The highly-ranked Vero Beach High School football team, which has been a state title contender for a number of years, has many fans around town, but some of the team’s most ardent and unlikely supporters are a group of senior citizens who seem to have no apparent ties to the Fighting Indians.
Every Friday when there has been a home game, a bus takes at least 25 residents of the Indian River Estates retirement community, located out west along State Route 60, to the high school football game at the Citrus Bowl downtown.
The elderly fans, just about all them at least 75 or older, wear the red jerseys, caps and insignia of the team and have been among the loudest cheerers.
Raucous supporters of high school football teams across America are often family members like parents or grandparents, or high school alumni and former players. But none of the Indian River Estates supporters has a family member playing on the team.
“We’re older than their grandparents,” notes Jim Schorner, a semi-retired tax attorney and resident of Indian River Estates who also directs the retirement community’s regular bridge games, which draw about as much interest as the high school football games.
Since most people come to Florida to retire, few of the retirement complex’s residents are Vero Beach High grads themselves, although Schorner said a brother of his went there many eons ago. And many Indian River Estates men played football in their younger years elsewhere in the U.S., although not at Vero Beach.
Nobody can quite explain the extraordinary affinity between the old folks at Indian River Estates and the teenage athletes, but it exists and it is palpable.
“Our residents enjoy watching the boys play,” Schorner says. “They join the excitement; they appreciate the fellowship and they get a night out.”
The fact that the team is ranked No. 1 on the Treasure Coast and among the Top 20 in Florida has definitely helped. The team has such a rich history that talented athletes from all over the Treasure Coast choose to go to school in Vero Beach to make the football team and hopefully attract nationwide attention, something that Florida law specifically allows. Star quarterback Champ Mons, who comes from a long line of football stars and coaches in the family, lives in Port St. Lucie.
No one seems to remember how long the weekly expeditions to the stadium have been going on, but for sure it has been for more than 25 years. The present bus driver has been making the trips for 17 years, but he knows that the tradition dates back several more years. The former activities director at Indian River Estates, now retired, said he can’t remember when it all started, either.
About 25 years ago, the Indian River Estate residents were known as “boosters” for the local high school football team, meaning they took up a collection to donate money to support the team.
Even though no “booster” donations have been made for many years now, the fans still definitely try to “boost” the team with their moral support.
The bond between the high school footballers and their elderly fans is definitely a two-way street.
The players and the team are acutely aware of the support they get from the Indian River Estate residents and they show their appreciation by going to visit their loyal fans every year at the start of the season for a dinner together. Schorner said he and his wife Judy sat at dinner with Mons, the star quarterback before his injury earlier this season, and found him an “outstanding, pleasant young man.”
At those excursions, the players are accompanied by the cheerleaders and cause quite a hoopla in the normally staid dining room. When there is a birthday celebration, as there usually is at one of the dinner tables for somebody’s 90th birthday (or even higher), the cheerleaders sing a lusty chorus of “Happy Birthday!”
Even Margaret-Mary Zoltak, who is not part of the football fan contingent because she said she never cared much about football as a sport, got caught up in the excitement and admitted that the youngsters provided a lot of energy at dinner. “It was kind of nice, even though I don’t like football,” Zoltak admitted.
Schorner says it was a rare treat for him and his wife Judy to meet the team’s stars at the dinner and get to know each other, even though the association is fleeting since the team’s senior starters will graduate that year. “I get four new ‘grandsons’ to watch each year,” Schorner said.
Many Vero Beach High School students have worked at Indian River Estates, a community owned and managed by the ACTS consortium headquartered in the suburbs of Philadelphia, either as a part-time job while still in school or as a full-time occupation after graduation, in food service, housekeeping, maintenance, transportation and other departments.
Indian River Estate residents pay $5 a month, which is added to their regular statements, for bus transportation anywhere within Indian River County, so transportation to the football games doesn’t necessarily involve additional costs to the fans.
Tickets to the games can be bought directly from the team or through the complex’s activities staff. Some IRE residents have had their own season tickets for years, so the group of residents from the retirement community doesn’t necessarily sit together during games.
“My wife Judy and I have had our tickets on the 50-yard line since the mid-’70s when her brother bought them,” Schorner said.
The fans get their own refreshments at the stadium, but before each bus trip, the IRE culinary department serves up a tailgate party with chicken, ribs, burgers and hot dogs as a send-off.
“Near the end of the season, our tailgate party is held in the stadium parking lot and they serve hot dogs and burgers,” Schorner explains. “The team comes by, shakes hands, and thanks us for our support.”
For the team’s away games, like this week’s match with the Treasure Coast Titans in Port St. Lucie, the group of IRE fans gather in the center’s meeting room to watch the action on a large TV screen. “We share snacks as well as enthusiasm for our team,” Schorner said.
The elderly fans don’t want to catch a cold if they’re forced to sit out in the rain, so on Friday nights when heavy rain is expected for home games, they cancel the bus, stay in and gather in the complex’s card room to watch the game being screened live on the big TV set.
Last year’s state championship game, in which VBHS lost by one point as time expired, was of course watched closely at Indian River Estates by the elderly fan club and that painful loss has still left some bitter memories.
“Of course, our Monday morning quarterbacks all had different ideas on what should have been done. But, in the end, we recognized that the coach made the decision he thought was best for the team and it just didn’t work out as he had planned,” Schorner said. “Most of us have had similar experiences in life, though perhaps not on statewide television.”
Photos by Joshua Kodis
