While joining a sport in high school can offer numerous benefits to students, they do come with costs.
District Athletic Activities Director Dr. Brandon Clark said the school tries to ease the burden of costs parents pay regarding after school activities and sports.
“So they get their elements free and all that stuff because once they pay their athletic fee [Which is $45] and then the remaining balance goes to odds and ends, like our drug testing,” Clark said. “We pay for a service for the high school students called Honest Game, which checks their NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic Association], NAIA [National Association of Intercollegiate Athletes] and Juco [Junior Collage] eligibility. It tracks all different classes and grades…and that’s a resource [the athletic fee] helps pay for. And then there’s a few of the little odds and ends that are paid…
Just as the average cost varies between students, costs vary between activities too. With dance and cheer costing more on average than other sports like football or wrestling.
“So those [dance and cheer] are really tough activities because they’re so specialized…We could definitely scale back. The dance team years and years ago did not compete,” Clark said. “But at the same time, we weren’t necessarily attracting the best of our students to come out and be a part of it because of that. So fees then were very, very low. I would purchase uniforms for them, just like I do now, but that’s the extent of what they would use. But now that they’re competing at a high level…”
With sports like dance and cheer many of the required uniforms are tailored or specially made to the student, which makes it hard for them to be reused in the future making the costs for students involved go up, unlike in football when most of the gear can be reworn by a future student.
“The main difference in football is, I can purchase that equipment and those uniforms,” Clark said. “Then they use those for five or six years, versus a dance where I can purchase one or two sets for them to have as a concept, but then they need two or three additional costumes for their competitions…but a lot of it comes back to…if I can buy it and reuse it for multiple years.”
For sports that often have to travel for competitions and those prices can’t fit into the budget they look for alternative methods to get money, so all students are able to go.
“And if they’re not wanting any extra stuff, we actually cover the cost for all the items, but we do a lot of fundraising so they have to participate in that,” head men and women’s wrestling coach Dustin Martin said. “When [wrestling] travels, we pay for all the [student athletes] food and pay for all their lodging. This year, we fundraised about $20,000 and we have spent almost all of our travel expenses this year during the season.”
For students who join wrestling the cost is lower – $45 for an athletic pass and at least one pair of wrestling shoes.
“The amounts paid are throughout the year, therefore it is not a burden as it is spread over several months,” Yadira Howe, parent of a student wrestler, said. “It is important to look for the quality of the items and the comfort fit for the best performance during the sport activities.”
“It probably varies a little bit from our program,” Martin said. “It doesn’t cost a lot. Now saying free is incorrect, the $45 activity fee. You need to have wrestling shoes. So obviously the word free is wrong. We kind of pride ourselves on being a sport that for $45 plus [an optional] $100, you can fully participate in the sport.”
