JJ SAYS: Coaches visit Petaluma Rotarians

I had a rare but pleasurable opportunity to attend a meeting of the Rotary Club of Petaluma last week. As a former Rotarian myself, I have a great deal of respect for Rotarians and their “Service Above Self.” They truly do a lot for the community, and the Rotarians’ world-wide outreach is legendary. It’s Rotarians who spearheaded the drive to eliminate polio worldwide.

I rode the coattails of local football coaches Rick Krist (Petaluma), Gary Galloway (St. Vincent) and Trent Herzog (Casa Grande) to the Rotarians’ annual salute to the start of the high school grid season. Each coach brought along a few team leaders. Krist had with him Eric Coats, Justen Santa, Connor Richardson and Dominic Christobal. Herzog brought along Travis Voight, Trevor Naugle, Dylan Korte and Spencer Torkelson. Accompanying Galloway were Nick Murphy, Michael Davis and Eric Riley.

After summarizing their teams and chances for success this season, the coaches fielded a few questions. One inquiring Rotarian wanted to know if a nose guard was a device used to prevent a facial appendage from bleeding.

However, there were some serious discussions prompted by moderator Michael Baddeley.

Responding to a Baddeley question about funding for their programs, the coaches were unanimous in their dislike for the fundraising aspect of their jobs.

“It’s difficult,” Krist said. “There is a lot of money to be raised, and it all falls back on the coaches.”

I’m going to look into this more, but, as I understand it, each sport is responsible for its own financing. Gate receipts from sports that do charge admission, and not all sports do, go into a general athletic fund that is used for the betterment of all athletic programs. Operating costs for everything from buses to officials have to be covered by individual sports, and that includes equipment. You can imagine how costly that is in a sport like football.

Money comes from a participants fee each athlete, no matter what the sport, pays to participate and from fundraising. The bright spot for Petaluma and Casa Grande are active booster clubs that provide fundraising and other volunteer help, in addition to direct contributions, usually for specific items. For example, the Casa Grande Booster Club was primarily responsible for the bleachers on the visitor’s side of the football field. A volunteer group led the fundraising so that Petaluma could have new football helmets a couple of years ago and is continuing that effort through the sale of advertising signs that hang at Steve Ellison Field. Those are just a couple of examples of the aid given by booster clubs or volunteer groups.

But, for the day-to-day expenses, including items that the school district used to pick up such as transportation and officials, each sport has to pay its own way.

“The things schools used to pay for, now we have to pay for,” said Herzog. The Casa program raises money essentially in three ways - through a very lucrative golf tournament, by email solicitation and by the sale of discount cards.

“Fundraising is the toughest part of the job,” says Galloway. “Our players fund-raise like crazy.”

But things are different at St. Vincent, where all students, not just the athletes, fund-raise for the school’s general fund. The sports teams are hampered by lack of a booster club, but Galloway said that efforts currently are underway to form a club.

The coaches also had some interesting things to say about the new tackling rules, player conduct and multiple-sport athletes.

Contact your local Rotarian for more information.

(Contact John Jackson at johnie.jackson@argus-courier.com)