This year the Booster Club sold $5 shirts that corresponded with the themes of the home football games. Principal Mark Carothers suggested the idea after seeing the success of it at other schools where he previously worked.

“We tried it out twice last year- one with a USA theme and one with a Falcon’s Nest theme- and they were very popular, so we thought we’d try doing all of the home games for the football season this year,” said Booster Club Vice President Lori Forcey. 

The affordability of the shirts led to many students wanting to buy every shirt design in order to support the school and show their spirit. 

“I knew that I would be willing to spend five dollars on something that I could wear every day and help me remember my senior year of high school,” said senior Lexie Burdette. 

The shirts were affordable due to the sponsorships of the shirts. With the financial backing of the sponsors; Cuginis, Markoff’s Haunted Forest, Anderson Tree Service, Infestation Control, and Gail Lee Homes, it helped to offset the costs of the shirts and allowed the Booster Club to sell them for a minimum cost. Though the shirts were being sold for five dollars each, the actual production of the shirt can cost up to double the amount depending on the design, color, and type of shirt. The Booster Club board suggested the colors and design while the sponsors were able to choose where they wanted to place their logo and how they wanted it to look on the back of the shirt.

The brainstorming process for the shirts started in July with contacting the students who run the Falcon’s Nest Instagram account in order to help come up with a list of potential themes for home games. Once the themes were chosen and finalized, the process for looking for sponsors as well as designing the shirts started. This was done by the booster board who suggested shirt colors and designs as well as groups of students and a graphic designer helped to finalize the shirts. 

“It’s always been difficult for me to get clothes and accessories for the different themes, so the shirts made it a lot easier,” said Burdette.

Poolesville students recognized the success of the shirts and pushed to have a bonus gold rush shirt made for the playoff game in the football season. This shirt was not a part of the shirts created earlier in the year and was designed completely by senior football players Ashton Gaddis, Garrett Howell, and the students running the Falcon’s Nest Instagram. 

Forcey highlights that the Booster Club is proud of the success of the shirts but is not sure about whether they will continue to make them during other sport seasons. 

“We are limited for indoor sports because of the spectator capacity limits in the gym and there are a lot more home games than with football, so we aren’t able to do as many theme shirts, but we are talking about possibly doing at least one for basketball,” said Forcey.