RADFORD, Va. – Another fall athletic season begins at Radford High.
Coach Michael Crist and the Bobcats’ football team get to work on the field, while the Radford Athletic Boosters Club is running a “year-round” playbook of their own.
For more than 50 years, they’ve worked to ensure the Bobcats have what they need to put their best paw forward.
“Safety comes first. We need a wrestling mat, cheer mat, helmet and shoulder pads. Those are kind of top of the list. We have to take care of the ‘Cats--Bobcats! and then it comes down to when was the last time they asked for something? Like, the volleyball team, for example, hasn’t had new jerseys in five years. Kind of puts them up the list. But like golf bags to help with state rings, to all kinds of things. We help fund scholarships, we do all kinds of things for them, Radford Athletic Boosters Club President Andrew Waff said.
Radford attacks many of their athletic needs with a three-prong financial approach.
“Oftentimes, we end up working as a type of partnership, our teams to fundraising so they may pay somewhere around a third, I may as the athletic department pick up the third and the booster club may be able to pick up the third. We often try to try to do that to make everyone a part of the process,” Greg Wade, Radford High School Athletic Director, explained.
This all-volunteer Booster organization is exactly that: organized.
They have taken the steps to be a section 501C-3 non-profit, allowing for tax-deductible donations.
Working year-round on corporate sponsorships, and events like an annual golf tournament and permanent recognitions like the ‘Brick Garden’ at the stadium.
The Radford Booster Club works to lift the burden that might fall back on parents--if they didn’t exist.
“It would be a horrible situation. They’ve been such a big partnership. They are such a big partnership, you have to think about it. That would be a third of the money that we take in, in some capacity -- gone,” Wade says.
“You do it for pride, the love. One of your kids goes here, you went here, you know alumni here or you’re just part of the community- and that’s what it’s all about. Take care of the kids, take care of the community and we’re all on one team.”
And that team has a win before the season ever begins.
Radford’s 17th Annual Booster Club fundraiser golf tournament is set for Sept. 28 at Draper Valley golf club.