By Brian Shaw | [email protected]

For the first time in years, the Cottonwood High football team will be able to afford a few luxuries many high school programs take for granted — thanks to the efforts of two Colts players. 

“We don't have uniforms for anything other than varsity; cut costs everywhere so that we can have safety equipment and uniforms,” explained Cottonwood head coach Casey Miller. “Last year we had kids who needed to wear different numbers home/away since we didn't have two matching sets. I fixed that for this upcoming season.”

Cottonwood’s football program was able to accomplish this big feat in large part to three fundraisers it did over the past year. 

According to Miller, the Colts always do a clothing drive and scratch cards and those fundraisers have been successful as well. But the majority of the fundraising actually came from an app the program uses called Scoreboard, which is as simple as GoFundMe in theory. You either choose to share the amount you donate publicly or do so anonymously, either way, it has been a big help to the Cottonwood football team. 

So big, in fact, that Miller wanted to publicly recognize the players who contributed the most, and the number might surprise some. 

“I’ve got two kids who have raised about 75% of that money so far,” said Miller, who added that the total amount being raised is just being divided between all of the Colts players.

What these players have done for their teammates is a tremendous humanitarian and philanthropic gesture and when you put actual dollars into the equation it’s even more impressive. 

“Those two kids have raised almost $10,000 of the $14,000 the ‘team’ has raised,” said the head coach. “So if it [the Scoreboard app] is saying we have 210 per kid, they are 150 of the 210 for everyone.” 

And for the first time in years, the Cottonwood football program will be able to operate in the black, Miller added, though there are still some things the Colts players will still have to do without. 

“Unfortunately it means cutting out a lot of things other programs can buy to entice kids. We don't buy a yearly spirit pack where kids get shirt, short, hat every year,” said Miller, who will be entering his third year as the head coach. 

“We have to incentivize everything and coaches fundraise as much as we can to help out,” he added. “We are using same coaching polos as last season, we will recycle all the old gear from previous years for practice gear.”

For more on how to donate to the Cottonwood football team, visit the scoreboard app. : https://app.scoreboard.coach/donate/akyPmJaqkKd8eXLzk5Jww