Y
ou won’t find thousands of cheering fans
at a volleyball game at any high school
in central Illinois. The girls on the team
don’t crash through a paper breakaway banner
before each contest.
A few hundred might show for a girl’s bas-
ketball game, if the team is good or has a star
player of potential future pro caliber.
Those are just the facts, ma’am. Girls’ sports
have come a long way in recent decades, but
they still have a long way to go before they
draw the same kind of fanaticism the boys do at
football or basketball games.
That does not, however, mean they should be
treated different when it comes to getting help
from their schools or from booster clubs estab-
lished by parents and others who want to help
sports programs make up shortfalls in school
budgets.
So says Donna Williams, in her second year
as president of the East Peoria Athletic Boosters
Club. After she came on board five years ago
she began to realize the girls’ sports programs
at East Peoria High School were not getting the
same benefits from the boosters club as the boys
teams.
It was not, she said, an intentional slight.
Rather, “I just don’t think the girls coaches were
made aware of how we could help them. When
I took over as president I said that was going
to be my thing, to make sure everybody, all the
programs, were treated equally.
“
I do not for one minute think they were
being slighted because somebody didn’t think
they were as important. They just needed to
be told to come to us when they had needs we
could help them meet,” said Williams.
A social worker in Peoria, Williams said she
is aware many students can’t afford their own
equipment when the school is unable to provide
what they need. “It shouldn’t be up to them to
have to buy their equipment,” she said.
Just in the past year, the EPABC has helped
girls’ sports programs buy equipment they
needed to ensure they were meeting Illinois
High School Association requirements, such as
certain track equipment. The boosters also have
helped teams with uniform purchases.
“
All we did was make sure we were at the
coaches’ meeting so we could tell all the coaches
to use us. That’s what we’re here for,” Williams
said.
The EPABC has two major fundraisers each
year, a dinner in the spring that includes a
silent auction and raffle, and a golf outing each
August. It also runs the concessions at sporting
events, including the well-equipped conces-
sion stand at the high school football and track
stadium at Eastside Center.
“
Just because the girls’ games don’t draw
near the same size crowd doesn’t mean they
should get their fair share. So money we raise
at the various events are shared with all the
programs,” Williams said.
THE PRESENT
GIRLS SPORTS SEEING GROWTH
IN PARTICIPANTS AND BOOSTERS
PAUL GORDON
22
THEPEORIAN.COM
