Coach steamed over imposter poster
Baseball program denied revenue from Illinois publisher

GBHS Head Baseball Coach Randy Renfroe shows his distaste for a poster his organization didn't authorize.

An alleged imposter poster has Gulf Breeze High School's (GBHS) Head Baseball Coach up in arms.

Coach Randy Renfroe (below) was eating lunch one day at Aegean Breeze when he noticed something peculiar: a poster displaying the words "Gulf Breeze High School Baseball 2007" and a copy of the team's 2007 schedule. The

presence of such a poster is not what

caught Renfroe off guard and

motivated him to ask the restaurant's owner if he could

take it home. Renfroe said

the particular publication had

not been authorized by the team's booster club, nor had the team recieved any money

for its advertisements.

The poster features the words Gulf

Breeze in red (the

school's colors are blue and gold) and a disclaimer for the game schedule. Ads from local business were also featured including: Bay Beach Inn, Aegean Breeze, Ace Hardware, and Beall's Department Stores. National Directory Service was also apart of the advertisements.

"We rely solely on community support," Renfroe said. "When someone takes advantage of that it makes me angry."

Renfroe added that wary business owners should be advised that the GBHS Baseball Booster club does its own similar poster using only local publishers. Renfroe said if someone from outside the community calls you it is probably not a legitimate advertisement opportunity.

"100 percent of our money goes directly back to the kids," Renfroe said, adding that his poster brings in approximately $3,500 to $4,000, or roughly a quarter of his annual budget, every season.

Tina Varvouris, co-owner of Aegean Breeze, relinquished the poster to Renfroe and is now refusing to pay the invoice for $109.50 sent to her by Kelly Publishing, the Peoria, Ill. that solicited her and printed the poster.

"They called and said they were with the Gulf Breeze baseball boosters," Varvouris said after learning the GBHS baseball program had not received any portion of the poster's proceeds. "They contacted me under false pretenses. They're not supporting the booster club like they said. The business owner added that she plans to call the Better Business Bureau in Peoria, Ill. to report the publishers. Varvouris said she received another call from the company soliciting her for advertisement on a Gulf Breeze football schedule. Varvouris said she politely declined further involvement.

Despite the presence of sports scheduling graphic elements on the Kelly Publishing website, owner Tom Kelly said his company is "out of the business of printing schedules."

Kelly would not comment any further on the status of revenues generated the poster.