From Lansing State Journal - Budget woes hitting high school sports

By Geoff Kimmerly

Lansing State Journal, March 6, 2010 - Michigan high school sports are facing a financial crisis unlike any Haslett's Jamie Gent has seen during his 42 years as a high school coach and athletic director.

Every day he worries about how the next few years will unfold for his roughly 900 students, about half of whom annually play - and pay - for sports.

So far, the cost of balancing budgets has come in cuts of assistant coaches, new equipment or school funding of less popular sports such as bowling. But next month, the Capital Area Activities Conference will consider cutting contests from their freshman and junior varsity schedules.

Ionia County's Saranac High School could end its wrestling, competitive cheer and boys golf programs immediately if enrollment isn't up when school begins in September.

And that could be just the start.

Freshman teams in some sports are next on the block. Farther down the road? Potentially, some sports - perhaps those with strong club counterparts like tennis and swimming - could disappear entirely from the high school landscape, or in the least become fully paid for by athletes with no help from schools.

"There's no money, period," Gent said. "We're coming to a stage in the next three years that if things don't get better, (it could damage) sports altogether. Who do you pick? What stays? What sport doesn't stay?"

As another athletic year gets under way Monday, with the first day of football practices across the state, the grim financial picture foreshadowed in schools' increased reliance on sports participation fees as a way to help struggling budgets.

No matter what the fees are labeled - pay-to-play, athletic registration, or simply transportation fees - more schools statewide are introducing or raising them.

In a 2003 State Journal report looking at 30 districts closest to Lansing, 14 charged fees. Now, 21 do.

Haslett is one of 26 public and private area districts - of 44 total in the area - that charges student-athletes to participate in athletics. Of 11 that increased their fees heading into this school year, Gent's school raised its price tag the most - $50 - up to an annual fee of $150 per student.

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