Team Moms

CELEBRATING

OUR BIGGEST CHEERLEADERS Team Moms

BY TAYLOR SHILLAM

For young athletes, support can take many forms.

For the Sandpoint High School football team, one of the greatest, most dedicated sources of support is a group of devoted parents known as the Team Moms. This season, a total of 13 Team Moms, the highest number the football team has ever seen, helps drive morale, camaraderie and energy amongst players, parents and coaches alike. Pooling their time and resources throughout the season, Team Moms provide a constant supportive presence for the team in the form of homemade meals, fundraising events, decorating the field and lockers at home games, and much more.

“We’re basically a support system within the coaching staff,” shared Carolyn McCorkle, who has taken lead of the program in her last year as a Team Mom. Her grandson, Luke McCorkle, is a senior this year, marking Carolyn’s third and final year with the group.

The Team Moms’ support begins even before the start of the football season, at the team’s biggest fundraiser, a golf tournament and silent auction that takes place every July. All proceeds from the annual event go toward supporting the team, helping to feed the kids, cover camp costs and provide any needed supplies.

When the first weeks of August arrive and the team’s practice routine begins, Team Moms start providing meals for the players, starting with prepared lunches and progressing to add evening means as the season progresses. The daily meals consist of hamburgers, tacos, teriyaki chicken, pulled pork and steak dinners.

Coach Ryan Knowles’ motto is, “A team that eats together, plays together.” And eat together they do, between the Thursday dinners before game nights, light lunches on Fridays, and snacks during practices and games, thanks to the Team Moms.

To manage the football team’s growing player count, Coach Knowles has separated players into sub-teams according to age. Each sub-team of about 10 to 12 kids has its own name, with titles like War Dogs, Spartan Dogs, Hound Dogs and Mad Dogs, each with its own assigned Team Mom.

Outside of the team’s fundraising efforts, a significant portion of the funding that supports the football programs is provided by

the parents themselves. As the resources the school and district are able to provide are limited, many parents provide additional support by donating time and resources of their own to benefit the team.

The Team Moms are a prime example of this willingness to donate, along with additional support from businesses within the community.

The football program’s relationships with local grocers has been a major help in the Team Moms' ability to provide meals for the team.

“We have great relationships with Safeway, Super One, Yoke’s, and more, that help us cover the costs,” McCorkle said. On Mondays, the Dairy Depot donates burgers to feed the team. Being a part of the local nonprofit Sandpoint Football Foundation has helped drive those partnerships.

McCorkle reports nothing but appreciation in return from her team and their coaches.

“They are always grateful,” she shared. “I’ve not heard one kid come through the dinner line without saying thank you. They come back for seconds.”

The concept of Team Moms began a few years before McCorkle’s time. At its start, the Team Mom program consisted of a single person, who would get help from other parents as needed.

As the needs grew within the football program, so did the need for additional support from the team’s parents. To accommodate the growth, Knowles began his new system of assigning smaller groups within the team, placing a Team Mom at the head of each group.

Now, with 10 to 12 kids per sub team, the football program totals 60 JV and Varsity players, and 50 freshman players.

Including the coaches, the Team Moms feed 70 to 75 people every day throughout the season, and that doesn’t include the daily snacks provided. On practice and game days, players are provided energizing snacks like fruit cups, yogurt, bananas, trail mix and granola bars.

Spending mealtimes together promotes more than keeping the players nourished and energized. It promotes a sense of togetherness, a camaraderie amongst players that doesn’t stop with the students. The same sense of belonging translates to the moms themselves.

“There’s lot of bonding between the moms,” McCorkle shared. “We do coffee and lunch together. After the last football program was over, we went and had a spa day.”

The time spent enjoying each other’s company is an added reward from all that the Team Moms do for their players.

“I just think if you’ve done it for several years, at the end of the last year you’ve developed some great relationships,” McCorkle said, reflecting on her time with the group as she enters her last season as a Team Mom.

Experienced Team Moms do their best to include and guide freshman moms throughout the season, helping them prepare to take over the program as their players get older. The support continues even after their time with the team. “Last year’s head Team Mom always comes back to help,” McCorkle said. Last season’s Senior Mom, Sylvia Kappen, returned this season to assist with some of the cooking.

“This year, the program is so organized and so well run,” McCorkle shared, proud to work among so many fellow team parents, along with the supportive coaching staff.

McCorkle calls watching her grandson enter his senior year “bittersweet.” She looks forward to the memories that will be made this year, simply from “getting the girls together every day.”

Friendly chatter is a constant amongst the moms. As much time as they spend together throughout the season, from summer fundraising to cooking together, attending games, and everything in between, their camaraderie only grows.

The group of Team Moms stays in constant communication using the Band app, an app that allows sports organizations to create a channel to talk amongst themselves. In the midst of a busy football season, communication is key for coordinating everything they do for the team.

When asked what she’s most looking forward to in the upcoming season, McCorkle draws on a specific memory. “Seeing the kids walk out from the locker rooms, through the balloons,” she said. “When they come through the stadium from the locker rooms, they march in single file. It’s a pretty awesome sight.”

The love Team Moms have for their players is undeniable. Aside from their own time, money and resources donated to their kids, the moms are a source of unconditional support within the football program. As the first game of the season approaches, they look forward to soaking the strong sense of community that comes with cheering on the Bulldogs.

This

Missi Balison Years Brooke Blagrove Anna Butler Heather ChapmanTeam Sara Garrison Moms

Hollie Hurst

Vali Johansen

Carolyn McCorkle

Chris Newhart

Sandra Sherrill Darcey Smith

Jenny Straub

Charis Uzabel

Sylvia Kappen (Graduate mom)