Sports programs in schools are often seen as a way to make friends and an opportunity to play the sport they love. However, most students and parents ignore the behind-the-scenes. The funding that a sports program receives from the school and fundraisers is crucial; without the proper funding, a team can’t operate at its best.
Benilde-St. Margaret’s supplies a budget for each of its programs that will provide equipment and uniforms for the program to operate. The school supplies each program with the necessities to run. The school will also take care of field maintenance, renting and buying ice, and having the fields in the best shape. “For ultimate frisbee, every three to four years they buy us new frisbees, cones, scoreboards, anything like that. But those are the big ones. They also line our fields, which is super nice,” Ultimate Frisbee Coach John Groess said.
If a team wants to be a high-quality environment the athletes and parents will have to raise additional support. Some teams use a participation fee to play, and some teams also charge a booster fee. These are common ways that a program raises money. Many programs sell ads to put in their team program, bag groceries, or work with businesses like Evereve, Chipotle, and Chick-fil-A, where a portion of the sales is donated to the team. “We sell ads on the media guide for our website. Basically local merchants will certainly contribute to the program. The last few years, our guys have been doing quite a bit of work bagging groceries at Lunds & Byerlys,” Boys Hockey Coach Ken Pauly said.
All of the items that don’t get returned to the team, like jackets, apparel, additional coaches, coach buses, and team meals, must be paid for by the program. For many away trips that are an hour away or more, teams will use a coach bus. “If you feel you have needs to run the type of quality program that’s needed in this competitive environment the kids and parents will do additional things to support,” Pauly said.
No team has ever had to make the hard decision of cutting someone from their program due to lack of funding. If a team would ever have to face that problem, the school would step in and find a solution. Lack of funding should never have to force a team to make a hard choice. “We wouldn’t, we wouldn’t consider that. We would try to figure something out,” Athletics/Activities Administrative Assistant Judy Koski said.