Special Report: How To Raise Loads Of Money

by • Featured Stories

Glenn Cecchini Mug Barbe HSBy LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

LAKE CHARLES, La. — The next time someone tells you that raising money for a college or high school baseball program is next to impossible, think again.

Glenn Cecchini, head coach at Barbe High School (Lake Charles, La.), raises $150,000 a year which has allowed his program to build a stunning high school stadium along with other amenities.

The stadium features a finely manicured field, indoor training facility with four batting cages and two pitching mounds, plus a beautiful 2,700 square foot locker room.

While many college and high school baseball programs utilize golf tournaments, special dinners with a well known speaker or simply ask players to raise a certain amount of money, Barbe utilizes four key areas which pump revenue into the program:

  • Dinner/Auction: $45,000
  • Billboard Sales: $30,000
  • Season Ticket Sales: $40,000
  • Other Stadium Signage: $35,000

He has other revenue streams as well such as a golf tournament during the summer and parents paying for their sons to be bat boys during the season.

“I learned about fund raising through trial and error over the last 29 seasons,” said Cecchini.

“When you are going to be a coach, there should be a class taught on fund raising. It would help many coaches across the nation.”

The head coach of the Bucs, who just finished his 29th season at Barbe H.S., has led his teams to eight Louisiana 5A state championships while seeing his teams nationally ranked 22 of the last 23 years. He said raising $150,000 a year has been a work in progress.

“We are a 5A school in Louisiana, and there are approximately 2,000 students who come to Barbe. There are other high schools in Lake Charles. We have a private school and a Catholic school. The reason I bring this up is that we aren’t a one school community. If we were in that situation, it would be even easier raising money.

“The challenge is that we have approximately 100,000 people in Lake Charles. Thankfully, the economy is pretty good.”

Cecchini said before the baseball season starts, his baseball program stages a highly popular auction.

To read more of this in-depth story on fundraising, purchase the Oct. 2, 2015 edition of Collegiate Baseball by CLICKING HERE.