While Bromfield’s boys and girls soccer teams focus on game plans during the postseason, their coaches, parents, and supporters have another goal in mind—raising enough money to fund practice fields.
Turf field rentals, which are essential to the teams’ postseason success, can cost an average of $100 per hour. Since the Bromfield School’s budget does not cover every aspect of its soccer program, coaches and parents have traditionally funded these team necessities.
Three years ago, Friends of Harvard Soccer, a 501(c)(3) organization, established fundraising campaigns to support the boys varsity team. Their most successful fundraisers have been the summer soccer clinic, SAVERS clothing drives, and a winter restaurant takeout night. A year later, the organization provided the same assistance to the girls varsity team.
“Anything that the coaches say they need, they put together a wishlist at the beginning of the season and we fund it through different fundraisers all year long,” said Katie Berg, who is serving her first term as president of FOHS. Other means of fundraising include a cornhole tournament, beach towel sales, bake sales, and flea market tables. “We’d love to get these kids some trophies and bring awareness to the school and to the program, but it’s difficult when they don’t have the money to practice.”
Among the requests and needs not covered by the school’s budget are team warmups, ball bags, soccer balls, end-of-season banquets, and entry fees to the preseason Groton Jamboree. Turf field rentals can cost up to $175 per hour if lights are needed, and the boys and girls teams together may use these fields for over 10 hours per week. For each team, these requests can cost up to $4,000 per season, which placed a financial burden on parents before the efforts of FOHS.
On Saturday, Nov. 6, FOHS will be at the Transfer Station and is “going to be raising awareness about this issue and asking for donations,” said Berg. While FOHS will be there only from 8 a.m. to noon, the Bromfield boys coach will be taking Venmo donations @Alexhorne2.
