Three coaches set out to break the mold C oaches get pigeonholed into stehim on speed dial.” reotypes quite a bit. Howell’s contact was Greg Payter, who Especially football coaches. in turn, helped bring aboard a database Football coaches can often be seen as programmer and approximately five foul-mouthed former jocks who carry months later eTeamSponsors was alive delusions of grandeur, operate on a short and kicking. fuse, and can rarely get their point across The guys like to refer to it as their without yelling and/or spitting. utopian fundraising system. A way of Certainly they are rarely perceived as raising funds where the returns are inventors, entrepreneurs or savvy busigreater and the effort is minimal. There’s nessmen. Ok, maybe sometimes invenalso little financial risk involved in sendtors — if they create some new-fangled ing emails. offense or training method. But rarely do “We wanted take all of the financial the other two titles get attached to the ol’ risk out of the fundraiser,” Coddington ball coach. said. “There wasn’t going to be a scenario That makes the story of Randy Codwhere a coach had to pay out of pocket dington, Sean Connors and Steve Jacoby for a bunch of bake sale cookie dough pretty special. that didn’t sell. In a lot of those cases, All three are football coaches right coaches tend to lose money rather than here in SportStars’ backyard. Coddington make it.” is the defense coordinator at Concord The way eTeamSponsors operates is High, Connors is an offensive assistant each player provides 10-15 email adfor Diablo Valley College and Jacoby is a dresses of family and friends. The emails defensive assistant at De La Salle. are then filtered through the database, And it’s their brainchild that is soon to and a personal email from the player is set the new curve in fundraising for high sent out as though it’s from the player. school athletics. “Once the coaches and players become “Randy was undoubtedly the brain, acclimated to this, coaches are never goand I was the child,” Jacoby said flippantly ing to have to worry about candy bars or when asked to describe the spawning discount books,” Jacoby said. “ As a dad of what has become eTeamSponsors, a who has to sell Girl Scout cookies, I alsponsorship program built completely on most want to call up the Girls Scouts and email solicitation and is database-driven. say ‘Hey! What about this?’ There are “I’m old. I’ve seen almost every fundraiser a lot of mint chocolate cookie devotees there is. Randy is comfortable with comthat wouldn’t like me for that, though, I puters and had this thought that it needs suppose.” to go electronic.” Apparently all analogies with these The initial idea took its earliest roots coaches deal with cookies. Chace@ close to five years ago when the three Kidding aside, without any kind of SportStarsMag.com coaches were all part of the same staff at major marketing campaign, the group Clayton Valley. Finding themselves tired already has subscribers in five states (925) 566-8503 of endless fundraisers that were more ranging as far away as Virginia. hassle than helpful, they would riff about Several football programs throughhow something needed to change. out the East Bay are already reaping the While they all eventually went on to benefits of the program. Freedom coach other jobs and coaching staffs, the idea Kevin Hartwig is one of the newest continued to fester until Coddington and coaches to buy-in, asking just his freshJacoby had a bit of a breakthrough last men to participate this season. November. They brought the initial idea “So far it’s been pain-free,” Hartwig of a computer-based mailing campaign to Connors and said. “We hadn’t even officially started the program and the project suddenly grew legs. we made money because one kid had put up a post on Connors carried a background in finance and the three Facebook, like he was supposed to do.” started hashing out the feasibility of the idea, but things In the effort of full disclosure, eTeamSponsors has really vamped up when Don Howell — another member taken up an ad campaign with us, but there was more to of the Clayton Valley coaching fraternity — came up this story than the ads you’ll see. And if you’ve been a with someone to spearhead the technological side of the high school sports follower at all over the past two years venture. — in the East Bay, or anywhere really — then you know “I remember sitting around and somebody asked if that fundraising is essential to the staying power of high anybody knew anybody who could help us on that end,” school athletics. Connors said. “Donnie spoke up and said, ‘I have a guy I We don’t want them going anywhere, and the eTeam golf with who has built and sold two internet companies.’ coaches are trying to make it easier to save them. That At which point our jaws dropped and we asked if he had gets our attention, and it should get yours.
FIRST PITCH Chace Bryson Editor
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September 9, 2010
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