Sussex County Sports Blog

By Dan Cleary

8/17/2010 - Activity Fees New Reality

The whistle blows and three exhausted kids line up for the final drill of the afternoon.

“Okay, troops, this is the last one for the day, make it a good one because a lot rides on it,” says the man holding the whistle and a clipboard.

The kids go through an obstacle course, finish the drill, and then they anxiously await the results.

“Jimmy and Melissa, congratulations, you did great. Tommy, I’m sorry but better luck next time,” says the man with the whistle, who happens to be the kids’ father.

“Okay, Jimmy and Melissa, you earned the right to play sports at Sparta High School, and once again Tommy, mom and I are sorry, but we can only afford to pay for two kids, so you better work on your game.”

Sounds ridiculously, right? Yes, indeed, and a little over the top I must admit, but in this new age of “play-to-play” at certain high schools, that scenario might not be too far off.

In these harsh economic times, tryouts in the backyard might be a thing of the future in some school districts as crazy as that might seem.

Due to the drastic cuts in state aid in New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s budget, many schools, including Sparta, Kittatinny and High Point in the Mugs Media area, have resorted to charging activity fees, and it just doesn’t seem right.

As a person who works in the private sector, I’m fully aware of the problems the state has and that public spending must be curtailed. But at what cost?

Christie was a catcher on Livingston’s Group 4 championship team in 1980 (and on a side note, played with former Wallkill Valley baseball coach Scott Parsons. Parsons was a stud on that team), so he fully knows the value of interscholastic competition at a public school.

But across the state, districts have cut athletic programs and some are still fighting for survival, especially at the sub-varsity level, and it just hurts the kids.

Here are the harsh numbers for the parents in Sparta who have children who want to play sports or join the marching band/color guard. For one child per sport, it will cost $325. Multiple sports, multiple fees, according to the Sparta schools website.

So if you have three high-school-aged kids who want to play sports, it will cost $975 for one season if all three play. If all three want to play three sports it will cost the family $2,925 for the school year.

Wow.

Now some people who live outside Sparta see the township as affluent and that $325 is a drop in the bucket. Not true. Yes, Sparta has some lovely homes and some money, but it isn’t Alpine or Mendham, so $325 could be a hardship for some.

Sparta has such a rich athletic tradition I hope kids are not discouraged to play because of the fee. Time will only tell if the fee hurts the Spartans’ participation numbers or if parents decide, well, if we are going to spend money for the kids to play, we might as well look into sending them to Pope John.

Fortunately, for Pope John, there are plenty of other reasons why the school is so attractive to some, but this new activity fee might just add to the list.

As we know, Sparta was hit hard by the cutbacks, but Kittatinny and High Point have also instituted a fee. Kittatinny is charging a one-time fee of $75 per student, per family for the entire school year.

According to the district website, families eligible for the Federal Free and Reduced Lunch program are entitled to a waiver. There are no other provisions for reduced fees.

The Kittatinny website also goes into detail of what the fee covers. It states that the fees are designed to help defray the operational cost of offering programs. Kittatinny is also charging, like Sparta, fees for other activities like theater.

“(The fee) does not guarantee participation time in games, leads in performances, etc. nor does it ensure specific positions on a team,” it states on the website. Those decisions are up to the coach or advisor, according to the website.

High Point is charging a $50 fee per student which covers all sports/activities for the year.

Although the Kittatinny and High Point fees seem reasonable, it still opens a can of worms for coaches and ADs. Kittatinny was smart to outline that the fee only guarantees participation in the sport, not playing time.

For parents who have a child playing high school sports for the first time as a freshman, the fees probably don’t seem too outrageous because they have been paying fees on the youth level for years.

It still doesn’t sit right with me. I’ve been around enough youth and travel teams that parents do feel entitled when they pay for their kids to play. That was always the beauty of high school sports. Once kids hit high school, Daddy and Mommy aren’t coaching anymore and you take that political dynamic out of the playing time equation.

Yes, I know there are politics in high school sports, but they are going to get worse with “pay-to-play,” I guarantee it.

Parents are going to be more attuned to what’s going on because they are paying (for a second time I might add. Aren’t property taxes supposed to pay for education?) out-of-pocket.

The cutbacks also mean that booster clubs will play even a larger role in fund-raising. I remember Tony Carvella, the former outstanding wrestling coach at Brick Memorial once saying and I paraphrase, any coach who forms or gets too heavily involved in a booster club is forming his own hanging party.

Although most coaches will tell you that 99 percent of the parents they deal with are very supportive, that number might drop down now that there is extra money involved, and that is human nature.

So what is the answer? With more cuts on the horizon, pay-to-play will most likely expand and I feel it is just a new reality of high school sports and it stinks.

Once a school institutes an activity fee, I doubt it will ever be repealed. It might be reduced, but the activity fee is a pseudo-tax and it looks like it is here to stay.

Better work on your game, Tommy.

That’s it for now, see you on the sidelines.

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Sussex County Sports Blog

By Dan Cleary

8/17/2010 - Activity Fees New Reality