More than four months after the Roberson baseball team became the NCHSAA Class 4A state champion with a two-game sweep of New Hanover, the team was presented its championship rings Friday during halftime of a home football game.

The entire team was present at the ceremony, including four players – Garrett Blaylock, Collin Watt, Bryce Talley and Jacob McCarthy – who graduated in the spring.

Blaylock currently plays baseball at Vanderbilt and Watt at East Carolina. Blaylock was voted Most Valuable Player of the state championship series.

“It was just really cool to get those four seniors back in town and have the whole team back together,” Roberson coach Eric Filipek said. “The wins are great, but the relationships you build, when you go through something like this together, they last forever.”

All players received a wooden case to store their rings, which had each player’s name engraved on the side and a large blue “R” surrounded by diamonds on the top.

“They were pretty big-league,” Filipek said.

The rings were paid for by the Rams’ athletic booster club with help from local businesses.

“We were very lucky to have a great booster club and amazing businesses that supported us,” Filipek said.

The 2017 Roberson team went 30-3 overall and went undefeated in conference play. The state title was the first WNC public-school baseball championship since 2002.

The Rams won that title in 2002 – also at N.C. State’s Doak Field at Dail Park. The Rams were a Class 3A program at the time under former coach Tom Smith.