Hot dog! Boosters support the football team, and every team

Joe Schrom was in his car before Naperville Central High School’s Class 8A quarterfinal football game Friday at Lyons Twp. when his cellphone “blew up,” he said.

Word spread among Naperville Central Redhawks Booster Club members that the football coaches needed knit hats to wear on the sideline.

Before the 7 p.m. kickoff, coach Mike Ulreich and his staff had new Carhartt stocking caps outfitted with the Redhawks logo.

“They’re very appreciative of everything we do,” said Schrom, in his second year as president of the booster club and his 11th year overall as a booster.

“We all work together. We just try to run in the background,” he said.

Booster clubs are essential supporters of the football program — and of every athletic program at the high school.

At York, which visits Naperville Central for an 8A semifinal football game at 6 p.m. Saturday, first-year York Athletic Boosters President Jeff Proctor heads an operational budget he said is between $150,000 and $200,000.

“It’s a significant operation,” said Proctor, whose booster club services are augmented for Dukes football by another nonprofit fundraising group, Friday Night Families.

The York Athletic Boosters, like the Redhawks Booster Club, work with coaches of all sports to cover “certain requests that fall out of the realm” of district athletic budgets, Proctor said.

On top of renewing York’s annual Hudl video contract and contracting a private athletic fitness company to provide after-school training, Proctor’s short list of programs benefiting this school year by booster club purchases includes wrestling, girls gymnastics, track and field, swimming, competitive dance, cheerleading and girls basketball.

Golf carts are popular; Naperville Central and York booster clubs recently bought several to shuttle people, mainly trainers and officials, across campus.

Because of their parent volunteers, booster clubs are attuned to the pulse of the high school.

“We work with our Rowdies (student fan group) to promote every sport, which is a really great thing at Central. We try to build that community,” said Schrom, a Naperville native.

Their football presence is seen most at the concession stand and with the sale of team athletic apparel, the “spirit wear.”

Once Naperville Central concessions chair Patty Cerny arrives more than three hours before game time, she and her team of unsung heroes start preparations of the approximately 200 hot dogs, 200 pretzels, 30 to 40 pizzas and other snacks offered that night, locally sourced when possible.

Football concessions bring in about $6,000 to $7,000 a night, Schrom said, with spirit wear adding another $2,000 to $3,000.

York’s take during football games, bolstered by banner ads purchased by Elmhurst companies and placed in Clarence D. East Stadium, is in that ballpark.

“They do bring in a good amount of money for the year,” Schrom said of Redhawks Booster’s Friday night proceeds. “Football helps drive some of the budget for the year.”

No doubt. Football being king in Illinois, in 2012 a representative of Wheaton Warrenville South’s Tiger Paws parent association said football proceeds accounted for 60% of club revenues.

Much of the revenue — up to around $35,000 for the Redhawks Boosters, Schrom said — is due to memberships at three price points. A membership includes entrance to any home contest in any sport.

Senior day flowers, seasonal sports kickoffs, York’s Green Scene social event, Naperville Central’s summer golf outing and the $10,000 in senior scholarships Redhawks Boosters provides annually — these and many more events and activities people take as a given are aided or driven by boosters.

Behind the scenes and the sidelines.

“It’s the football team, they deserve all the accolades nowadays,” Schrom said. “We just try to support them.”