The Arcadia High School football booster club is the team behind the team.

“Our role as the booster club is to facilitate a great environment where the coaches are able to coach and mentor our boys without having to put too much thought into everything else that goes into running a football program,” club president Matthew Richardson said.

The booster club, a collection of Arcadia families, alumni, and business sponsors, brings in between $75,000 to $100,000 a year for the football program. The club is in charge of all the fundraising, uniform purchases, snack bar operations, stadium maintenance, football summer camp, and game day meals for the team each season.

“Every cent of that money goes back to the boys and their athletic experience, making sure that it is safe and that they have everything that they need,” Richardson said.

The booster club, also known as “the voice of the parents,” runs all year, as it holds monthly booster club meetings to keep the community engaged and “foster a sense of collaboration” amongst its partners.

Richardson, a father of three sons who all played football at Arcadia, has volunteered his time and efforts to the booster club for the past five years. He compares himself to the general manager of an NFL football team in “trying to get the parent volunteers all pointed in the right direction, get some fundraising going, keep everyone on track, and create a great community atmosphere.”

“A lot of us who own our own businesses brought some of those philosophies and expertise into the program to try and change the culture and make Arcadia football a source of pride for our local community,” Richardson said.

As the owner of a Chick-fil-A franchise in Phoenix, Richardson has translated his own entrepreneurial skills into the renovation of the Arcadia football stadium snack bar. Prior to Richardson’s leadership, the snack bar made “maybe only a couple hundred bucks a year.” Now, the snack bar brings in $10,000 to $30,000 a year for the booster club.

The partnerships that the booster club has with the local Phoenix businesses not only benefit the football team but also the community. Through their sponsorship program, the booster club publicizes these businesses year-round on social media, in-game advertisements, and banners on the stadium.

“All the restaurants and all the sponsors that we have are in our local region, and so I think it’s imperative that we support them just as they’re supporting us,” Arcadia athletic director Shawn Gatson said.

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the booster club has struggled to do business as usual. With the snack bar closed at all football games and their annual fundraisers canceled due to the restrictions on social gatherings, families have stepped up to help out the club.

“Donations from the families have really gone up considerably, so they are really investing into the program, and I think they see the value of it,” Richardson said.

In previous years, the booster club has partnered with restaurants to feed the football team through meal sponsorships. However, with the restaurant industry hit hard by the financial losses of the pandemic, the booster club itself has had to provide most of the meals this season.

“Football brings people together, especially in the Arcadia neighborhood which is really just a unique neighborhood in the middle of the city,” Richardson said. “It really can bring everyone together and give everyone a common theme to talk about, get excited about, and we think that’s of great value.”

Despite the recent progress of the booster club, Arcadia High School has struggled to find stability within its administration during the past five years, an obstacle that has  challenged the booster club.

“Trust building is everything in these relationships and you just can’t do that when you’re having a revolving door of principals and athletic directors,” club board advisor Jon Hunter said. “We’re on our third athletic director, our third principal, and our fourth coach [within the past six years].”

The booster club has made it a point to understand and support the “vision” of new head coaches that take over the football team. With new head coach Vance Miller coming in during the pandemic, the booster club was able to fulfill Miller’s request for new safety tackling equipment. This new equipment allowed the team to replicate some of the player-on-player tackling drills in practice at the start of the season that it could not execute due to close-contact safety protocols.

One of the major focal points for the booster club has been the renovation of the football fieldhouse. According to Hunter, the renovation process has been a “three-year debacle” in trying to get the fieldhouse up to “normal standards of cleanliness and hygiene.”

“We are currently working with our district and are moving forward on renovating our fieldhouse,” Gatson said. “We’re anticipating the fieldhouse to be done and completed by the end of this school year.”

Beyond the fieldhouse, pregame meals, and fundraisers, the football club has one main objective: to make a positive impact on Titan student-athletes and the Arcadia community.

“It’s all about legacy, it’s all about taking a stand,” Hunter said. “We all could’ve gone to Saguaro, we all could’ve gone to Chaparral, we all could’ve taken the easier route. The motivation to me is watching the looks in the eyes of those kids. Putting your fingerprints on something and saying you did your part is worth more money than people could ever pay you.”

The Titans finished their 2020 season on Nov. 20 in a 41-12 loss against Combs.