Andrew Han is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Highland High School for AZPreps365.com

Highland High School’s football booster club raises nearly $150,000 a year through sponsorships, concessions, and fundraisers to cover the necessities and more, President Kerry Schambach said.

The all-volunteer club supports about 150 players and relies on business sponsorships, gold-card sales offering discounts at businesses, email donations and concessions. The money pays for new helmets with impact tracking tech, new jerseys and out-of-state travel while allowing the coaches to focus on football rather than logistics.

“We’d like to raise about $1,000 per player, so roughly $150,000 a year,” Schambach said. “We don’t always hit that number, but we get close.” 

Schambach said a lot of the purchases and opportunities were made possible through the generosity and collaboration of donors. Businesses like Barros and BJs donate full meals along with Smoothie King serving smoothies before every home game. 

Highland football has a tradition of traveling out-of-state to play a game. This trip can be costly due to air travel, meals and housing for every player. But the team is able to continue this with help from their newest sponsor: Mesa Gateway Airport.

Head coach Brock Farrel said the program was able to get helmets made by Riddell embedded with technology that monitors the athletes' hits. 

“If a kid is getting hit too often or too hard in certain places, we would know and adjust the way we tackle or block in things like that,” Farrel said. 

Farrel said it is the same handful of parents who make the program run smoothly, and new parents are always welcomed to lend a helping hand. 

The Hawks are looking to buy a new machine called the velocity training system for their weight room that measures the speed at which players move the bar with weight on it. Farrel said it would make them a more powerful team by changing the way their athletes train.

The Hawks athletic director, Brandon Larson, said schools in the district have had issues in terms of who owns what, so a new policy has been made. 

“Whatever they purchase, it essentially becomes school property," Larson said. "With that being said, we do a great job at communicating and we believe that the booster's job is to support the needs of the program through the coach.

 “So they shouldn’t be going out buying things on their own."

With that being said, whatever the boosters buy has to be accessible to the rest of the school.

Despite the big financial demands of Highlands' program, Schambach said the booster club hopes to keep fundraising rooted in local partnerships and volunteer involvement, with a goal to maintain a program where the coaches can focus on player development. 

“Our number one priority is making sure the boys and coaches have everything they need to run a smooth program,” Schambach said. “The smoother we run, the more they can focus on the coaching and the kids.”