POWERGRAMS

2 COMMUNITY Hail to the heroes of Friday night high school football. Not the coaches and players. But the thousands of volunteers who work concession stands, park cars, take tickets and hold the sideline chains. Patrick Nix, head coach of reigning 6A state champion Pinson Valley High School, said something as simple as volunteers weed-eating in and around the stadium during the season saves coaches "three to five hours a week we would otherwise have to be away from practice – watching video – or our families. "We don't have anyone else to do it. Our volunteers doing something as small as that is really, really big." Said Shawn Raney, head coach at Spain Park High in Hoover: "Our football program could not survive without the endless hours our parents put into our program. When you run a program as large as the one here at Spain Park, there are many details and jobs that need to be taken care of that we simply do not have the manpower to handle. Our parents take on these jobs, ranging from the moms serving our pregame meal to the dads working the chains on the sidelines on Friday nights." At Alabama Power, a company with some 6,600 employees in a football- crazed state, there are plenty who make up the army of Friday night volunteers. "I could do anything from working the grill to making nachos to bagging popcorn to taking payments and making change to delivering product between the stands," said Brian Sules, a customer service representative in the Gardendale Office and concession stand manager last year for the band boosters at Pinson Valley. Sules' daughter, Madison, a senior, is on the dance line. His son, Cole, a sophomore, plays trumpet in the marching band. Deanna Lee works in the concession stand for the Shelby County High School band boosters in Columbiana. "It is hot. It is exhausting," said Lee, a merchandise sales representative at both the Columbiana and Calera business offices. "You will go home smelling like grease and with the words, 'cheese fries' ringing in your ears. But it's fun." Her son, Joseph, plays alto and tenor saxophone in his second year as a section leader in the high school band. Nickie Van Pelt, meanwhile, has a much different job at Ashville High School: she works the game pass gate. "I'm the bad guy with the friendly face," joked Van Pelt, who said her day job as a Transmission right-of-way specialist well-qualifies her for the role. The Van Pelt family has deep roots at Ashville High – she, her husband, father and two daughters are all graduates – which in part explains why she is also a founding member of both the Spirit Club and Alumni Scholarship Fund. In south Alabama, Slocomb High School was a victim of its own success. The marching band grew to more than 100 in 2013. "That's big for a small 3A school," said Eufaula Power Delivery Safety Specialist John Paul Jones, a member of the Slocomb Athletic Association. "Although it was great to see our band grow, it was causing some fans not to come because there was nowhere to sit." continued

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