BOOSTER CLUB UNSUNG HEROES OF ISLAND ATHLETICS
by Steve Sheppard

SPORTS It began about 40 years ago as a way to help a new coach and his

team.

Today, the Nantucket Booster Club is integral to the success of island athletics, lending vital support to all teams. Last year, for instance, the Booster Club donated:

+ $11,000 to hire the steamboat to carry players and fans to the annual Martha's Vineyard football game;

+ $6,000 for new uniforms;

+ $4,500 for team championship jackets;

+ $4,000 in college scholarship money.

This doesn't include money for team motel stays, travel, bus transportation and various supplies.

It also doesn't begin to take into account the hours these volunteers put in. Why do they do it?

For the students, of course.

Club president Jayne Briard's reason for first becoming a member sums up the spirit of the Boosters. She started out by lending a hand with the soccer program but found that "you reach so many more kids with the Boosters." Many Booster Club members, in fact, have stayed involved even after their sons and daughters have graduated. "It's got to be one of the most successful clubs in Massachusetts," said former Nantucket High School athletic director Vito Capizzo. "It's the backbone of island athletics."

Top photo: Elaine Fowler and Brian Coffin. Above: Jayne Briard (left) and Laura Fredericks.

BACK TO THE BEGINNING

"We did it mainly for the movies," recalls Jack Gardner, who's been active in the club since it began in 1965. "We started with my own super 8 camera."

"When I first came here, there were no films," Capizzo notes. "There were more dogs than people at the games."

The idea was that a parent-fan club would help generate interest in high school football and get people involved. Game films would be an invaluable coaching tool, and so the Booster Club was organized to spark support in the foundering football team. Mary Glidden was the club's first president; Gardner started taking movies of the games.

"I just volunteered to do it," he recalls. He would continue to take movies for the next 35 years.

In 1965, however, there was no place to process movie film on the island and outside help was enlisted so that the game film could be reviewed within a few days. "When there was an away game," Gardner said, "the State Police used to drop it off in Boston for us." For home games, they'd commandeer a pilot who'd fly the film to Boston where "he'd give it to a taxi driver, who would take it to be processed and get it back to the airport."

The films were an immediate hit. Membership in the club grew as parents and fans attended weekly meetings to review the games. This interest, in turn, attracted players. "We had seventeen kids in 1964," said Capizzo, "eighteen in 1965 and twenty-two by 1966." The Whalers that year went undefeated, and the island's attachment to the team was solidified. With football entrenched as a Nantucket pastime, the Booster Club meeting was the place to be on Tuesday nights.

Current club vice-president Dick Herman has been a member since he moved to the island to teach and coach in 1968. "In those days the Booster

Club was the whole show," he says, "because you got to see the game film. There was no video, no radio coverage. If it had been a good game, there might be 40 to 50 people at the meeting."

An added benefit was Capizzo's running narrative. There were times when the coaching staff saw films for the first time at the Booster Club. "The commentary could be priceless," Herman recalled.

The club doesn't need to take films anymore, and from the start the Boosters were dedicated to all school athletics, but its work today is more far-reaching. In 1965, there were 3 varsity sports to support; today there are 19. At a recent meeting, plans were being made for the upcoming Martha's Vineyard game, including a hospitality room for visiting students and parents, floats and signs for the Homecoming Parade, and volunteer staffing for the 'shack' at the football field. Pretty much all of the extras people take for granted at Nantucket sporting events-the concessions, the programs, the sale of sweatshirts and pennants- are planned for and provided by the Boosters Club.

Preparations for the Vineyard game begin early - very early. "We start at 5 a.m.," Briard says, "blowing up balloons, decorating our float for the Homecoming king and queen, and decorating the parade route from the Steamship Authority to the Rotary to the high school."

One person very likely to be there early is former club president Robin Harvey. Although she served as president for 10 years (as did Drew Arent before her), Harvey is one of those members who stays involved with the club. "I don't know how she does everything she does," Briard said. "She was one of the reasons I joined; I saw what she was doing - and things just got done."

It's been that way with the Boosters Club from the beginning. Whether it's the volunteers who cook linguica and hot dogs at the shack, or those who sell the 50-50 raffle tickets at home games, those who support the Boosters Club are part of a legacy that includes Jane Hardy, Ralph Marble, Vic Ferrantella, Dick Eldridge, Dick Kalman and many, many others, both past and present. "So many people help out," said Briard.

Including Jack Gardner. "He really deserves to be in the hall of fame for what he's contributed," said Capizzo.

Every little bit helps with the club, from ad sales for the football program to the contributions from islanders and island businesses. It's important to reiterate that the club vigorously supports all school sports, so that when you see the banners in the high school gym, or the jackets worn with pride by student athletes, or the annual college scholarships awarded in the name of former Inquirer and Mirror sportswriter Stuart "Scoop" Day, it's all due to the people who give of their time and effort to help.

"The Booster Club has been invaluable," notes current high school athletic director Nancy Larrabee. "If there's unforeseen supplies that need to be purchased, they're right there."

Herman adds: "It's for the kids. We try to do things the school can't do."

So visit the shack during the next home game, or call Cheryl Coffin at the high school office for a sweatshirt. Nantucket's student athletes will be glad you did.

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