When It’s Football, These Women Can Boost With the Best

It’s a wonder they didn’t get up and leave after the first five minutes. Of course, they were probably in shock. No doubt a natural reaction to being told that, as a rookie member of the Garden Grove Football Boosters, your future holds certain responsibilities, like . . .

Figuring out, days before a team breakfast, how you’re going to stuff two 50-pound bags of pancake batter into your freezer. Or having to work the school snack bar so often, you’re stuck with popcorn-scented hair. Or having to raise so much money, people run away screaming the minute you look their way.

And don’t forget--this is all voluntary. You and your weary booster bones don’t get a cent.

Other than that, it’s an awesome deal.

And so went the discussion Thursday night in the Garden Grove High School cafeteria. Although the setting had all the ambience (and air quality) of a laundromat, this booster club’s cast of characters made for an interesting evening nonetheless.

There’s treasurer Judy Snavely. After nine exhausting years working in the Parent-Teacher Assn., Snavely swore off that kind of community involvement. Now, thanks to an invitation from Argonaut Coach Jeff Buenafe, Snavely quit her job as an office manager to work full time on boosters. She’s the lucky one currently storing 100 pounds of pancake batter in her freezer.

There’s Janet Schneider, club secretary. After little success selling game programs last week, she and Snavely decided to throw adulthood to the wind and boogie along with the Argonaut marching band. They danced the Tahitian, banging on imaginary bongos with the unsold programs. Within minutes, they had sold every one. They now bill themselves as the “Tahitian Mommas.”

There’s Cherie Raborn, the club president who apparently has a heart of gold and a vocabulary of blue. Raborn has such a way with words--”Watch it or I’ll rip your lips off!!” is one of the few expressions we can print--Snavely has had to interrupt her in mid-speech more than once. Combine the Tasmanian Devil with actress Kathy Bates, and you’ve got the picture.

Vice presidents Frances Avila and Meria Mendoza, historian Sandee Smith and ways and means chairperson Layla Roberts round out the Argonaut board.

An all-female organization? Just about. At last week’s meeting, there were only two men among the 25 or so boosters present. No one can really explain it, though some guess the other guys just wanted to stay home and shampoo their hair.

In any case, the male-female ratio certainly hasn’t taken any oomph out of the organization. When it comes to fund-raising--or putting together Spirit Week surprise packs, or selling 50-50 tickets, or doing whatever has to be done--these women are more energized than the Eveready Bunny.

And does Buenafe miss the booster men? About as much as he misses the constant criticism and hey-why-doesn’t-my-boy-play-more squawking of a few years ago. Yep, Buenafe says with a smile, it’s a real drag not to be second-guessed after every game.

Not that these women don’t have any concept of football. Asked if any were familiar with the game’s basic rules or strategies, almost all raised their hands.

“You get four tries to get a touchdown!” yelled one.

“If everyone on our side stands up and cheers, I stand up and cheer!” yelled another.

Others weren’t so informed. Point is, when it comes to their football team, these women know how to boost--mentally and fiscally. And with times as tough as they are financially, boosters are an athletic program’s lifeblood. At Garden Grove, millions of dollars away from the affluent areas of the county, that seems doubly so.

During a visit to a Huntington Beach print shop this season, Snavely met a booster from Ocean View High. He told her his school had raised $24,000 in game program advertising. Snavely nearly fainted. The Argonaut program ads yielded only $2,500 this year.

But they do what they can; such as serving the players a home-cooked meal in the school cafeteria the night before every game. This might not seem like a big deal--many local teams eat their team meal at a moderately priced steak joint--but at Garden Grove, Snavely says, the boys really seem to look forward to it. Many are from single-parent homes, or poor, and don’t get a good meal any other way. Last year, Snavely says, a team meal meant a trip to Taco Bell.

Spirits are lifted other ways, too. Raborn makes sure of it. Last week, as the group polished off the last of red, white and blue Jell-O parfaits, Raborn fed them her pep talk:

“Please, boosters, no booing--for either side. And you JV parents! Don’t let your boys come off that field with their chins down! Don’t ask them, ‘Why didn’t you play more?’ Tell them you’re proud of them no matter what.

“Yeah,” Snavely added. “And we’re not here to hear complaints about the coaching staff. That’s not what Boosters is about.”

“Right!” Raborn said. “If you’ve got a gripe, come to us personally. That’s what we’re here for . . . “

Raborn stopped suddenly. She wanted to give some recognition to the booster in the back of the room, the one who spent the meeting quietly cooking, cleaning and scrubbing while everyone else talked football.

As the women cheered, Dave the Cook took a modest bow.