Planning the annual team awards dinner many times is the responsibility of the booster club, so booster club parents, here is an article for you! Sometimes it is a matter of team tradition as to where this end of season function is held. But of course.. it can also be a matter of available funds. All of the booster clubs I have been involved with, hold these sports team dinners out a catering hall venue. The kids are all spiffed up, the parents, the coaches and school administration are also in attendance. These should be fun and energized events but sadly I have been in attendance at some long, boring and tedious dinners. You do not want that reputation for your club...so get to work and make your team awards banquet a fun, energized and enthusiastic event with these ideas.
Start planning your team banquet it way in advance.
Get your date on the school calendar first so you don't run into a lot of conflicts.
Basics done..now for the fun.. see below how we ran a FUNdraiser at our dinners, how we did favors for the players, a newpaper recap of the season and finally a shout out to our Booster club letting everyone know what we did to help our team!
While all the team members and especially the seniors receive some type of plaque or team gift, table favors can add a great deal to your team awards dinner. One of our favorites was for the Field Hockey team awards dinner the year they won the County title. A group of the Moms baked mini pumpkin breads, wrapped and ribboned them and then added the most creative "recipe" for a title winning team. No baking moms in your booster club? Buy muffins or cookies and put them in a cellophane bag, tie with team colored ribbons and add the generic recipe below! Here is the free printable file of the recipe tags!
Here was another we did for a basketball end of season banquet. We made photo collage mugs with season highlight pictures and filled them with candy. The kids and parents both enjoyed them and it made for a lasting memory of a great season. See how to make the photo mugs here. |
In addition to the usual program outlining the team awards dinner itinerary, add a page that tells your guests what your organization accomplished for the team with the monies that were raised. This is great public relations for your club and even the kids are amazed at all that is given back to their sports team. This is how we did it at our end of season team awards dinner.
Another fun gift for our team awards dinners was the team "newspaper" that highlighted all the events from the season. We asked a couple of the moms to handle all the newspaper clippings on the team from the start of the season. Then another creative Mom scanned them and made them into a newspaper. We printed copies for all, rolled them, added some ribbon and put one at each place, along with the program for the evening.
Consider assigning seats at your team awards dinner. You can do the tables by team or by specific names. It is a bit more work, but actually assigned seats make most people feel more comfortable when they arrive. They don't have to go looking for a place to sit. Late arrivals can enter and find their seats without disruption.
More Team Spirit ideas