Thomas Forbes is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Mountain View High School for AZPreps365.com.

From field, bullpen and batting cage maintenance to fitting players with quality jerseys and practice uniforms, it requires a lot of funding before the first pitch of the season. That’s where the Mountain View booster club comes in.

Mike Turner is president of the booster club for the baseball team and organizes the team’s fundraising efforts before the season starts.

“When we first started fundraising, it was pretty primitive,” Turner said. “We had an email campaign in the fall and a text campaign in the spring for our first year in 2020.”

“We made about $3,000-$4,000 in the spring and the fall, and that helped our start and sustained us the last few years,” Turner added.

In addition to the money raised, there were other generous people who donated to help buy sod, clay and other materials for the field.

Now the biggest and most successful fundraising event is the golf tournament that is held every year at Superstition Springs Golf Club in Mesa.

“One of our former players is a manager there,” head coach Jesus Arzaga said. “So we get on there fairly easily, and everything goes fairly smoothly.”

“The first year we had the golf fundraiser, it netted us $22,000,” Turner said.

Arzaga and Turner both say the club raises about $40,000 every year for the past three years that he has been the head coach.

In addition to the golf tournament fundraiser, the club raises money in other opportunistic ways such as running a snack bar during other Toros’ sporting events and offering to clean up after football games to raise extra money.

“We do ‘player packs’ for the kids who make the team, both freshman, JV and varisity, where in that pack, kids will receive different types of swag like arm sleeves, pullover jackets and hoodies,” Turner said.

“We spend close to $15 to $20,000 on apparel,” Arzaga said.

Players usually receive four t-shirts, two pairs of shorts, three hats, a windbreaker, a hoodie and cleats for players who did not have them already.

Arzaga says that he and athletic director Joe Goodman spend their own money for new practice and game baseballs to relieve the spending budget from the booster club’s account.

While the club has money left over after the season, they leave it for miscellaneous field repairs and maintenance.

“This year we spent $2,500 on L-screens and nets,” Arzaga said. “Hopefully by the end of the year, we’re left with $5,000 to $6,000 to make sure the field is taken care of over the summer.”

Turner says the next priority is to fix up the JV field by adding covered dugouts and adding new sod to the infield to make it nicer.

“One of our bigger goals is to have lights on the field and (we've) explored the idea of a clubhouse,” Goodman said. “Those are some longer term ideas.”

"This is a really exciting time for the baseball program,” Turner said. “The more you invest in these kids, the better they will perform.”

The Toros start their 2024 season in late February with the 32nd Annual Adam Donnenfield Tournament.