Start a College Football Parent Group

After a less than satisfying experience as the parents in the stands...Psycho Mom and her loving husband started a Football Parent's Booster Group at their kid's school. They had a blast and so did more than 70 other parents! Psycho Mom and Psycho Dad have retired from the college football scene, but the group lives on! Learn how you can start one at your kid's school...

As the parents of a college football player at a Division II school, we were surprised at how much we missed the activity of getting ready for football each week and interacting with other parents. After 10 years of raising two football players, working with other parents in booster clubs throughout middle school and high school, college football was not the great experience for parents that we thought it would be. Each week we would drive three hours to the school for home games and often many more hours to away games. We would go to the bleachers at the stadium, watch the game, yell and cheer and then go home again. The last person we wanted to spend time with after three hours or more in the car was our spouse, but we didn't know anyone else. Don't get me wrong, I love my husband (also known on ebay as Psycho Mom's Shipping Department...) but by the time we'd get to the game, we'd be all talked out. We kept thinking that there MUST be some organization or group activities planned for the parents...after all, we WERE paying at least half of the tuition for our player! We were sure that we'd missed the mailing, not gotten the email, or didn't hear the announcement of the events that we seemed to be missing.

We started to ask other parents if they knew of any activities before or after the game that were for the parents/families of football players.  Well, it appeared that the only activities were for ALL fans, and those were for about one hour before the home games, there would be events sponsored by the local radio station with usually some type of free food handed out. They called this tailgating. We didn't think tailgating was anything like this...

At the Spring Ball game we set up a table and asked parents if they wanted to form a parent's group. Their response was an overwhelming YES! We told these parents that we would be organizing an unsanctioned parent's group and asked them to commit to helping us. We asked for their email addresses and promised to be in touch. Many of them thanked us for taking the lead and promised to  gleefully assist, we promised to contact them in July a few weeks before "Reporting To Football Camp Day".

At Reporting Day we set up a canopy outside the dorm (with the coach's permission) and as parents moved their progeny into the dorm, we introduced ourselves and told them to stop and see us as soon as they were finished and we'd be happy to give them a cool drink and a parent's decal for their car.  Parents came to us wondering what the schedule for the day was, what they could expect next, wondering if their baby would be able to have dinner with them or if life as they knew it had ceased. We told them it had ceased, but if they'd give us a chance, they would start having some cool new friends and lots more fun things to replace that gaping hole in their lives. And, again, we collected their email addresses.

After Reporting Day my husband and I decided to look up possible domain names and think about purchasing a website. When the first name we picked was available, the decision was made. We bought bulldogparents.com and opened a website.  We established the site to provide a place where parents could get and share information, volunteering gigs, travel tips, hotel discounts and photos of the boys and the team that we loved so much. We also placed a page on the site that allowed parents to join our group and our email list.

In the fall we sent emails to all the parents on our email list and sent an email to the players asking them to forward the note to their parents. We reminded people of our very simple goals: To have fun before and after the games AND support the guys on the team. We told parents that we would never ask them for money, but we would ask them to volunteer to help. People were so pleased to have the opportunity to meet other parents that they volunteered for most posted jobs immediately.

By the first game, which was an away game, we had a gathering of parents in the hotel for breakfast. By the second game, at home, we had a tailgating party in the parking lot with 4 sets of parents...by the third game (away) we had 12 sets of parents...and it just kept growing from there.

At each game we would send a gregarious volunteer around the perimeter of the parking lot with peel and stick nametags...asking everyone to put one on. That one thing proved to be the most connecting thing we did...it gave people names to put with faces and made everyone more comfortable as they wandered around and chatted. (Many parents met their son's roommate's parents for the first time in those parking lots.) We also gave out decals to all who came to our party and asked them to place it on their car. These decals were special bulldog decals, but not the officially logo'ed school decal...as we weren't allowed to use that decal for an unsanctioned group. So, our decals served the purpose of announcing to other bulldog parents that we were "in" the group and where ever they saw the decal, they could be sure that friends were gathering nearby.

At each game we also set up our canopy and hung our banner. The canopy was a pop up tent canopy that was purple...because we got it on sale...our school colors were burgundy and gold! Our banner showed all where we were gathering in the parking lot and in the stadium. It also reminded everyone of our website as the address was noted in big letters on the bottom.

Photos were another connecting point for this fledgling group.  One of the moms, a woman with an amazing camera and a professional eye for catching just the right shots, took photos at every event and every game. After each game we would load the photos onto the website. We had two pages on the website reserved for photos--one for the players and another for the parents. The players' photo page was filled with game action shots. The parents' photo page was filled with proud parents with their sweaty post-game player beaming and towering over them! By the end of the first season we had over 2,000 photos on our website.

After game dinners were organized by one of the moms. She called local restaurants and asked them if they could handle a group of 20+ tables with separate checks for each family group. In that first season we ate at three different restaurants and all asked us to return again.

We sold bulldog bracelets to the moms and extra decals to save enough money to pay for the website. Moms loved the beaded bulldog charm bracelets which were purchased for $1 each and sold for $5 each.

At away games we organized blocks of hotel rooms and blocks of seats at the stadiums. This again, gave us opportunities to sit around the pool or the lobby, talk about our kids and plan the next trip.

At the end of the season, our website had experienced more than 5,000 hits. Parents, players, aunts, uncles and grandparents all checked our website for the latest news and the latest photos. Parents who lived too far away to attend the games were very happy to see their guy in action photos on the field.

Our son is no longer playing. We've moved on to other entertainments in our lives, but the BulldogParents group continues. Parents of seniors told us that their only regret was that we waited too long to do this. Parents of the undergrad players promised to carry on with the fun that we'd started. We hear that it is still going and growing. Definitely a lot of work and definitely worth every bit of it!

But now, back to my other life...at PsychoMomRocks: The Store  you will find wall safes, secure rural mailboxes, rear window graphics, and textbooks at bargain prices. Stop by, check it out...cuz soon the bills for this year's tuition will be arriving in the mail and we'd hate for the sweet baby boy to have to get a job....