home jersey has the same design as the 2012 jerseys with white sleeves and green numbers and on the green part itself white lettering and numbering.

Now I know there will be people who will disagree with me but it would had been interesting if Lake Orion kept the 2012 white jerseys but in the end the plain look was the best way to go, just wished it was different.