Saints players, parents, families, alumni and fans:
We pray that all of you are well during these turbulent times. Plans continue for a Saints 2020 football season and unless we hear otherwise, we have seven games scheduled with the hopes of finding one or two more to round out the season. As it stands, we will plan to begin practices the first week of August, as usual.
Of course, with all of the uncertainty of our world, we place our trust in God’s divine providence to lead the team where He calls us.
We have interest from numerous returning players and have had several others reach out to us to inquire as to the status of the season. As has been our goal in past years, we hope for a team of at least 25 players, so please continue to spread the word of our team, league and ministry.
As most of you will recall, at the November banquet we set an aggressive $10,000 fundraising goal for the purchase of new helmets and to expand our game jersey sets, as well as to fill in with some additional equipment. Our GoFundMe page was circulated by a few and so far we have raised approximately $800 toward our goal. As we had indicated, we must have new helmets this year and so we have no choice but to raise the funds before the start of the season. Coach Parrish is considering a mid-priced helmet that scored well in the Virginia Tech University testing. We are still looking into pricing, but we expect the helmets will cost approximately $240-$250 each.
After much discussion, we have decided on the following formula for financing our 2020 campaign:
Returning players: $300 player fee, plus a $150 fundraising commitment that must be paid in full prior to the first day of practice.
New players: $350 player fee, plus a $150 fundraising commitment that must be paid in full prior to the first day of practice.
If you wish to purchase your own helmet (must be the model approved by the team), the fundraising commitment will be reduced to $50 for 2020.
Should we be unable to have a season due to the challenges we are now facing, we can offer to refund the player fee or apply it to next season.
While we are re-introducing the fundraising commitment after several years of trying to keep our player fees as low as possible, even these fees will not cover the total cost of the minimum equipment needed. Team leadership has decided to draw down more than one-half of the reserve fund that we have built over the past ten years. Given expenses that need to be paid in the off season, we don’t believe that it is financially prudent to reduce this reserve any further or risk not having the ability to properly pay our bills on time.
These fees also contemplate a team of 25 players. With a small team, we won’t have the funds necessary to meet our needs, so pray hard and spread the word.
While we will not be organizing a formal fundraising program, we know the ingenuity of our players and families. While we are don’t have all the answers, we offer the following ideas for consideration:
1.) Ask your Church to sponsor you for your fundraising goal.
2.) Ask a local business for a sponsorship. We know that these are difficult times for most small businesses, and while we do not have a formal business sponsorship package, we are willing to announce the name of any business that sponsors a player during half time of each of our home games.
3.) Can/bottle collection from neighbors during the pandemic. Many are storing returnable cans and bottles during these times and may like to have them out of their basement or garage. We are considering a team fundraiser using this formula, but individuals could also pick up these returnables and store them until we are able to return them for the deposit, again.
4.) Ask for the sponsorship of family and friends using email or social media.
In other news, our new league website (cal-a.net) is now in operation. Past players and families may have received an email encouraging them to create an account on the new site. As new information becomes available we will continue to try to use the new site for announcements, along with our CALA and Washtenaw Saints FB pages. For the time, we also plan to continue to send emails to our larger email group, consisting of recent and current players, as well as those who have expressed an interest in our program.
In these uncertain times, it seems that there is little within our control. It is a wonderful time to place our trust in God and consider the things we can control — two of which are our attitude and our prayer. As Coach Parrish likes to say, wash your hands frequently and pray more often than that!
Registration will open soon, so keep your eyes and ears open for that announcement!
May God bless you all.
Go Saints!