EVERETT - It was a booster club when there was no such thing asa booster club.
Booster clubs are playing an ever more important role when itcomes to supporting high school athletics, but few have the cachetof Everett High's venerable E Club.
It dates back to 1929, when it was founded in the midst of theDepression by football coach Dennis A. Gildea, who led the CrimsonTide for 28 years and was the mastermind behind some of the school's greatest teams.
The club went into hibernation around 1936 and was resurrected in1972, and since the following year has expanded its originalfootball mission, supporting all Everett High athletes with collegescholarships.
The club describes its mission as preserving and promoting theEverett sports tradition, and it works in conjunction with parentgroups that also support athletes in other ways, such as buyingequipment.
Vincent Ragucci Jr., the club's executive director, wanted totalk tennis during a recent phone interview.
'How about that tennis team?' said Ragucci.
The Everett High boys' tennis team finished 10-2 last spring andwon the first Greater Boston League title in school history, despitehaving to play all of its matches on the road, because the city onlyhas two standard tennis courts.
Ragucci succeeded the beloved Larry Vozella as executivedirector. Vozella, the first president of the E Club upon itsresurrection in the '70s, died in June 2008.
The club boasts 550 dues-paying members throughout the countryand overseas. Full members must have earned a letter at EverettHigh, but there are also associate memberships and studentmemberships.
It takes more than scoring the winning touchdown to get an E Clubscholarship. 'We want the students to show scholastic ability andcommunity service as well as being an athlete,' said Ragucci. 'A lotof our kids volunteer at Whidden Hospital or in reading programs.'
In the past 37 years, the club has distributed $270,500 inscholarships to 247 student-athletes, and Ragucci said about 98percent of the scholarship recipients have graduated college.
The scholarships come in handy. Fifty-five percent of thestudents at the high school are listed as low-income, according toschool records.
Everett is one of 20 public high schools in the Globe North areastill without athletic user fees, and is part of a league - theGreater Boston League - where only one school, Medford High, hasfees. The Merrimack Valley League and the Middlesex League haveseveral schools that still don't charge fees, and cities such asLynn, Lawrence, and Lowell, despite budget crises, do not chargeathletes.
The E Club reunites for two functions a year - the Novemberprogram, which usually includes guest speakers with sportsbackgrounds, and another in May to award the scholarships.
Everett High has seen 26 of its players go on to play in theNFL, a total Ragucci dares any other school to match.
'We can't tell you we're going to win,' said Ragucci. 'But we cantell you we'll give 100 percent, every bit of our effort, in tryingto win.'
