School sports' off-season struggles

It’s nearly 100 degrees outside and inside your football helmet it’s even hotter. Sweat has matted your hair to your head and your shirt and pants have fused with your skin. Relief is found only in light breezes and cold water breaks. It’s August and the days are sticky and slow. School’s still a month away, but football practice has begun under the suffocating sun. Around town, other high school students are stretching, swinging, running to prepare for upcoming field hockey, cross country, volleyball and golf seasons. They’re hot too, just with less equipment.
By the time these young student athletes even dress out for their first games, they’ll have contributed significantly to their teams in ways their all-district predecessors never have. They’ll have paid for the opportunity to play for Orange County High School.
Earlier this year, facing unprecedented budget challenges, school officials mitigated overall funding shortfalls by reducing expenses dramatically. Dozens of jobs were cut and school extra-curricular activities--including athletics--suffered significant spending reductions. Coach stipends were slashed and general funding cut. School officials decided they still could field teams if athletes paid to play–$100 for high school sports, $50 for middle school sports.
Athletics and extra-curricular activities are critical experiences to a comprehensive education. They’re rewards, incentives, motivation. In some cases, they’re a refuge.
Fall sports try-outs are still a couple weeks away. Each of this season’s teams raised the minimum 10 percent of its annual costs to take the field this fall. Meanwhile, collective efforts are underway to supplement individual team fundraising efforts. A benefit golf tournament Monday raised nearly $10,000. While that’s a lot, it’s only a small portion of the hundreds of thousands of dollars it costs to outfit teams in uniforms, transport them from game to game, hire officials, pay coaches, maintain the fields, etc...
We’re encouraged to know that those who want to play, but can’t afford to, will have generous benefactors enabling their athletic efforts. No child who wants to participate should ever be turned away, and the schools have made sure of that.
But, like coaches, we’re concerned about how this plays out after this season. Will we ever be in a position to fund athletics fully again? Will teams have to face uncertain offseasons every year, hoping they can raise money from the same folks other teams (and community organizations) are soliciting? Worse, will teams or players have to increase their contributions to remain viable?
Our community has a rich history of supporting its athletic teams, but at what point are we asking for too much?
Perhaps things will come into clearer focus as Orange County High School makes the move up to the AAA classification in 2011. Will we still field as many teams--particularly if we’re not competitive?
Even though we once wore the orange and blue for the fighting Hornets, we would never advocate funding athletics over academics, particularly not as our community still stings from dozens of lost school jobs.
We just want to remind Hornet fans, parents, sponsors and supporters that it could be a tough year for our school sports teams--in more ways than one.