Now accepting free gear...

thank you so much..every little bit helps

 

Cheeze- it won't be very long when all (non-revenue sports) in HS will be Pay to Play. Many States are going to that. It's sad, but true. You will see baseball, softball, lacrosse, field hockey, soccer i.e... become a club-like sport. It's just around the corner.

 

Yea, but the problem is that the revenue that softball and volleyball generates doesn't even go back into that sport (except to pay officials). Our AD takes up the money at both events, the coach takes the official money out, and then the AD leaves w/ the rest. I know we don't generate as much revenue as football and basketball, but we do generate some, just put it back into OUR coffers. My wife and i work 2 to 3 football games every year. We work our butts off for 4-5 hours taking care of the fans. What do our sports get? Half of the 50/50 money. None of the gate, not even 1% of the concession (even though we worked it). Volleyball night it rained and was cold. Guess how much we made...50.00. Still had to work our time though. Volleyball ball team almost didn't get to play this year because their net was not up to standards. School wouldn't upgrade it. A NET! Had to fundraise over the summer to get it ourselves. Now on top of this we have suggested that we could use the field to run a couple of wildcat softball tournaments to raise money for the team. School says emphatically NO! (Even though we are the ones who do all the maintence on it). So now we can't fundraise and we don't get any of the money to boot. We didn't even have bleachers until this year and they were hand me downs from Reagan ( which by the way has a great facility paid for by the boosters- wish we had any kind of say in our boosters and yes we've tried). And as far as Title IX goes, who's going to pay to fight it? You mention it around here and you get snickers. Oh we put lots of money into the girls.....basketball that is.

 

So very true. Some schools have sport specific booster clubs, but they were having to turn their money over to the school booster for the general fund. It's ridiculous

 

we asked to have a fundraiser for softball and our AD informed us that we can have one....BUT the money will go into the general sports budget and we will still have to request materials. He asked why we couldnt reuse the balls from last year, as he was placing a two thousand dollar order for footballs

 

Typical

 

This is crazy. Football is not more important than softball or any other sport and therefore shouldn't recieve all the money that the school raises. From what i can tell, (my freshman year of softball has not started yet), my high school gets enough money to purchase most equipment, but i don't think any school softball team gets their fair share of funds like football does. Football gets their cut and more. Not saying that i don't enjoy watching our football games in a nice stadium, i do, but throw us a bone here. Other sports deserve something too.

 

Softball is not even a red-headed stepchild!

Seems it's the same everywhere! Softball is one of the last sports to see any money. We brought in at least $800 last year from the gate and concessions but it went to the general fund. That would be ok if we got our fair share. Football gets whatever is needed (I know they bring in the most money, not arguing that) and a nice steak dinner before each game.
Our parents volunteer at football concessions every season as we want to support the football team and the athletic dept too. We want to support all our kids.
Softball gets grass seed, line chalk and new uniforms every 3-4 years.
The coach usually buys his own equipment and the girls must provide their
own equipment. Seems like the football boys could eat hamburger once in a while and spread some money to the softball team, soccer and track/field team. In schools like Monroe, really seems that the ratio is off.
You can talk Title IX but I'd get the parents to do it for you. Really ticks the admin and the board off!

 

The following is an abstract of a section of Title IX:

"16. Who is responsible for enforcing Title IX?

* Schools and colleges are responsible for complying with federal law.
* The OCR is specifically charged with enforcing the law. Anyone can file an OCR complaint and the identity of the complaining party will be kept confidential.
* Courts — affected parties have the individual right to sue (courts may award damages)."

Here's a link to a recent complaint being attended to by OCR in Wilmington for Laney softball:

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20080406/NEWS/804060410

They will investigate the complaints if someone will file them. Maybe someone with a little legal savvy will follow up on this.

I can't think of ANYTHING more worthwhile than doing what's right for the kids!! What they need will not even make a dent in the budget!

 

Title IX

http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/index.html