This is where your media guide truly comes to life. With content gathered and pages planned, it’s time to focus on design. The goal is to create a professional, cohesive guide that’s both easy to navigate and visually engaging. In this chapter, we’ll walk you through choosing the right design software—whether it’s a professional tool like Adobe InDesign or a beginner-friendly option like Canva—along with best practices for layouts, fonts, colors, and branding. You’ll also learn how to add interactivity with hyperlinks and QR codes, and how to keep your pages consistent, clutter-free, and reader-friendly. By the end, you’ll have everything you need to design a media guide that stands out while delivering the essential information your team and fans rely on.

Before you can design a polished media guide, you need the right content. Start with the essentials—rosters, coach bios, schedules, and team photos—then add personal touches like senior spotlights, feature articles, and fun Q&As to make your guide unique. High-quality photos and an organized file system will keep the process smooth and stress-free, while also ensuring your final product looks professional and meaningful for your team and community.

Want to supercharge your team’s fundraiser? Involving athletes and parents in ad sales creates shared responsibility, stronger buy-in, and big results. Just look at Bishop Verot High School Football, where every player was asked to sell one ad—they’ve raised over $40,000 each year for the past three years. The secret? Clear expectations, strong organization, and active leadership from coaches and boosters. With the right tools—like polished rate cards, sales scripts, and simple payment systems—your team can turn ad sales into a reliable, high-impact fundraiser that builds community support and long-term program strength.

Selling sponsorships is one of the most powerful ways booster clubs can fund their programs and build lasting community relationships. From forming a dedicated sponsorship committee and pricing packages to targeting the right businesses, personalizing outreach, and following up consistently—this guide walks you through every step to secure more sponsors and keep them coming back year after year.

A strong booster club is the backbone of every successful high school sports fundraising program. In this post, we break down the four key pillars—leadership, commitment, vision, and organization—that set top-performing clubs apart. Learn how real teams raise $25K–$40K+ annually by building systems that involve coaches, families, and the community.

Make your media guide work smarter—not harder. This blog shows you how to handle sponsor ads like a pro, even if they don’t have one ready. Learn how to create clean, effective designs using Canva, add clickable links or QR codes, and deliver high-value digital features sponsors will love.

A well-designed rate card is your most powerful tool for selling sponsorships. It lays out all your ad options, pricing, and sign-up details in one professional sheet, like a menu for potential sponsors. Pair it with an online form to streamline submissions, collect digital assets, and make fundraising smoother for your team. In this blog, we break down exactly what to include and offer a free rate card template to help you get started.

Personal ads in your high school sports media guide are a heartfelt way for parents and fans to celebrate their favorite players while supporting your team’s fundraiser. Learn how to price, and offer these custom shoutouts to boost engagement and make your media guide even more meaningful.

Learn how to create and price corporate sponsorship packages for high school sports fundraising. Discover tiered options, pricing strategies, and how to bundle media guide ads with social media, game-day exposure, and more to maximize sponsor value and raise more money for your team.

Wondering how much to charge for business ads in your high school sports media guide? Learn how to set the right prices based on your fundraising goals, community demographics, and the value you offer sponsors. From logo wall spots to full-page ads and premium sponsorship packages, this guide breaks down proven strategies to maximize your fundraising results.

Media guide sponsorships are a proven way to raise funds for high school sports. From solo ads to tiered sponsorship packages with added perks like social media shoutouts and game-day recognition, there are plenty of options to engage local businesses and families. Learn which option is best for your team, how to price effectively, offer value, and maximize support for your team.

To start your media guide project you need to establish when you would like fans to see it and if you’d prefer print, digital or both. Once you know the final deadline for your media guide as well as the type of media guide you can begin to decide how much content you would like to include. More content means more time so stick with basic content if you’re on a tight timeline. To ensure everything gets done, set clear roles and responsibilities for the members of your team.

Have you ever been to a sporting event and seen a small booklet being handed out at the entrance? That’s a gameday program or media guide. Some are short and sweet - such as a simple piece of paper with a schedule, roster and team logo - while others are much more in-depth and include nicely designed pages of rosters, player profiles, articles, sponsor advertisements and more. So what is the difference between a media guide and a gameday program?

Can’t decide between a print or digital game day program? We’re here to help you make your decision by exploring the pros and cons for both PRINT and DIGITAL. We explore the advantages to each one while also being honest about the drawbacks. Let us help you make your decision - Print or Digital?

There are an unlimited amount of expenses when it comes to running a high school sports program. There are however essentials that every program needs like uniforms, transportation and equipment. Would you put a media guide on that essentials list? Read on to find out the 3 main ways a media guide can help grow your program! 

Legacy Football used Story of the Season in 2023 and 2024 to highlight and celebrate their seniors in a very special way. Read on to learn what they did!

The Saratoga High School Ice Hockey team was looking for a new way to create their annual print media guide. With Story of the Season, Toga Ice Hockey got an upgraded digital media guide and raised $21,000. It was less work on their end and better overall quality and fan engagement. Read on to learn how they did it!

Teams use Story of the Season’s digital weekly media guides for a variety of reasons. Lakeville North High School Football made the switch in 2023 and upgraded their boring print media guide to our digital weekly magazine. Check out how much money they raised with us too!

The fundraising options for sports teams are vast and it can be overly complicated to figure out the best option for your team. In this article we explore email blast campaigns. Sometimes the simple option is the best option. Read on to explore the pros and cons of email donation fundraising as a sports fundraiser.

The fundraising options for sports teams are vast and it can be hard to figure out the best option for your team. In this article we explore the popular cookie dough fundraiser and how effective it can be. Read on to explore the pros and cons of cookie dough fundraising as a sports fundraiser.