In the athletic scene of Altoona’s high school sports, there is a hidden part that not as many people know about. The Big “A” Booster club is a non-profit organization filled with parents, coaches, teachers and community members who raise money to support the 23 varsity and junior varsity sports in the school district.
All the money raised by The Big “A” goes to the sports teams to pay for the necessary equipment and training tools. President of the club, Jim Buchanan, says the equipment is all things that stay at the athletic training facilities to help students train and prepare for games and meets.
“We just purchased warm up jerseys for both the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams. Those stay at the school. We also purchased equipment for the swim teams; those stay at the school,” Buchanan said.
Junior Mark Harrington, is a three sport athlete and appreciates the work the Big A does for the sports at Altoona.
“They get us the equipment that we need. Without it none of us would perform as well as we do. They also give us clothes like the warm ups we just got. Everything they do for us we benefit from so I definitely appreciate their work,” Harrington said.
The Big “A” also uses the money to replace outdated equipment or tools.
“We are in the process right now of purchasing new chairs for the gym floor. Some of them are old and need to be replaced,” Buchanan said.
Every school houses its unique booster club, each operating with its different methods and objectives. The Big “A “is strictly Altoona’s booster club.
“Every school has one, but they operate differently. For our school, Big “A” booster covers all 23 varsity sports. For instance, in Hollidaysburg they have their own Booster Club for every individual sport. So basketball has a booster club, football has a booster club and so on and so forth. We cover 23 varsity sports,” Buchanan said.
The club is made of approximately 200 to 250 members. These are all people in the community who want to support the athletic program. Anyone who wants to can fill out the application at Big “A” Booster Club.
“It’s a mix of different people. Some of our coaches are members. We have parents that are members, we have teachers that are members and we have just individual people just around the community that don’t have anything to do with sports, but they just want to sponsor the sports program,” Buchanan said.
The Boosters help student athletes in their sports, but they also help them in school. There is a scholarship called the Big A Booster Scholarship that is available every year. This scholarship can be given to any student who is a member themselves or has a parent or guardian who is a member. Applications can be picked up at the guidance office.
“There’s a scholarship committee that sits down, and we review the scholarship applications. Then we go ahead and we interview the students to decide,” Buchanan said.
People in the community also have the chance to volunteer to help out instead of donating. Things like selling 50/50 tickets and working concession stands are ways to volunteer.
“We’re running a 50/50 for all home football games, and we’re interested in starting to get into 50/50 for the track meets. We also run a concession stand in the Fieldhouse, where the basketball games, the wrestling tournaments, the Districts, the Regionals and there’s also one called the P.J.W, which is the Pennsylvania Junior wrestlers, which is held on a Sunday. So we opened the concession stand for that,” Buchanan said.
Even though they have around 250 people, they are always looking for more volunteers and members.
“We have a lot of members, but we are always looking for volunteers. For a wrestling tournament it takes an average of 10 volunteers to run a concession stand. We are looking for people to help us there,” Buchanan said.
Some of the student-athletes also help do some volunteer work. During games and tournaments, some of the athletes work the concession to help out the boosters.
“We had some track and field athletes help us over the past few weekends at the wrestling events. We also had some of the coaches come in and help us too,” Buchanan said.
One of the athletes who helped run the concession stand, sophomore Roan Greaser, says he appreciates the booster club’s work.
“I helped in the concession stand at a wrestling tournament. It’s an easy way for us to help the boosters. They do so much for us through our athletic careers to help us, so we can help them,” Greaser said.
The Big “A” has made many purchases and continues to run events to help build the success of student athletes and hopes to continue to do much more.
“My goal for the booster is to enhance the Big “A” Booter membership. We want to do that by running the concession stand for different events. We can put out more money to the teams to purchase equipment that they need to make our teams more competitive. I’m all about sports, my whole family is all about sports and so is everyone involved in the Big “A”. All we hope to do is help teams get better and help develop the junior varsity teams so that when they become varsity level sports athletes they are prepared,” Buchanan said.
