LOCAL TROPHY STORES KEEP BUSY YEAR-ROUND

Above, Todd Harbison assembled a large trophy at Howard's Sporting Goods in Cape Girardeau.

This trophy is ready for a darts tournament.

Trophy figures can be mounted on plaques, as shown at left.

The business of trophies and awards never gets a summer vacation.

Unlike the school districts they serve, local trophy businesses keep active during the summer months. Then, when school starts up again in the fall, these businesses continue their activity, constructing and engraving trophies and other awards for countless academic and extra-curricular activities.

Two local stores -- Howard's Sporting Goods of Cape Girardeau and SEMO Specialties & Sports of Jackson and Cape Girardeau -- handle most of the area school's trophy needs. Both stores report that more than half of their business from schools comes from athletics: basketball, volleyball, and tennis tournaments; cross-country, track and wrestling meets.

But increasingly, other organizations and events demand trophies and awards as well. Kelso and New Hamburg schools order trophies for their science fairs. Cape Central and Jackson high schools award trophies to winners in their speech and debate tournaments. Recipients of band and choir honors frequently are given trophies, plaques, or medals to acknowledge their musical accomplishments. Even being named to the honor roll often warrants special recognition.

And the trophy business is not limited to schools. It's that business outside school that keeps the industry busy throughout the summer months when the students are away from the classrooms and giving little thought to science fairs, debate tournaments, or honor rolls.

Howard's produces trophies for area beauty pageants as well as local baseball, softball and soccer leagues.

Each year, according to Howard's James Green, the store prepares over 400 trophies for the spring soccer tournament in Cape Girardeau in addition to the trophies for numerous area baseball tournaments.

This summer alone, SEMO Specialties has recently created trophies for the Cape BBQ Fest and for the area Knights of Columbus Horseshoe Tournament. The first place trophy for the latter event was nearly 4 feet in high.

But even that wasn't their largest.

"One of our largest was a 5-foot trophy for the 4th of July Car Show," said Brett Schneider of SEMO Specialties.

Nor is the business limited to the traditional gold-plated loving cup any more.

According to Terry Kitchen, the athletic director for Cape Central, "Years ago, everyone wanted stand-up trophies. But today, the trophy cases are so full that coaches would rather have plaques they can put on the wall."

Schneider agrees.

"Younger kids like trophies," he said, "but once they get to be junior high age or older, they seem to like plaques or awards they can hang on the wall, probably because they have more wall space than shelf space."

Individual medals have also become popular for wrestling, swim and track meets.

Both Howard's and SEMO Specialties & Sports keep a vast supply of trophy materials on hand in the store. Once a customer places an order, the trophies are assembled according to specifications. Computerized engraving helps ensure accurate and efficient production.

Rick Stoffel, who assembles trophies for SEMO Specialties, says the average assembly time is about 10 minutes. With engraving, the process takes about 30 minutes per trophy to complete.

Although the stores like to have two weeks to complete the order, they both acknowledge that they often aren't given that much time.

"We can have them done in a week if needed, depending on the size of the order," Green said. "We have even had some done in a day in an emergency."

While the most hectic time for the trophy business is the end of the school year with numerous award banquets and looming summer sports, the autumn can be busy as well. Both stores report that even as they put the finishing touches on summer awards, they have already received orders for school-sponsored tournaments and meets.