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Cornerstone’s football team received their championship rings in a special ceremony, capping off a historic journey to their first state title. (Contributed)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

COLUMBIANA – The Cornerstone Christian Chargers’ football state championship in 2023 was a moment that their players and coaches likely won’t forget soon, but now, they have something to help them remember their crowning moment.

The Chargers were presented with their AISA 8-man football state championship rings in a special ceremony on Friday, March 1 at Cornerstone Christian School with their families, coaches and teammates in attendance.

“It was awesome,” Cornerstone football coach James Lee said. “We had a lot of the families come out. It was a lot of fun and it was great to see the kids get their rings.”

Lee and the coaches believe it was important to honor their players in this way because of the journey the team took to get to their historic first championship and what the win meant to the school as a whole.

He hopes that the rings help them remember the years of work it took to get to this point and preserve the special moment of winning the title.

“Just how hard they worked and everything they went through, not just on the field, but off the field, coming together as a group of young men, as coaches,” Lee said. “Winning a championship’s special, no matter where you’re at or what level it’s at. It’s the goals these young men have placed.”

The coaches consulted multiple existing designs for the ring before landing on the one they chose. In addition to the Chargers’ logo, the rings contain elements of purple, gold and white to add elements of the team’s colors into the design.

That was a key part of their goal for the ring design so it could incorporate more elements of the team’s identity.

“We kind of wanted to have a gold concept to it, so it’s got a good little bit of golden inlay,” Lee said. “And of course, we wanted to make sure we had some purple and gold and white stones in there to match school colors.”

(Contributed)

Once the design process was finished and the rings arrived for the ceremony, the players finally got their hands on the rings they worked hard for. Lee said the excitement still hasn’t worn off for the players in the days since they received the rings.

“They’re still unbelievably excited about it,” Lee said three days after the ceremony. “I don’t think they’ve taken them off all weekend. They were all wearing them today.”

Beyond their symbolism of the team’s first championship, Lee believes these rings capture the growth that his players have had over the course of the year, which for some included their decision to become a Christian.

“The biggest part about it to me is there’s so many of these kids that they wanted their classmates to change mentalities, and the mentality changed and a lot of them have made a decision to follow Christ,” Lee said. “So that was the biggest thing that I think the ring even symbolizes even more is those kids making that decision.”

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