August 30, 2009

Story and Photographs by Greg Maupin

Gary Emerson has to take a deep breath when someone asks if the Quarterback Club is just about football. Emerson is the 2009-2010 president of the Shelbyville Quarterback Club. For years, the Quarterback Club has been perceived as working exclusively for the football program, and Emerson is working hard to change that perception in his first year as president.

Emerson's son, Reed, is a freshman at Shelbyville Central High School and a member of the SCHS freshman basketball and baseball team. Reed was a member of the Harris Middle School basketball and baseball teams last year.

Joining Emerson as 2009-2010 Quarterback Club officers are Jeff Faulk as Vice-President, Mike Rittenberry as Treasurer, and Traci Blessing as secretary.

For years the Quarterback Club used the booth at the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration as a way to pay for two banquets with the remainder being split evenly between the varsity sports. This year, however, the money is being kept in an interest-bearing account. The goal is to use the money to fund projects for which the individual sports are in need.

For example, this year's first project included building a new concession stand at the football stadium. The labor was donated, materials were sold at cost, and supplies bought with nearly $6000 invested in the project. "Our hope on the football concession stand is to break even at the end of the year or make a small profit," says Emerson. "Next year is when we will start seeing profits from that investment."

Next, the club is already in the process of building a soccer complex that will include bathrooms, concession stand, press box, and small meeting room for the players.

"Our goal as a set of officers is to build the fieldhouse for football," says Emerson. "A man asked me the other day what we were planning to do. When I told him that we were working to fund the fieldhouse, he replied that the field house had been in the works for years and never got done. I told him that we plan on getting it done."