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Basketball Captain Blends Business With School Spirit

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By Virginia Dean, Standard Correspondent

When Woodstock Union High School senior and Girls Varsity basketball team co-captain Camie Rediker donned a pair of sweatpants with the school logo on it late this fall, she was quickly inundated by other students wanting the same.

Not long after, Rediker went to Woodstock Union Middle School parent and Booster Club co-chair Kim Lackley with the idea of selling school clothing not only to students but the public in order to help the WUHSMS Girls basketball teams. Thus began her new business.

“The high school and middle school do not currently have a united way of selling Woodstock Wasp apparel in general,” said Rediker. “So Kim and I met many times to discuss interested customers, logo designs, apparel colors, and prices.”

The pair ordered hoodies, T-shirts, sweatpants, long sleeve shirts, and quarter-zip jackets. All generic merchandise has “Woodstock,” “Wasps” or the Wasp logo on the front and financially supports the Girls high school and middle school basketball teams, Rediker said.

Gregg Nalette from online Grandstand Apparel prints the clothing and helped to show the ladies which type of logo designs and styles of clothing are most popular. Students order in person as there is no online store set up at this time but could be in the future, Rediker said.

“Ultimately, we wanted to create apparel that would appeal to both students and adults,” said Rediker.

Lackley made most of the financial decisions while Rediker reached out for requests and advertised for the sales.

“Students seemed very eager to be able to show school spirit through their clothing,” said Rediker.

The first sale was during the first girls Junior Varsity and Varsity home games against Randolph, Rediker related.

“We sold T-shirts and sweatpants and took orders for the other merchandise that had not been printed yet,” said Rediker. “Most adults and students either bought apparel or promised to buy some at the next home game.”

The merchandise not only helped to bring in a large crowd to the Varsity game but also benefitted the WUHSMS Girls basketball Booster Club that had been created at the beginning of the 2017-2018 basketball season.

“The bleachers were filled with students who might not have normally come to the game,” said Rediker. “And, the Club received the proceeds of the sales.”

The Booster Club is not new, Lackley explained, but taking new directions this year. Some of those include fundraising and empowering players to become involved, to take greater responsibility for the team and its needs and contributing to a positive team atmosphere on and off the court.

“This is inspired by the leadership of Jason Johnson, the new head coach of the Varsity Girls Basketball team,” said Lackley. “For him, it’s

all about the TEAM. He made it clear at his first parent meeting just before Thanksgiving that, in addition to developing player fundamentals, he’d be heavily focused on building a positive team atmosphere that included teaching responsibility through team commitment.”

Also supported by Club cochair Chris Stevens, coach for the Woodstock Recreation Center 5th/6th grade Boys’ Basketball team, the goal of the Club is to fundraise, advertise, and bring in fans for the girls basketball program, Rediker explained.

“We’ll use the funds in the future for new basketball uniforms, among other things,” said Rediker.

So far, the focus of the Club has been to strengthen the new Booster program.

“Kim has been very aggressive on bringing the girls Booster Club back to life this year,” said Stevens who has also helped by obtaining donations from his employer, Interstate Electrical Services. “She’s been the one who has really jump started the Club. We both spoke at the WUHSMS girls meetings in the late fall. Kim has been great on pushing new ideas and pursuing sponsors. We spoke to parents about getting involved, to bring new ideas about how we can raise money for the girls.”

Stevens has been coaching Rec sports, including basketball, soccer and softball, for over 10 years. His daughter, Natalie, is a WUHS sophomore Varsity player and co-captain. Lackley is the parent of an 8th grade player.

Rediker intends to study neuroscience after graduation this June but is not sure at what college yet. For now, she is determined to lend a helping hand to the organization that in turn provides material sustenance to the sport she loves.

“In the future we – the Booster Club – will continue to sell merchandise at every home game along with holding special promotions and featuring special items,” said Rediker. “We also plan to create an order service where students can bring merchandise order forms home to their families.”

An online store to purchase school garb might also be an option in the future, she added.

This article first appeared in the January 11, 2018 edition of the Vermont Standard.


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