By Quintin Harlan
The Herald Bulletin
ANDERSON, Ind. —
A policy that has been dubbed “Pay to play” has crept up in some school systems around the state. With the economic climate being what it is, area athletic programs are feeling the crunch but not all are willing to embrace the plan.
Pay-to-play plans are used to supplement the athletic department’s budget to help pay for things from officials to shoes and other equipment.
Of the 10 schools in The Herald Bulletin’s coverage area, only one currently has a plan in place and it’s been on the books for the last decade. One other school, Anderson High School, is waiting on all the legalities to be sorted out before the program gets up and running. A third has a plan in place that isn’t a “traditional” pay-to-play policy. Meanwhile the majority isn’t looking to implement any type of plan.
Elwood’s school board approved a plan earlier this month to help cover the costs of getting teams to and from games.
“The biggest thing is it’s an athletic transportation fee, not pay to play,” Elwood High School athletic director Marty Wells said. “We’re charging $50 for the first sport, $25 for the second and no charge on the third.”
If an Elwood student is on the free/reduced lunch program then they only pay half and a free lunch student is free. All the money collected from this program is earmarked for transportation.
Liberty Christian has had a plan in place for over a decade. And it’s been received rather well by the students and their families.
“Our athletes pay $35 per season they are involved. If they play two sports in a season then they are only charged for one sport,” LC athletic director Jason Chappell said. “We have been doing this for over 10 years and have not had any complaints.
“It is difficult for us to compare the necessity of pay for play between private schools and public schools. Since we are a private school, it is necessary, as we receive no funding from the government. We receive a little over $5,000 in tuition and fees that we utilize for each student, whereas the public sector can receive over $10,000 to utilize for a student,” Chappel continued. “Our $35 seasonal fee helps to offset the cost of officials, transportation, coaching salaries, uniforms, equipment and more. For extra needs, we rely on donations, booster club and elbow grease. We also do not charge our students to get into home athletic events.”
The bulk of the schools in the area do not have any type of pay-to-play plan in place. Alexandria, Frankton, Lapel, Pendleton Heights, Daleville, Madison-Grant and Shenandoah do not have any pay-to-play plan in the books and hope to not have to institute one in the future.
As it stands, Pendleton Heights could not do a pay-to-play plan even if it wanted to. PH currently has on the books a policy that if student-athletes finish an athletic season in good academic standing in their chosen sport for two years, then that counts as their physical education requirement for graduation. If there were pay-to-play on top of that, then that would be considered extra tuition.
The other reason it’s not on the books, Pendleton Heights’ corporate sponsorships.
“I’ve tried to stay away from that, you don’t want to have to take any more money out of people’s pockets than have to,” PH athletic director
John Broughton said. “(Pay to play) was brought up at a school board meeting 15 years ago and that’s when we started our corporate sponsorship program and that’s what’s allowed us to keep it in the black these last few years.”
The situation at Pendleton Heights and how it relates to them, is what is keeping Anderson from going ahead with its own pay-to-pay plan.
“We’re trying to get clarification. Because students can play sports and get academic credit, Pendleton couldn’t do it,” AHS athletic director
Steve Schindler said. “That’s not necessarily the case with us, so I’m just trying to get clarification from our corporate attorney on whether we can or we can’t (do pay to play).”
The initial proposal that was passed last spring by the ACS board was $10 per student for the year and for those on free and reduced lunch was a $5 charge.
As far as corporate sponsorships goes, AHS would prefer to not have to go down that road.
“The idea wasn’t to make a bunch of money or anything like that. It was to help defray some of the costs through the athletic department,” Schindler said. “We’ve done a little bit of stuff as far as corporate sponsorships goes but we really haven’t hit it that much just yet. I’m not saying that we might not look at it down the road. But if we can be self-supporting with our ticket receipts, I don’t necessarily want to go out and sell our souls for corporate sponsorships but if that’s what we need to get the kids what they need to be competitive then that’s what we’ll do.”
Alexandria has no plans to go down the pay-to-play road. The Tigers athletic department has help cover costs by controlling the concession sales at Alexandria athletic events. The concession stands are manned by people from other sports and the athletic department splits the profits with whatever team 50/50.
“The volleyball team will be working the concessions at the football game on Friday. Whatever we bring in gets split 50/50 between them and me,”
Tigers AD Doug Bellar said. “That money goes into their own account off of the athletic department’s account and it can be used to buy whatever they may need; a new net, ball bags or what have you.”
The bulk of the Tigers budget comes from the same place as everyone else’s budget: ticket sales. Bellar said that right now Alexandria was “holding our own” and had no plans to look at going into a pay-to-play situation.
But should there be a downslide, that policy could come into effect.
“If it came to a point where we might be losing some sports, we’d have to look into it,” Bellar said. “We’re not in that situation right now. It all depends on how big your gate is.”
Chart
Liberty Christian: $35 per sport
Anderson: $10 for the whole school year, not yet enacted.
Elwood: Athletic Transportation Fee $50 for the first sport, $25 for the
second and no charge on the third. All money collected goes to covering
transportation costs.
Alexandria, Frankton, Lapel, Pendleton Heights, Daleville, Madison-Grant,
Shenandoah have no pay-to-play policy.
