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Touchdown Club Scores Big

Kathy Waters/Highlands Today

From left: Tim Schroeder and Dale Grubb, founder of the Sebring Touchdown Club, align chairs in the bleachers last Saturday at Firemen's Field.

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By CHRIS HOFFMAN

Highlands Today

Published: August 16, 2008

SEBRING - Dale Grubb was driving around Wauchula last fall, mulling over a request from parents and coaches about starting a booster club for the Sebring High School football program.

He noticed lawn after lawn displayed "Go Cats" signs in neighborhoods and windows along Main Street had signs supporting the Hardee football team.

At that moment, he knew something similar should be happening in Sebring.

"It was amazing to see such school pride in a small community like Wauchula," Grubb said. "And it wasn't only in Hardee, but down in Arcadia as well.

"The clincher for me was when I was at Beef O'Brady's in Sebring. The waitresses were wearing DeSoto Bulldog jerseys, and I immediately knew that my wife and I had to get involved.

"We wanted to bring back that hometown pride to Sebring."

Dale, along with his wife Lori, set about to tackle the various obstacles and gauge the interest in the community to help support such a booster program in such an economic downslide.

"I talked with Hall of Fame Blue Streak head coach Gary Rapp, whom I respect immensely, head coach Jared Hamlin, and also met with the Firemen to get their blessing. Then we started on laying out projects for the upcoming season."

The Touchdown Club was born.

The Grubbs met with community business leaders and parents to ask for not only monetary support but also volunteers for the various projects on the agenda.

"It was really great to see the support from everyone in the community," Lori said. "This program will not only benefit the football team, but also everyone who uses Firemen's Field."

Anyone who has been inside Firemen's Field the last few weeks has seen the culmination of tireless hours of work by the Touchdown Club and its volunteers, who painted the stadium and installed new chair-backs in the center section of the stadium.

But the added touch to the chair-backs came from Hamlin.

"The chair-backs were all going to be blue, but Coach Hamlin asked me if we could put a huge 'S' in the center in white. We contacted Bleech Chair Company in New York, who was doing the chair backs for us, and they told us they hadn't done anything like that.

"This company has done stadiums at colleges like Alabama and Texas Tech but never put a letter in the stands like the one we were proposing. But it turned out amazing. Bleech Chair was so impressed with the finished product that they're asking for pictures of the section and we found out that we're going to be in their upcoming brochure."

After some extra planning, Hamlin's idea came to fruition as the Super Streaks section came to life in an unveiling on Aug. 9.

The Touchdown Club also sent the Blue Streak players to a football camp at Webber International University and also Camp Quarterback in Jacksonville, which included Dale and Lori's son Matt, who plays quarterback for Sebring.

With all the work he's put in fundraising and organizing, Dale says that his wife has put in even more hours than him to help make this program a success.

"I couldn't have done it without her," Dale said. "She works all the time on the Web site and out spreading the word, not to mention working on the stadium."

"It's become an obsession for me," Lori said. "It doesn't feel like work at all. I love working with the Web site and getting out and helping the kids in any way I can."

Next season, Dale said there's a large addition in the works for the Streaks and their supporters.

"We're going to have a huge color LED screen on the scoreboard that we can put a photo, position and stats for people to see, like they do at the Tampa Bay Rays baseball games," Dale said. "The screen won't have replay ability, but we can show a replay of plays from previous games and prerecorded content."

But aside from all the aesthetic changes to the stadium, the Grubbs say it's still about helping the kids become not only better athletes, but better members of this community.

"You should've seen the look on the player's faces when they saw the chair backs for the first time," Dale said. "They were immediately energized and are so excited about having this kind of support.

"Football cuts across racial lines and brings them into a better environment. We want these kids excited about the season and know what they do and the sacrifices they've made are appreciated."

The signs the Grubbs viewed on the lawns in Wauchula will soon be a staple for Blue Streak supporters, along with car flags and business signs around Sebring to show support for the team.

"We just want to pump a little Blue Streak pride back into this town," Dale said. "It'll be nice when you see the same electricity leading up to game day as it was years ago, not just on game day."

To learn more about the Touchdown Club, visit their Web site at www.sebringfootball.com.

Chris Hoffman can be reached at 863-386-5827 or at choffman@highlandstoday.com.

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