Erik List is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Paradise Valley High School for AZPreps365.com.

The old saying “money makes the world go round” rings true, even more so in athletics.

Paradise Valley girls’ volleyball team is no different.

The Trojans fundraise and buy most of their gear. The high school steps in and assists when it can, but those funds must also be spent on all the other sports.

Thus, the fundraising falls on the booster club for the team to get the girls what they need. They are typically very successfully raising the second most amount of all the sports behind football.

This year the team did a serve a-thon where they asked for money depending on how many serves they got over the net.

“They asked their families to donate either per-serve or just a flat donation, and then we conducted the serve-a-thon," Cheryl Berrington, a booster club member, said. "They served 25 serves. Then we recorded how many they got over. Most of the families just did a flat rate; it didn’t matter how many they got over. That was our biggest fundraiser this year.”

These money goes toward helping the team fund their season for things like tournaments and supplying essential gear.

“We put it (the money) right back into the volleyball team," Berrington said. "This year we had some girls (with) financial hardships, so we did purchase shoes for some of the girls, knee pads for some of the girls, (and) we provided practice t-shirts for all the girls in the program.”

Booster club president Kristi Mogalian added the money is also used to buy practice equipment.

“We helped pay AIA fees if they were having a hard time with that financial," Mogalian said. "We paid for Hudl. It creates all the statistics for the varsity team.”

Trojans head volleyball coach Jessica Spencer usually picks out the practice equipment and then the booster club buys it with the money raised.

“That money I ask them to use to pay for special equipment like we have a target basket system, this year we got Blaze Pods to help with agility training,” Spencer said. “The money that we get through athletic fees, that money pays for new jerseys that stay with us.”

The team also receives outside support from the community. This year's meals were donated to the team from local restaurants and team posters were donated.

Besides the serve-a-thon, another fundraiser the team did was a silent auction that featured items from the Arizona Cardinals and the Phoenix Suns.

“We also did a silent auction that had autographed sports memorabilia, gift baskets, a golf outing that was donated from the Biltmore," booster club member Jeremy Boesl said. "An autographed football that was donated from the Cardinals, and autographed photo from the Phoenix Suns.” 

Everything made during the silent auction also went back to the volleyball team.

There isn't a penny spared that the Trojans make that doesn’t go back into their program to improve it and provide the necessary supplies for the team.

The work of the booster club allows the team to grow and gain assets and resources.