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     Shorecrest is an institution known not only for its academic prestige, but also for its athletic programs. Since Anthony McCall became Athletic Director in 2018, the performances of many teams at Shorecrest have soared. One of the most prominent examples is the varsity football team, winning four consecutive state championships from 2021 to 2024.

     While the school’s athletic programs have had much success, one question continues to circulate amongst students: who financially supports these athletic programs? For some schools, the answer is booster clubs. 

     Booster clubs, at least at the collegiate level, raise funds for an athletic program, which can be used for facility upgrades, player scholarships, and equipment. The clubs usually comprise alumni, parents of student-athletes, and fans passionate about supporting their local team. Customarily, parents and alumni operate the club, so booster clubs are technically separate organizations from the school, although they represent their respective school’s athletic department. The school’s athletic director oversees the club but doesn’t operate it directly.

     Shorecrest used to have a booster club, according to CFO & COO Lisa Wylie. She said it was “a separate organization, but it wasn’t truly separate. We’re all under one tax ID. It’s no different than any other department within the school. So [the boosters] had volunteers that did fundraising, but it was always the school’s money.”

     Prior to 2015, Shorecrest had two organizations that were under the same tax ID as the school itself. One was called the Shorecrest Parent Association (SPA), and the other was the booster club itself, which Director of Advancement Michael Gillis said was made up of “mostly parents,” who fundraised the money they would then spend on athletics. 

     In 2015, the SPA was renamed the Shorecrest Community Association (SCA). Despite the name change, nothing the organization did previously changed. The newly-named SCA was still a mostly volunteer organization, but they still did a little bit of fundraising. 

     On the other hand, the booster club still operated past 2015 until a few months into McCall’s tenure as Athletic Director, towards the end of 2018 when, according to Wylie and Gillis, the club dissolved due to a lack of interest. 

     That leaves the SCA as the sole organization remaining of the two that previously existed, and SCA hasn’t changed since 2015, or further previously when it was known as the SPA.

     Now, some of the fundraised money and grants that Shorecrest receives go to the Shorecrest Fund, which is one of the school’s giving priorities. Other funds go towards the endowment, scholarships, or other funds restricted for a specific purpose, like athletics. “We want to make sure that whatever fundraising or things that are going on are in alignment with the school’s overall priorities,” said Wylie.

     Currently, Shorecrest continues to accept outside sponsors for athletics, like Oman Construction.

     While Shorecrest doesn’t currently have an official booster club, families of student-athletes frequently donate to the Athletics Department.

     Sophomore Ryan Worman, whose parents are also boosters for the University of Florida (UF), said, “I feel like [as a school] we’re more focused on academics, but there’s definitely a lot of parents out there that donate money [to the Athletics Department]. For the last few years for football, it’s been parents paying for [our championship] rings. I wouldn’t call them boosters, but I’d definitely say they donate a good amount to athletics.”

     During the football team’s awards ceremony on April 23, McCall thanked two families for their donations of this year’s championship rings and plaques. 

     However, some students still feel that having a traditional booster program would be a good idea for Shorecrest, despite the fact that, in recent years, the school has poured millions of dollars into athletics, with the most notable investment being the Centennial Stadium Project which included the turf field, a new track, and a new scoreboard. “I believe Shorecrest would benefit from a booster club, as our facilities could improve greatly and our athletic teams would possibly perform better as well,” said freshman Sonny Dua. “Boosters can provide more money for Shorecrest to make [the school] an athletic powerhouse in Tampa Bay.”

Although it may seem that parents have gotten less involved in supporting Shorecrest over the years, Gillis noted that wasn’t the case. He said, “We believe we should be thanking our families for being here more often than we ask them for money. But when we do, we’ve been lucky to know that Shorecrest is a generous community.”