With 155 students on this year’s track and field team, adequate funding is paramount. After district budget cuts in 2024 caused a major loss in funding for extracurriculars, the need for external funding to support the program was more necessary than ever, which led a group of parents to form the Track and Field Booster Club that year.
“The IHS Track & Field Booster Club supports the team by fundraising for uniforms, equipment and travel, organizing volunteers for meets and providing snacks and hydration,” booster club president Bryanne Wotherspoon (she/her), said.
Along with the vice president, treasurer, secretary, volunteer coordinator and three other board members, she leads the boosters in securing the resources that athletes and coaches need to succeed. The track team receives money from NSD and ASB in the form of grants, student-led fundraisers and fund allocation, but Vesely said that most of the allotted money goes towards stipends for coaches, so the track team receives a variable and limited amount.
“The district only allots X amount of money for coaches in each sport,” Vesely said. “Track is such a big program. We have 11 coaches; the district only has a stipend for six of them, so our boosters raise money to help pay some coaches, so it’s really important.”
ASB must pay for all track-related purchases, but the Track Boosters raise additional funds through parent-led activities which can include auctions, pre-meet potlucks and fundraisers through Snap! Raise — a digital platform that allows teams to raise money through contacting friends and family.
The boosters then add those funds into the ASB budget. Because the money is raised independently by parents, fundraisers do not need to be approved by ASB, and the boosters can donate their funds to the general account. This allows ASB to purchase new equipment that the school wouldn’t have otherwise been able to fund.
“What (the boosters) do is they bring in that money, and then they donate to the ASB fund for track and field, and then they can specify what that money is for,” Athletic Director Kealey Stanich (she/her) said.
As athletic director, Stanich oversees the purchases and administrative operations of every school sport. She said that working through the boosters is beneficial for insurance
purposes as well, because all things that are bought through ASB are covered by Inglemoor’s insurance, which means the booster efforts won’t go to waste in the event of theft or catastrophe.
Wotherspoon outlined several ways in which the booster program impacts the team outside of financial support. They engage the community with a bi-weekly newsletter to encourage parents, local businesses and alumni to foster support and pride, which also helps garner volunteers for meets. Finally, as a group of parents, she said their greatest priority is keeping morale high for their children as they spend their spring running and throwing on the track.
“It just makes a better program,” Vesely said when reflecting on how the boosters’ work impacts the team. ”We also just bought 80 new, beautiful rain jackets that we didn’t have. So now we get to go into these big track meets looking like a team. And that instills pride.”
