The East Central Football Foundation has been working for the past three months to improve facilities for the football program. In that time, they’ve provided a new 800-pound capacity ice machine and 20 lockers for the program – ahead of their intended scheduled.
According to Lenn Wall, President of the East Central Football Foundation, the group’s mission is to ensure the coaches and student athletes have the resources they need to compete at the highest level.
Coming off of the success of last year’s football season, the group got together to form a foundation to ensure that the football program is an attractive coaching destination through facility improvements and coaching supplements.
Wall said they work in conjunction with the booster club and have seen support from the EC athletic director. With the addition of community support, things have taken off a little bit quicker than they anticipated. He credited this to the football team’s trip to the state championship last season.
“It’s the perfect time to do something like this,” he said. “People are very interested in getting involved and supporting the foundation financially too.”
To continue to raise funds, the group plans to host a couple of large fundraisers and pursue corporate sponsorships. Being a part of the Jackson County School District also allows the school to benefit from some matching programs, helping them do more with less.
“We’re not asking for people’s time so much as just for them to get the word out and to sign up as members and allow those funds to really go to the facilities and the coaches,” Wall said.
Since the group has marked off some initial items from Head Coach Seth Smith’s list, they are now looking to future projects. They have a few ideas in mind including possibly air conditioning the field house, getting new weights, or updating the football field fencing.
Wall said that the group is focused on improvements for the program in large part because of the coach and coaching staff. “I think everybody would agree we have a coach, a leader, who is a once in a lifetime find for a school,” he said. “We have a once in a lifetime opportunity, so we want to do our best to keep that.”
Wall said that the group is focused on football – rather than being an athletic foundation – so that they can concentrate their efforts on their largest revenue producing program. In turn, they hope this will allow for the football team to be even more successful, which will then benefit all other EC athletic programs long-term.
The East Central Football Foundation is a nonprofit 501c3, so donations are tax deductible. You can find more information about them on their Facebook page.
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