Sports Columnist

The Charles Henderson High School Sports Boosters wants you!

The CHHS Sports Booster Club is busy getting ready for the 2001-2002 sports season and encourages all Trojan supporters to jump on their team with them.

Right now, the CHHS Sports Booster Club is looking for people that have a keen interest in Trojan Athletics to join their organization.

The family membership is only $125 per year and entitles you and your family to free admission to all CHHS athletic events for the school year.

All you have to do is look at the successful athletic programs across Alabama and they all have outstanding support groups like booster clubs. Without this kind of support an athletic program does not have the money or manpower to be successful.

CHHS has a proud history in athletics. Back when I was involved in athletics at CHHS, the Troy Quarterback Club had close to 300 members. The program was in great shape financially. I can remember on two different occasions when the Quarterback Club rewarded our football teams with trips to Miami for the Orange Bowl in 1965 and the 1970 Sugar Bowl in New Orleans.

Back then people like Harry Baker, John Teal, Louis Corley, Russell Gibson, Dr. Jesse Hall Colley, Harold Roney, Billy Carroll, Sam Green, "Bulldog" Railey, and Bill Beck and many others, were very instrumental in helping our athletic programs be successful. A coach’s best friends are the booster club members. They help him be successful.

In the old days of the 50s, 60s and 70s, if you were a member of the Quarterback Club, you had to work in the concession stands, either at the high school or college games. They made most of their money from working the concession stands and selling game programs.

The had weekly meetings during football season and hosted the annual football banquet at the end of each season with a big name speaker. Prominent college coaches such as Georgia head football coach Wally Butts, Auburn head coach Ralph "Shug" Jordan and Alabama legend Paul "Bear" Bryant, were some of the speakers at these annual events.

To be a member of the Troy Quarterback Club meant you were making a commitment to the high school sports program.

Today’s CHHS Booster Club has the same kind of dedicated people who work to enhance the quality of Trojan athletic programs for both boys and girls.

Now days there’s so many more programs to support and the cost is much more. The present booster club might lack the membership that the old Quarterback Club used to have, but definitely not the effort. In fact the CHHS Booster Club today actually raises more money then the old clubs did without having to man the concession stands.

Today’s booster club gets most of its revenue from game program ad sales. Game programs today have over 50 pages compared to the 60s programs that had only five or six pages. The booster club also generates revenue from program sales, baseball billboards and a $5000 raffle in the spring.

Back in the 60s, there were only five sports at CHHS. Now there are 12 different sports not including varsity and junior varsity cheerleading.

Only three of these sports teams create revenue. The rest are funded by the school with assistance from the booster club. When I played football, basketball and baseball at CHHS we dressed in the same locker room that the boys do today. Back in 1964 we dressed around 40 players for football and it was cramped. Today, CHHS dresses over 70 players for each game and what used to be individual lockers are now shared by two people.

The girl’s athletic programs have to dress in the old P.E. building, which is inadequate for a 5A school.

What I’m building up to is that Charles Henderson High School desperately needs a field house. This facility could provide dressing ares for most of the athletic programs, a new weightlifting room for all sports, and meeting and training rooms. You would be amazed if you saw how cramped the coaches offices are at CHHS.

Look around! Pike County High School has a new fieldhouse, Goshen has a nice fieldhouse and most every school on the Trojans’ 2001 schedule have fieldhouses, either adjacent to their stadium or practice field. At CHHS a football and baseball player has to walk a half a mile downhill to a practice field.

The athletic facilities at CHHS should not be below the standards of any high school in this state, but they are.

The school alma mater calls it a "gem upon a hill" and it is; with one big exception, and that’s a decent place for its athletes to dress.

By joining the CHHS Booster Club, we as a group can address these deficiencies. We can put together a plan and with a lot of people’s help, build an athletic fieldhouse on the CHHS campus.

You can help make a difference by giving your support to the CHHS Booster Club. Mr. Lyle Wise, president of the club, encourages all Trojan fans to drop by the CHHS cafeteria on Monday night, July 23, or Tuesday night, July 24 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and purchase your family membership cards. Each family member will receive a laminated membership card that will give them free entrance to all five CHHS home football games. The family membership also entitles its members to sit in the upper deck, chair-back seats. The card will also be accepted at all CHHS basketball and baseball games.

So get ready to support the Trojans this fall by joining the CHHS Sports Booster Club.

Hope to see you at the games!