JACKSON TRIBAL COUNCIL HOPES TO BOOST COMMUNITY SPIRIT, CHEER HOME TEAM

When a Jackson Indians team takes the field or court this year -- no matter the sport -- they'll have an ally as important as the home field advantage and a cheering crowd.

After an absence of several years, Jackson school teams again have their own booster club in the Jackson Tribal Council, now in its fourth year of operation.

The organization got a new name and a new start in 1990 after its predecessor, the Jackson Booster Club, died away.

"Years ago, we had a sports booster club," said past president Sam Birk, "but it died out in the late 1980s.

"Kent Gibbs, who is now the football coach at Fredricktown, was the athletic director at Jackson in 1990 when he and Stuart Venable decided to form a new organization with a new name and give it a fresh start."

Venable, Gibbs and another Jackson man, Bob Cramner, formed the Jackson Tribal Council to help bridge the gap between the amount of equipment coaches felt to be necessary for their programs and what the school district could actually afford to provide, said Venable.

For many years, few booster clubs existed at the prep level. Collegiate teams often had a sports booster organization but as rising costs and reduced funding left financially-strapped public school systems wondering which sports to cut first, more and more booster clubs were formed at the prep level. Like the Jackson organization, the booster clubs helped to provide funding for equipment that would otherwise be hard for the school system to provide on its own.

Through a variety of fundraising programs, the reincarnated booster club has been able to provide such things as new uniforms, indoor batting cages and annual scholarships for a male and female athlete.

Fundraising, said current president Wayne Turley, is the Jackson Tribal Council's primary mission.

"We are just here to raise money for all sports," said Turley. "Our main function is fundraising for all sports."

Venable said the first booster club suffered from an unfair public perception that it only provided support to the Jackson Indian football program. He said both the old booster club and tribal council provide funding for all sports, both male and female, and members of the tribal council are careful to point out that fact.

Among the regular fundraising projects undertaken by the tribal council are an annual golf tournament, held several weeks ago at Bent Creek Golf Course; the sale of Jackson Indian T-shirts at sporting events; and the sale of reserved seating at home football games.

Funds are also raised through traditional events such as chili suppers and "50/50" drawings at sporting events.

With the money raised from these events, the council accepts funding requests from Jackson's athletic director based on the requests of coaches in the Jackson athletic program.

"The coaches in each sport go to the athletic director with their requests and the athletic director comes to the boosters with those requests," said Birk. "We've yet to turn anyone down."

Birk said funds have been used in the past to purchase new uniforms and warm-up suits for the girls and boys basketball teams, to fund overnight sports trips, to help provide trophies for annual awards banquets as well as to purchase needed equipment.

"When something is needed, we can provide funds where a lot of districts would have to take a second look and might not be able to provide funding until a later date."

Members of the council say an important goal of the group has been to get the entire community interested in the school sports program.

"We have really tried to promote not just school spirit but community spirit and get the community involved and get that community spirit back," said Birk.

An example of this aim is the club's upcoming "Tailgater Party."

Jackson football fans are invited to gather in the parking lot of the Jackson Multi-Purpose Building prior to the start of the Jackson Indians' home opener against Dexter Sept. 9. The party will begin at 5:30 p.m.

The event is the fourth annual tailgate party for the club. There is no admission charge. T-shirts will be sold to benefit Jackson sports teams.