Is HS Track in Jeopardy?

[doug5321]

Re: Is HS Track in Jeopardy?

how do schools travel all over the the country to compete in meets like penn relays, texas relays example long beach poly and long beach wilson usually attend 1 or both of these meets and those schools are not in rich areas, and there are out of state teams for example at arcadia like a high school in maryland.

do these schools just do car washes and other fundraising activities all the time.

[guru]

Re: Is HS Track in Jeopardy?

Doug -

Yes, my experience has been that fundraising and alumni gifts are how most schools fund those kinds of trips. In LB Poly's case, I have read articles in the past of how generous their grads who make the NFL are in giving back to the school.

[Riff80]

Re: Is HS Track in Jeopardy?

I was just talking to a friend and their daughter wants to try out for the cheerleading team. They found out if she makes the team it will cost $650.00. This covers being on the team, uniforms, coaches cheerleading instructional class?, some other stuff, transportation to events not included. Somehow I bet more people make cheerleading teams these days than before high fees started.

[guru]

Re: Is HS Track in Jeopardy?

Cheerleading, for whatever reason, has always been ahead of the curve on fee-based participation. The school where I used to coach charged north of $1000 once a girl made the squad, for similar things to what riff just mentioned in his post. Cheerleading "camp", mandatory for the girls over the summer(they tried out the previous spring), appeared to eat up most of it. No one seemed to blink an eye, though that may be because they covered alot of it through fundraising event participation.

[Marlow]

Re: Is HS Track in Jeopardy?

My AD just told me that we will have to charge a fee for joining the track team for the first time in school history. We wanted 3-color t-shirts, but they will only cover 2-color. The other $1 will have to come out of their pockets. . . . Oh the (in)humanity!

[guru]

Re: Is HS Track in Jeopardy?

My AD just told me that we will have to charge a fee for joining the track team for the first time in school history. We wanted 3-color t-shirts, but they will only cover 2-color. The other $1 will have to come out of their pockets. . . . Oh the (in)humanity!

Of course, the kids are paying $18,000/year to be at the school...

[Marlow]

Re: Is HS Track in Jeopardy?

My AD just told me that we will have to charge a fee for joining the track team for the first time in school history. We wanted 3-color t-shirts, but they will only cover 2-color. The other $1 will have to come out of their pockets. . . . Oh the (in)humanity!

Of course, the kids are paying $18,000/year to be at the school...

piddling detail :twisted:

[Jnathletics]

Re: Is HS Track in Jeopardy?

It is with great consternation that I read the home-page-linked blog of a Detroit HS athlete faced with having to pay a $350 'user-fee' to play a fall sport. With the economy down and school budgets being slashed, this pay-to-play approach is popping up across the country.

When you said Detroit I was shocked as their teams would go belly up if that was the case. But it's the Western Detroit suburbs that this fee are being assessed. (Conservative political agendas) Two things to note is Michigan's School financing is a mess, thanks to Engler (former gov in 90's) and crew. Schools are allowed to pass Millages for building projects (with Tech and new Buses can fall under.) But they can no longer pass millages for daily operations. Operation funding all comes from the state based on a set amount per students. (which has really declined the last few years.) So, active communities are having issues with finances that wouldn't normally be a problem. As those communities in the past would increase taxes for such items. Currently, the state doesn't allow individual communities to increase it's operational funding. So, schools are building new facilities but not able to keep up with the maintenance. The other thing of note is these schools Novi and Farmington are large areas so busing costs are rather heavy.

HS sports depend on big participation numbers to succeed. If I have 100 on my track team, I'll have a good season, cuz at least 30 will be pretty good. Cut that to 60, and now I've got 20 good ones - 40 on the team and maybe 15 will be good.

So, you wouldn't understand my old HS team of 8 or 9 in which 1 went to state? It is still an individual sport and #'s of participants are irrelavent. As, on numerous occassions in the small school division the state title was won by a team that only had 1-4 athletes make it to state. One year a team finished 2nd with only one such athlete.

In my neck of the woods, parents' booster programs raise money to cut those costs for everyone, but obviously that is not happening (or could afford to happen) in some places.

That is true in michigan but the money is more saved an used on bigger ticket items, rather then yearly operational cost for the teams. (i.e. new uniforms, T&F pits or gym mats, sometimes bleacher repairs, etc..)

[Marlow]

Re: Is HS Track in Jeopardy?

HS sports depend on big participation numbers to succeed. If I have 100 on my track team, I'll have a good season, cuz at least 30 will be pretty good. Cut that to 60, and now I've got 20 good ones - 40 on the team and maybe 15 will be good.

So, you wouldn't understand my old HS team of 8 or 9 in which 1 went to state? It is still an individual sport and #'s of participants are irrelavent. As, on numerous occassions in the small school division the state title was won by a team that only had 1-4 athletes make it to state. One year a team finished 2nd with only one such athlete.

Of course I understand that ONE exceptional athlete can make a big difference, whether it's an 8-man squad or a 100-man squad. At the state level it is NOT an individual sport. One man can indeed win the championship, but it's still the team that 'wins'. We've had this discussion before and my point was that when my girls won the state championship in 2007, it may have been only 7 girls who scored, but all 60 girls got their 'state championship t-shirt and were thrilled to have been on the state championship team, which of course they all were! In addition, all 12 girls who competed in the state meet got a gold medal for the team championship. In American High Schools and colleges, the team concept is very much alive and well.

[Jnathletics]

Re: Is HS Track in Jeopardy?

I was saying bigger isn't always better. Big teams don't necessarily mean a good team, maybe in a dual meet setting, but small teams can be talented.

I think it takes a better coach for a small team, as quantity can produce accidental quality.

[lonewolf]

Re: Is HS Track in Jeopardy?

In the two states with which I am somewhat familiar, Okla and Texas, there have been several years, in the smaller classes,when a single athlete won a team state championship.

[Marlow]

Re: Is HS Track in Jeopardy?

I was saying bigger isn't always better. Big teams don't necessarily mean a good team, maybe in a dual meet setting, but small teams can be talented.
I think it takes a better coach for a small team, as quantity can produce accidental quality.

To belabor the obvious - all things equal, the big team beats the little team, every time.
It takes a MUCH better coach to coach the big team. I WISH I only had 20 quality kids to coach, instead of the 20 good ones and the 80 'out there for social reasons only' ones that I do.