34
SPORTS
THE CHANDLER ARIZONAN | WWW.CHANDLERNEWS.COM | SEPTEMBER 5, 2021
Sports
Chandler booster clubs hope for ‘normal’ season BY DREW SCHOTT Arizonan Contributor
T
he roles of football booster clubs are numerous – and COVID-19 has made many of them more challenging. Boosters help buy equipment and uniforms, provide transportation and food for camps and seven-on-seven tournaments and plan banquets, senior nights and homecoming events. They also facilitate the game day experience, with roles including the coordination of banners and signs and running the concession stand. Last season, everything was different. And with the 2021 football season in high gear, boosters are hoping to avoid a repeat. “There were reduced numbers,” said Tressa Hanger, president of the Chandler High School boosters. “We had to make sure that parents bought tickets on the app. It was more restricted when we went to away games. We could only have, like, two tickets per player.” At Hamilton High, the booster club could only let in fans with a previously purchased ticket. Basha’s Gridiron Club got players’ families on lists to enter the stadium in light of capacity restrictions. The pandemic forced Chandler High club to raise money in a different way, Fewer
Left: Tressa Hanger, the president of the Chandler football booster club, said the program took a hit in revenue last season due to COVID-19, funds that are used to provide meals for all levels of the program. (Courtesy Corey Cross Photography) Right: Sam Gerardi, the President of the Hamilton High School Gridirion Booster Club, said money the club typically makes from concession sales is split with the band. However, reduced fan attendance in 2020 made it difficult for both clubs to see any impactful revenue. (Courtesy Sam Gerardi) for the varsity, junior varsity and freshman teams. “Whatever we bring in goes right out,” Hanger said. “Everything that we raise goes out and is spent that year. There’s all kinds of stuff to cover.” The booster club at Chandler has
I’d love to see the sponsors getting their money’s “worth from us and I’d like to see the team giving everybody their show that they deserve. ”
–Sam Gerardi
concessions were sold because fewer fans could attend games. Ditto apparel. The Chandler High boosters decided on a discount card fundraiser that enabled parents to sell cards for places like Dairy Queen and local car washes as a way to help benefit the Wolves. The initiatives included funding pregame meals
helped with matters ranging from food for its players to helping the development of the team room and the weight room. Across the Valley, a key source of funding for initiatives are the concession stands at games. Last year, clubs had to account for the lack of revenue from this source.
The normal concessions of water, ice cream, pretzels, candies were limited due to the fluctuating and reduced number of fans at each game. At Hamilton, concession revenue is sent to the band, which suffered financially last year, according to Sam Gerardi, the president of the Hamilton High Gridiron Booster Club. Chandler, which splits the concession revenue with the band, also saw reduced sales. “We did it on a much smaller scale,” Wheaton said. “We plan to be up and running, normal, this year, assuming we don’t get any cutbacks.” The pandemic also created difficulties for businesses that team up with booster clubs as sponsors. Many suffered their own economic setbacks as a result of shutdowns and some could not provide the level of support they had in the past. While the Gridiron Booster Club could not hold its normal in-person gatherings, the community was able to be con-
nected digitally through live streams. Now, booster clubs are hoping to run at full operation. Not all food will be pre-packaged; apparel will be sold; the student section will be flowing with school spirit. Friday night high school football, they hope, will be back to normal. For Hamilton, which made the Open Division Championship, hopes are high for a great season. Adding to success on the gridiron, Gerardi hopes, is a normal gameday that allows the club to operate at its full function. “I’d love to see the sponsors getting their money’s worth from us and I’d like to see the team giving everybody their show that they deserve,” he said. “We have high expectations for them getting to state, so all in all, as a booster goes, we’re really looking for as close to normal as possible with as many fans having the opportunity to watch a really high-end game.”
