Liberty football’s win in Texas helps net apparel partnership from Adidas

By Ray Brewer (contact)

Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016 | 9:53 a.m.

Liberty High football players gathered in one of the school’s classrooms late last week for what they assumed was a film session in preparation for their playoff game.

Then, some of their teammates walked in wearing new Adidas uniforms. Cue the excitement.

“They were definitely surprised,” Liberty coach Rich Muraco said.

Liberty received three new sets uniforms — one each red, white and blue — through a three-year partnership with Adidas. They’ll get a new set of uniforms in each of the next two seasons and a stipend to order coach and practice apparel. Muraco says Liberty is one of Adidas’ “premiere schools.”

That’s what happens when you win in Texas.

The Patriots upset Austin Westlake at the beginning of the season to firmly establish themselves as a national program. The win put them in the top-25 rankings, making them an ideal candidate to be scooped up by an apparel sponsor.

“We got a lot of publicity and positive energy from that win. It’s nice to keep going,” Muraco said.

Liberty last week beat Basic for its seventh straight Sunrise Regional championship. The rise from local power to national brand started in 2012 when Muraco started scheduling out-of-state competition with hopes of gaining experience to compete with seven-time state champion Bishop Gorman.

Last season, they beat Mililani of Hawaii, then a top-15 ranked team, before grabbing the program-changing win this fall in Texas. Eventually, all of the athletic programs at Liberty will sport Adidas.

“Liberty High School is home to one of the top athletic departments not only in he state of Nevada, but in the entire country,” Shannon Ferbrache, director of Grassroots-US Sports at Adidas, said in a statement. “The Liberty community is committed to excellence and to doing it the right way. We are thrilled to add Liberty to our portfolio of championship caliber programs, and look forward to a long term partnership with them.”

Liberty plays Northern Region champion Damonte Ranch of Reno on Saturday in the state semifinals. If the Patriots win and Gorman defeats Arbor View in the other state semifinal, it would be a matchup of top-25 schools in next weekend’s large-school division state championship game.

That, obviously, is appealing to Adidas, which earlier this fall also provided uniforms to 3A classification state champion Desert Pines.

“Adidas realized there’s a good chance we could be in the state game against Nike-sponsored Gorman, so they pushed (sending uniforms) forward to this year,” Muraco said.

Ray Brewer can be reached at 702-990-2662 or [email protected]. Follow Ray on Twitter at twitter.com/raybrewer21