Correspondent photo / Sean Barron Tanisha Franklin, athletic director at East High School, holds a pair of shirts bearing the school’s colors and nickname, both of which a Boise, Idaho-based business called On Time Sports Co. designed.

YOUNGSTOWN — The East High School spirit and sense of pride in its sports programs and beyond may vacillate little, even if the shirts many students wear receive different looks.

“He’s always willing to allow me to make changes to accommodate our needs. He sent us a good quantity,” Tanisha Franklin, the school’s athletic director, said last week.

She was referring to Travis Crabtree, a contracted sales representative for Boise, Idaho-based On Time Sports Co.

The business, which has a three- or four-year collaboration with the East Side school, has designed custom-made T-shirts with the latest Golden Bears logo and colors on the front.

On the back of the shirts are choices of squares or rectangles of varying dimensions into which the names of local organizations and businesses that support the school’s athletic programs can fit — specifically, those entities that help provide game day shirts free to the school, as well as the businesses and organizations that raise funds for its athletic programs, Crabtree said.

On Time Sports Co. debuted in December 2018, and it offers shirts, posters and products “that bring schools and communities together while providing financial help for athletic programs,” according to its mission statement. Since the company’s inception, On Time Sports has provided its partnering schools across the U.S. with more than $1.5 million and in excess of 1 million free shirts for athletic programs, the business’s website states.

On Time Sports sent East High T-shirts for fall, winter and spring, and in shipments of small, medium, large and a few other sizes, said Franklin, who also is a behavior interventionist. The relationship between the school and the business more than 2,000 miles away also has served to offer deeper layers of meaning and significance to the shirts, she added.

“I feel that the students got something to represent their school and community with a sense of pride,” Franklin continued.

In addition to adding fuel to the pride tank, the shirts offer an extra layer of safety for students who seek to promote their school in a variety of ways, Crabtree explained.

“It keeps kids off the streets from going door to door, and it’s a lot safer for the kids,” he said, adding that knocking on doors — especially in unfamiliar areas — can in some instances be potentially dangerous.

On Time Sports can print graphics for at least 100 T-shirts at a time to give to the school, with some coming this month, Crabtree said. He added that the shirts also have the inherent power for people “to know you can give back and advertise at the same time.”

Next year, the shirts will sport another logo to fit what will be the new Youngstown High School, as the result of a major two-phase reconfiguration effort that will get underway at the start of the 2026-27 school year.

The new unified sports teams will be called the Defenders, represented with an owl mascot that has yet to be named.