Welcome to the Elite 8 of the 2017 Uniform Of The Year Bracket. Voting for all four regional finals (Stirrups, High Tops, Short Shorts, Pinstripes) will be done on this page. This round of voting will remain open through midnight Tuesday, March 28.
Click here for the full bracket, here for the original introductory post explaining the bracket, here for a recap of the Round of 64 and here for a recap of the Round of 32. A brief recap of the Sweet 16 is below.
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Eight teams remain and the one thing we’ve all learned after 18,118 votes is the original American sports uniform (sorry, lacrosse) still reigns as king of the threads with baseball and softball making up seven of the final eight uniforms left standing.
There were plenty of upsets early on but only three double-digit seeds remain: (13) Mountain Grove Baseball, (12) Rogersville Baseball, (10) Waynesville Softball. One of Rogersville Baseball and Waynesville Softball are guaranteed a Final Four spot as they face off in the High Tops Regional Final. Kind of cool!
Biggest upset last round was Waynesville Softball taking out 3-seed Glendale Football 169-163. That was also the closest matchup of the Sweet 16 and means that Waynesville softball has taken out highly ranked football unis in two consecutive rounds after knocking out 2-seed Strafford Football in the Round of 32.
Like the last two rounds, voting will remain open for a little over 48 hours, also known as Tuesday at midnight.
All images can be clicked on for closer analysis.
For a close-up view of the updated Elite 8 bracket, click here.
Stirrups Regional Final, Elite 8
(1) Norwood Baseball vs. (3) Parkview Soccer
Norwood is a classic through and through. This starts at the stirrups (which made their way onto a pretty popular uni Twitter account last week), the royal blue pops against the white pants and the red/white/blue horizontal stripes are fantastic. The “NORWOOD” lettering has a classic feel across the chest and the red hat with an original Pirates logo is a great touch. Add the red sleeves and white uni outline and this was an easy top seed. Parkview boys soccer looks sharp with the black and green gradient design, and the full green back is a smart choice. We like the big numbers on the shorts as well.
High Tops Regional Final, Elite 8
(12) Rogersville Baseball vs. (10) Waynesville Softball
These Rogersville baseball uniforms are one-of-a-kind. Start with the oversized olde-time “R” in the middle of the chest, then look at the the thick maroon stripe bookended by a pair of grey horizontal stripes (also on the sleeves). Waynesville softball gets a pair of images because they made this list thanks to the backs of these uniforms/helmets. The Tigers logo looks great at the top center and the grey modern-camo helmets are a very cool touch.
Short Shorts Regional Final, Elite 8
(2) Monett Softball vs. (5) Willow Springs Softball
Monett took the 1970s/80s-style MLB multi-colored horizontal stripe uniforms and made them AWESOME. The multi-colored purple stripes that make up the gradient separating the full-white top-half of the tops from the full-purple pants and lower torso is beautiful. The “MONETT” block lettering is great. The yellow, left-offset numbers inside the gradient are perfect and the tri-striped white knee socks just add to everything else. This is Monett’s best uniform, and that’s saying a lot. Willow Springs softball looks great with these maroon unis and white helmets. The bear mascot takes center stage on both and we loved the choice to go with an oversized logo on the uniform itself. Plus, white pants and a dark-colored high sock pairing is always good.
Pinstripes Regional Final, Elite 8
(2) Plato Baseball vs. (13) Mountain Grove Baseball
One of our favorites is Plato baseball. A great traditional uniform good enough for college ball, Plato’s old-school enlarged “P” above the heart shares the front of this uniform only with the uniform number on the bottom-right (an odd but cool spot for a number). Then there’s the hats. Again, the “P” looks great, but what makes these A+ are the colored seams surrounding the cap. There’s nothing like it around, and that’s a shame because it’s so so good. Mountain Grove baseball is here in many ways because of those hats. The olde-time offset “MG” is very cool and unique for the region. The straight block lettering across the uniform is also a bit of a rarity, and it looks good in silver.
Creators: @MattTurer and @JustinLSampson
