JEFFERSON COUNTY, Texas — A Southeast Texas high school came out number one in a contest to win new locker rooms.
Hamshire-Fannett High School won by 40,000 votes. The announcement came midday Monday, February 10.
High schools from various states entered to win the chance to get a new locker room courtesy of Hollman lockers. The company has created locker rooms for collegiate and professional teams, including the Chicago Bears, Dallas Mavericks and Texas A&M.
Coach Blake Waggoner approached sophomore Lincoln Edwards to help create a YouTube video to enter the contest. In it, students talked about Harvey and Imelda impacted their lives, and their locker rooms. The folks at Hollman Lockers were touched by the stories, and the video landed Hamshire-Fannett in the top five. From there, people across the country voted on who should win.
President and CEO Travis Hollman and his wife Stephanie, who created the contest, drove in from Dallas to deliver the news Monday. Students and staff were called to the gym to discuss going back to a full day schedule for the first time since Imelda. Once everyone was gathered, the Hollman's surprised them with the good news.
The Hollman's praised Edwards' work on the video, saying it was the most well-done video submitted.
"I fell in love with the school whenever I first watched the video, and it actually made me cry, it was so sweet, so I kind of am already in love with the students here and the faculty," Stephanie said."
"I mean the story was great,I think the story resonated really well with everybody," added Travis.
Edwards, who hopes to continue film-making, says it's nice to have his hard work recognized.
"I'm just glad to help out, I'm not even in athletics so I won't use the locker room, but I'm just glad I could help out these really deserving people," Edwards said.
Coach Waggoner was beyond proud of him, and the people who took the time to vote. He knew it'd be tough to compete with the larger cities in Michigan, North Carolina and California.
"We knew our numbers were low compared to some of the bigger places we were competing against, but our people came through, our community came through, so it was awesome," Waggoner said.
The Hollman's want to work with the students to create a space they can be proud of.
"We're going to create something waterproof for these kids, we're going to create something that the school doesn't have to worry about for the next 50 years, it's going to work well and it's going to look great," Travis said.
Edwards and Waggoner can't wait to see what they do.
"These people deserve it, and God is good, simple as that," Edwards said.
"It's hard to find the right words to say how special we feel today," Waggoner said.
Hollman will be tracking their renovations on Instagram. You can follow their account to see the entire process from start to finish.
PHOTOS | Hollman locker room gallery
RELATED: Hamshire-Fannett High chosen as top five finalist for new locker room, contest voting now open
