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Shawnee Mission East is one of the few high schools in the country to reap the benefits of a unique organization designed to support all athletic programs and cheerleading – an All-Sports Booster Club. The Shawnee Mission East All-Sports Booster Club began in 1968 under the leadership of former Shawnee Mission East Athletic Director – Dr. Art Newcomer. The first President of the All-Sports Booster Club was Walt Hersteiner – a former President of the Shawnee Mission Board of Education. The purpose of the All-Sports Booster Club is to support all sports and cheerleading and to prevent the fragmentation that can happen with many competing booster groups.
According to Dr. Newcomer, “While most schools have many separate athletic booster clubs, we just have one All-Sports Booster Club for the same basic reason that we have one PTA. We do not have a separate PTA for each academic department in our school. Likewise, we developed the All-Sports concept so all sports would be equally supported.”
Additionally, according to current athletic director, Jim Ricker, “The All-Sports Booster club makes it much easier to support many of our programs and projects. Securing funding for the athletic trainer, the new trophy case, the state championship banners in the gym, the Lancer Day Parade, as well as a wide variety of other projects would be very difficult if I had to go to 20 different individual sports booster clubs and beg for funding.”
The All-Sports Booster Club has approximately 40 members who serve three-year terms. All sports and cheerleading are represented on the All-Sports Booster Club.