Fair Funding?

Are sports teams funded equally at South?

A look into how funding decisions are made.

By Olivia Whitaker and Sarah Schwartz

8:40 am wake up

TUESDAY

9:00 am school

South o ers 55 unique sports teams, each with their own talents. However, the high quantity of teams makes it difcult to ensure each program receives the same amount of funding. Brought up by coaches and student-athletes alike, the funding disparity between sports is a concern that must be addressed transparently.

2:35 pm (Lion block) chess club e team starts by going on a run, then does core and stretches. Robby's favorite route is running to the Chestnut Hill Reservoir and back to school.

Robby is the president of chess club, where they play tournaments and teach new players the game.

3:45 pm track!

6:00 pm dinner

6:30 pm

Ligerbots is year, Robby is president of content and works on robot reveal videos. He also has a youtube!

@thebigrobbyzhang

9:00 pm debate zooms

If it's tournament season, he will do some prep calls!

10:00 pm homework :( 12:00 am sleep! (on a good night) e wrestling team, which won the Dual County League (DCLs) this past season, has had multiple new additions to their equipment in the past year, including a new matlight and new singlets. Next year, they are set to invest in new warm-up jackets.

Wrestling coach and wellness teacher Alan Rotatori said that there is a cycle for new uniforms that every team goes through before any other monetary needs are considered.

“When it’s your turn, you're allowed to purchase new uniforms, and then you trickle down [to other needs],” he said.

Athletics Director Patricia Gonzalez said many factors are considered when trying to decide what to spend money on, and that they try to do it in a way that makes it equal for all the programs.

“We're very careful with the money we spend and we spread them in ways that [are] fair and as equitable as we can,” she said.

Rotatori said that the Athletic Department is extremely supportive when he asks for equipment that will further the wrestling team's development.

“ e Athletic Department supports us, funding-wise, whenever we make any decisions in order to improve the program,” he said. “I don't ask for excessive stu , but when I ask for something we need, [the Athletic Department] can do that.” batting cages allow balls to be hit with a front toss as opposed to side toss, which is more e and softball player Hannah Schwager feels more fund ing would be bene her team’s performance.

“[Bownet tees and batting cages] can boost our performance, but that alone is very expensive [which] our funds could not cover,” she said. “It makes it really hard for us to invest in equipment to make our program stronger.” is year, the Nordic ski team had around 50 people. ese were numbers that hadn’t been seen before on the team, and the group used this energy to place second in the state tournament. Senior and captain Ben Modiano said that despite their accomplishments, the Nordic team is underappreciated.

“We deserve the funding that a team of 50 people deserves,” he said.“We're a prominent team and so [we] deserve some support from the school.”

Whether it’s through a bake sale, car wash or some other event, there are many ways for teams to fundraise that can bene t each team with items such as new jackets and equipment.

Gonzalez said that the extra equipment some sports teams receive gives people a notion that certain teams get more funding than others, when in reality the money comes from the individual team’s fundraising.

“[ e Athletic Department] only provides needs, other things that don't have to do with needs come from fundraising,” she said. e perception is that people see certain teams having things, and they think it comes from the budget. It comes from fundraising.” way to get the team engaged,” he said. e Booster Club recently implemented a resource called a “Team Fund” which allows coaches to directly ask the Booster Club for equipment. Ginsburg said this is an important opportunity for many teams to directly address additional needs.

Booster Club President Teri Ginsburg said that teams raising extra money through fundraisers is extremely important in the bigger picture.

“Extra funding de nitely can add value to the whole program and to teams specically,” she said.

“We now have a very speci c fund that allows the teams to come to us to request boosters funding for things that are speci c to their team,” she said.

However, there are some things that fundraising cannot help with. Girls and boys volleyball coach Lucas Co een said one thing that could be improved with more funding is safety, for any sport.

“ e big thing that could improve with some funding for infrastructure improvement at the high school for any sport would be safety,” he said. “[ e volleyball poles in the gym] are pretty dangerous to play around because if you land on them, you can hurt yourself. We had someone break their leg this past year, landing on one.”

Nordic ski coach Je Riklin has coached for 12 seasons and only recently learned what the team’s budget was. Riklin said having transparent information about the amount of funding accessible to him is important.

“Once I found out what the budget was, I certainly can a ord $1,000 to hire an instructor,” he said. “We needed an instructor because we had 20 new kids this year who'd never skied before.” e amount of funding a team gets can have long-lasting e ects on a student-athlete. Rotatori said that funding goes beyond just sports teams; funding can also help guide student-athletes to playing more in the future.

“We're not talking about just life here itself. Funding programs help kids get to the point where they can extend [their athletic career in the future],” he said. “It’s really important keep that perspective here at school.”