Spoofhound boosters bleed and spend green
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Maryville High School girls basketball coach Candace Boeh displays a set of padded folding chairs used by players not on the court during Spoofhound basketball games. The chairs, acquired last year, were purchased with funds provided by the Spoofhound Athletic Boosters.
One thing you can be sure of in “Title Town” is that people are going to show a lot of love for the athletics programs at Maryville High School and Maryville Middle School.
And displays of affection for the hometown teams aren’t just limited to game attendance and enthusiastic cheering from the stands and sidelines. Maryville fans — and especially a dedicated group known as the Spoofhound Athletic Boosters — are noted for backing up their student athletes by digging deep into their wallets.
By the time the spring semester ends, SAB will have raised and spent nearly $60,000 in support of Spoofhound athletics over the past two years, a remarkable sum for a rural county seat with a population of less than 12,000.
Booster club President Tim Catlett said last week that the organization’s financial commitment is not unconnected to the level of success enjoyed by high school and middle school athletes. But he added that the support is also tied to a belief by parents and fans that interscholastic sports play an important role in preparing young people for fulfilling lives after graduation.
Catlett said SAB recognizes that academics should be the top priority for young people, and that participating in athletics is a “privilege.” He added that the group’s goal is to help maintain an athletics program that enhances, rather than detracts from, learning and personal development.
“Athletics can build a lot of skills outside of the academic world,” he said.
That attitude helps explain SAB’s philosophy of supporting all of the athletic opportunities provided at MHS and MMS.
The group, Catlett emphasizes, is not just about football.
“It is our goal to support all of the athletic teams and groups in whatever need they may have,” he said.
Over the past two years, booster funds have been used, or will be used, to purchase a portable batting cage and safety screens for baseball and softball, a volleyball net, golf bags, weight room gear, wrestling trophies, track and soccer warm-up suits, new basketball uniforms for the middle school, statistics software for boys and girls basketball, middle school football helmets and jerseys, football headsets, and cheerleading uniforms and cheer mats.
One contribution that illustrates SAB’s all-sports philosophy, Catlett said, is a set of squat trainers for the boys and girls weight rooms at the high school as well as the weight room at the middle school. These devices are designed to enhance safety and improve technique and will be used by students enrolled in advanced fitness classes, which Catlett said means virtually every R-II School District athlete in every sport.
SAB raises funds in a variety of ways, Catlett said, including concession sales, apparel sales, direct donations and dues, and special events like Tri-State Ford Lincoln’s Drive One 4 UR School program.
Each year, Catlett said, Maryville R-II School District Athletic Director Jason Kurz submits a list of needs and requests beyond the scope of the district’s budget for the SAB Board of Directors to consider.
“We have a very hardworking board that dedicates a lot of time both to fundraising and to making these decisions,” Catlett said. “Our primary focus is to provide items outside the district’s budget that will enhance performance or improve safety for all school sports.”
In an effort to keep that focus sharp, SAB recently created a process through which members or groups of members can designate donations or a portion of their dues for use by a particular program.
“If parents want to form a backers group that is sport specific, we now have an avenue so that they can work in conjunction with our group to do that,” Catlett said.
One such organization, the Football Backers, is already in place.
Though such entities concentrate on a single activity, they’re still a part of SAB, which allows donations to remain tax exempt.
While the Spoofhound Athletic Boosters have made significant contributions over the past few years, Catlett said plans are in the works to grow the 100-member organization in an effort to provide even more support for R-II sports programs.
A membership drive will likely be launched sometime in May, and Catlett said he and others have been working to set long-term goals.
“We’d like to identify some of those needs earlier, and we’re working on that,” Catlett said. “Jason does an excellent job of evaluating the needs of the teams and bringing that information to us. It’s just been a good relationship.”
