BOOSTER CLUBS

If they could stick to fundraising, yes! But politics ends up screwing it up, so no.

I would say our booster club is very beneficial - we provide a lot of funds and support to the program. The Booster Club answers to our head coach - not the other way around. I have been an officer for two years and I do not know of any instances where the coach was abused, influenced, bribed, cajoled, etc.

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Originally posted by TRhit:
Are Booster Clubs beneficial at the HS level?

Unless the school budgets a lot more money for baseball than I’m used to seeing, I don’t know how any HS program can get many of the things that make the program “nicer”.

Pitching machines, scoreboards, lights, field groomers, utility vehicles, and other equipment, plus helping with fundraisers for new uniforms, or traveling to tournaments, are often beyond the scope of the HS budget. Unless the school has a “sugar daddy”, I don’t know how many of those things would be possible with a booster club.

Personally, I never joined the Booster club, but I sure supported them with checks for all kinds of things.

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Originally posted by T-Bird Dad:
If they could stick to fundraising, yes! But politics ends up screwing it up, so no.

What percentage of cases would you say politics makes it so bad, the benefits are outweighed by the BS?

I’ve seen the BC go to extremes in both directions at the same school. It seems to be a lot like a low level league, where its very dependent on the people running it.

I was easy to please. As long as i had officials fees transportation to away games I was happy. the nicer things to me was a team that worked hard. dont need a booster club for that

At my son's former HS, the baseball boosters answered to both the baseball coach and the AD...
...there is both the HS Boosters Club and each team has their own organization, along with liaison parents (team moms) that run alot the support mechanism.

i think boosters are the backbone of most hs sports teams. 7 years ago i attended my first meeting,one parent started complaining about the coach. the AD informed us all of our role as boosters, it didn't include organized coach bashing. i have been on the boosters since then. we had a meeting last night and that was the first thing i said. the big thing we do is lunches and drinks for away games.for all three teams ,and anything they need that isn't budgeted. but the goal has to be outlined at the start.

Our booster club at my school is pretty small. They fundraise for all the sports, not sport-specific like most bigger schools will. They have purchased for us over the past several years things like batting cages, a concrete pad for the cages, a few bats, some maintenance items like paint and sod... They have been absolutely unobstrusive and supportive. the coach just fills out a form with a request for funds for a certain project and you either get the money for it, get put on a waiting list, or it gets tossed out... of course football seems to get the lions share but i have been pleased with the way it has gone for us.

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Originally posted by T-Bird Dad:
If they could stick to fundraising, yes! But politics ends up screwing it up, so no.

Ain't that the truth!

Our HS baseball booster club bascially raises the money for everything, has the committees that function to oversee concessions, program/yearbook, any improvements, etc. There is no way we'd have the program we have without the boosters. No HS in my city would. Maybe the schools here don't provide the funding for athletics that some areas do? Boosters are absolutely necessary.

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Originally posted by lafmom:
Maybe the schools here don't provide the funding for athletics that some areas do? Boosters are absolutely necessary.

I’ve seen 2 HS’s that didn’t need a booster club to supplement the baseball program, and both had sponsors that were major casinos. I’m sure there are others out there, but the days of a school district providing funding for baseball programs for everything they want or need are long gone, if they were ever here in the first place.

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both had sponsors that were major casinos.

I don't think that would be allowed here for the public HSs. There's too many of them that they wouldn't be on equal footing. It would take an enormous amount of money to fund all the programs.... especially when you consider Title IX. The boosters already have to make accomodations to report their fundraising and things must be equal between the girls and the guys. How did those baseball teams get around receiving that much money from one sponsor?

I don’t know all the ins and out of what went on. All I know is, the casino’s name was prominently affixed to both stadiums, and I’ve never seen better HS facilities in my life.

There’s a public school out here north of us that pretty much has an economically higher student attending, if you get my drift. When the school was built, they had a pool built too so they could use it for competitions. Unfortunately, no one caught that it was built in yards rather than meters until it was going to be used for some kind of Olympic qualifying and got measured.

No bigee. One of the students was a very good swimmer and his dad, a major developer in the area, gave the school board a blank check to rip out the old(less than a year) one and replace it with not one, but 2 new ones, plus a diving facility! His name is affixed to the diving platform with a bronze plaque.

I don’t know that giving gifts to schools is illegal, and I don’t see why if I want to give my kid’s school the gift of a new million dollar synthetic turf field, I’d also have to give one to the girls SB team, and every school that had baseball and SB in the area.

When my son was in HS, a couple of the dads owned commercial landscaping services. They got approvals from the district and the unions, and took care of out baseball fields as far as mowing, fertilizing, etc.. They didn’t have to go to all of the other schools and do that.

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They got approvals from the district and the unions, and took care of out baseball fields as far as mowing, fertilizing, etc..

Field Maintenance is one of the committees of our booster club. I don't know how much money would be an issue here, but suspect it wouldn't have to be very much before it would cause a problem. One of the things that the gender equity committee (which my daughter is one of three student reps on) is look at the funding for each and every sport. I'll have her ask if there's an actual figure.

An area that has and could have large donations like that would change the complexion of the booster club, that's for sure. I doubt anyone would mind having some big bucks donated and taking the place of all that hard work by many.

lafmom,

There are 2 reasons field maintenance is a problem here. The 1st is the unions. Unions have their place, but sometimes they’re a pain in the posterior! The other problem here is, all of the maintenance is done through a central district location.

So what you end up with, is the gal who mows the athletic fields, mows them at all the schools with the same mower! I’m sure they have more than one, but what really gets ya is, the person mowing isn’t he same person who takes care of the irrigation, and that’s not the same person who takes care of the electrical, yada yada. You get the picture.

So the way it ends up is, everybody gets their fields mowed on a scheduled basis. If something happens to that schedule, like equipment breaks or the worker has to go home, whatever’s scheduled just gets passed over until the next week. Unless someone other than these people did something out there, the fields would look like **** most of the time.

The whole gender thing seems to have gone pretty much nuts. At my kids school, they decided that they would have BCs for every sport that wanted more than the budget offered, and it gets pretty hectic.

The V ball field and the V, JV SB fields are right next to each other, and often there are games going on, on all of them. The BB BC has a snack bar and does barbied burgers, hot dogs and such, but so does the SB BC, and their snack shack by their V field, not 200’ away.

But their BC has always gone a bit farther than hamburgers and hot dogs, and gone for quarter chickens, buffalo wings, milk shakes, etc.. So when the two are playing at the same time, there’s a war going on for business! Personally, I think they should share like they do for the crab feed, but I guess that’s too easy.

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Reply

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At my kids school, they decided that they would have BCs for every sport that wanted more than the budget offered, and it gets pretty hectic.

That's the way it is here with all schools. Again, if it wasn't for each booster club, there would be no budget, no field maintenance, no parent committe to organize the travel, etc. They have to exist.

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Originally posted by lafmom:
Our HS baseball booster club bascially raises the money for everything, has the committees that function to oversee concessions, program/yearbook, any improvements, etc. There is no way we'd have the program we have without the boosters. No HS in my city would. Maybe the schools here don't provide the funding for athletics that some areas do? Boosters are absolutely necessary.

95% of what our boys have, has come from the boosters. The school almost never puts anything into baseball. Most of the athletic budget goes to the basketall and football teams. A new president was voted in last season and, to tell the truth, she isn't much. The boys haven't done any fundraising since June of last year.

It works if you have the support and the people in charge are willing. If not, it won't work.

Booster clubs? I keep a set in each car. I wouldn't travel without them...especially in this type of weather!

Almost all HS baseball programs in Texas are sadly underbudgeted. Thus the need for raising funds. Unfortunately, that can open the door for parents to exert influence via bucks. Doesn't always happen, but still does too often.

Booster clubs should set up by-laws that allow members to be booted. Anyone openly and repeatedly complaining about the coach, AD or anyone else involved in the program should be told to leave. Anyone that feels they have bought influence by contributing money should be asked to leave as well. Every member of the club should have a vote so no one member or officer can control the entire club.

Booster clubs should be run by well meaning mature adults. It's not about your kid. It's not about my kid. It's about the entire team and program. All this is easier said than done but someone needs to stand up when things get out of hand.

All that being said, there are bad coaches and bad ADs. Parents and boosters do have a responsibility to express there concerns to the school district if a coach or AD has crossed the line. By crossing the line I'm not talking about yelling at players, benching players or making a bad decision during a game. I'm talking about things like unsportsmanlike conduct, excessive use of bad language, etc.

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All that being said, there are bad coaches and bad ADs. Parents and boosters do have a responsibility to express there concerns to the school district if a coach or AD has crossed the line. By crossing the line I'm not talking about yelling at players, benching players or making a bad decision during a game. I'm talking about things like unsportsmanlike conduct, excessive use of bad language, etc.

Anyone openly and repeatedly complaining about the coach, AD or anyone else involved in the program should be told to leave.

So the coach makes a bad decision benches the presidents kid loses more than wins that is off limits?

In a perfect world, booster clubs would be there to support the team and help with fund raising. Not to be an forum for individual influence or coach roasting.

But often people in the booster club have their own agenda. So how do you head those type folks "off at the pass" in your local booster club?

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So the coach makes a bad decision benches the presidents kid loses more than wins that is off limits?

Will

As far as I'm concerned, yes, that's off limits for a HS booster club.

1 All coaches make bad decisions from time to time.
2 Maybe the president's kid should be benched.
3 Wins & losses may be a talent problem more than a coaching problem.

Texan,

I don’t know of any state that fully funds baseball to the point where they don’t have to do some kind of fundraising. There’s even beginning to be more and more school districts that charge player to play, and still its not enough. Its just a flat out shame.

The influence doesn’t need to be overt either. Just perceived influence is sometimes all it takes to ruin a program’s integrity, but blatant influence will do it every time. What’s really bad too is, often the person providing the money, service or whatever, isn’t even thinking about influence peddling, but the coach mistakenly sees that as what’s happening, and does something he ordinarily wouldn’t because of it.

What it comes down to is, it’s a very tenuous situation at best.

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The influence doesn’t need to be overt either. Just perceived influence is sometimes all it takes to ruin a program’s integrity, but blatant influence will do it every time.

What would be perceived influence?

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Originally posted by Missouri-BB-Dad:What would be perceived influence?

There are many and varied things that could happen, but how about this one.

Billy in on the JV team and is a darn good 3B who hits the ball well. Joey is the 3B on the V and his dad takes care of scheduling and working the snack bar. Billy’s dad “thinks” he’s a better payer than Joey, even though he’s never seen Joey play very much, and thinks he should be promoted to the V. Pretty soon he’s telling the parents at the JV games that the HVC is letting Joey play only because his dad is a big shot in the BC.

Or how about this one. Joey isn’t very good but is playing 3rd lately, while Tommy, the regular 3B is on the bench. Joey’s dad is the VP of the BC and in charge of the big spring fundraiser, and Tommy’s dad never comes to a game. Pretty soon the rumbling starts and the rumors start to fly, and someone is pounding on the AD’s door, accusing the coach and Joey’s dad of all kinds of things.

After all Hell breaks loose and everything’s beginning to fall apart, suddenly everyone finds out Tommy had contracted a STD and was prohibited from playing by his doctor, and the AD and coach were only trying to be keep everything private to protect Tommy, and the only reason his dad didn’t make it to any games was, he had to work two jobs to keep the family’s head above water.

How that for perceived?

Our county gives us X amount of dollars each year to run our program. Basically it covers the bare essentials. Our Booster Club is very weak and brings in a small amount of money each year. Because of this we started a Dugout Club a few years back. When we have our parent player meeting each year we encourage all the parents to work the concession stand and help their child with fundraising. Because of this we have alot more funds and alot more equiptment etc etc. All the parents are told up front that playing time etc etc is based solely on ability and do not participate in the Dugout Club for any other reason but to help all the kids out and the program. Some help out and some do not. Nothing done outside those lines by anyone has anything to do with what we decide to do between the lines with our players. I dont see what the problem is? If a coach can be influenced by parents , boosters etc etc then he does not need to be a coach in the first place does he?

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So how do you head those type folks "off at the pass" in your local booster club?

You have a coach that is strong. You have an AD that supports his coaches and programs.

Our booster club was made of up all parents. I would say the attendance rate at meetings was at least 90% of the parents. All players had to participate in bingo over the year, selling ads for a program/yearbook, and selling candy in the fall. All parents were expected to come out when projects were being done and were asked to join one of several committees: concession, field, program/yearbook, tournaments, and a few others. The booster club had officers. The officers didn't have to love the coach and he didn't have to love them. However, each had to support the other for the program to be successful.

I can remember sons of several officers getting cut. That didn't buy your son a spot. As a matter of fact, several years back, the incoming president's son was cut. A good coach will do that... no one is a given.

No matter what you say there are always going to be people that help for the sole purpose of trying to gain an edge for their kid. That is a fact. But you learn these things from experience and you learn how to deal with them. I have had people give money to the program and later hear how they were in the community talking trash about the coaches and even players because their son was either on JV or did not play as much as they would like. I even had a dad approach an assistant coach one time after a game his son did not start and tell him "I sold all those raffle tickets and this is the way you treat me"! Its just a fact of life some people do things for the right reasons and some do not. I can understand why some coaches feel the way they do and act the way they do after having to put up with some of the stuff that goes on. Some of you would not believe the kind of stuff that goes on in the back rooms of the school , booster club meetings etc etc. If you have a good AD and support from the administration you can build a strong healthy baseball program and a good baseball booster club. But if you do not you are in big trouble and probaly should go find another coaching job where you do have support to do it right.

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As far as I'm concerned, yes, that's off limits for a HS booster club.

1 All coaches make bad decisions from time to time.
2 Maybe the president's kid should be benched.
3 Wins & losses may be a talent problem more than a coaching problem.

Tell that to the coach who is on the other end of that? You know the one who is the recipient of anonymous letters signed concerned parents. Phone calls. Called in to defend such. Some let go. I was lucky in that regard.I did not have a booster
club. Did not need one. Did not want one. We did
fine. In my old schoold as some might think of it no sense inviting the fox in the hen house.

During my time as a high school baseball parent, the head coach was the head of the booster club. Although we had a president, vice president etc. the head coach was in charge. Maybe his position was unofficial but we all knew it. He stood up at the booster club and spelled out his goals and made suggestions as how could achieve those goals. The booster club would vote by a show of hands on the different projects and as expected, few if any would vote against the coach’s wishes.
The booster club would then appoint project committees and things got done. It was a dictatorship with the coach being the dictator but things were accomplished for the betterment of the baseball team. There was never any preferential treatment for workers or officers of the boosters club because the booster club lacked any real authority. In my opinion if the head coach is a weak organizer and fails to take charge, the booster club develops their own goals and friction starts between the booster club and the coach.
Fungo.

Totally agree Fungo.

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Originally posted by lafmom:

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So how do you head those type folks "off at the pass" in your local booster club?

You have a coach that is strong.

And that is probably the key...

Let me pose a question here?

If the boosters, or lack there of, can't raise the money and the school doesn't have the resources, can a HS program do the same thing most college programs do? And that's to get sponsorship from Nike, Easton, Rawlings, or others.

Seems logical, but could be against the rules in most states, if not all.

The best booster club that I have ever seen has it written into the bylaws that no current team members family could serve on the board of directors. The board of directors was for the most part former players that still lived in the area and wanted to give something back to the program. When it came time for their own sons to become part of the program they would resign their position on the board and become a parent just like everyone else.

WOW , this is hitting home a little bit. I was very weary about Baseball Booster clubs and the possible impact it would have on kids playing time. I have attended the meetings and I also have seen first hand the benefits. The booster club has personally raised enough money to get the kids a new infield and also a new clubhouse. This was through volunteer work and also donations through the booster club. To see the kids working on the fields and painting the new dugouts have been a sight. I have also seen non-booster kids having equal playing time. It's been a blessing thus far and I have seen nothing but positives thus far.

Our HS baseball coach doesn't want a booster club. The HS swim coach has an active booster club that raises money for an out of area trip, presents for the seniors and an annual banquet at no cost to the athletes. The baseball team has none of those things. What a shame.

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Originally posted by Tom R:
Our HS baseball coach doesn't want a booster club. The HS swim coach has an active booster club that raises money for an out of area trip, presents for the seniors and an annual banquet at no cost to the athletes. The baseball team has none of those things. What a shame.

Yes it is a shame, but there’s obviously something in that coach’s past that makes him feel that way. It might be that somewhere along the line he ad a bad experience, or maybe he just believes it’s a bad thing because of things he’s heard.

scorekeeper

It may be very simple--he feels as I do that you do not need booster clubs in many situations---they can be a problem as easy as they can be a plus