Athletic department faces budget cuts, students asked to donate

The CVHS athletic program is experiencing a budget crisis that may affect all winter sports this upcoming season. This unfortunate predicament has caused the athletic department, which strives to provide athletes with equal opportunities, to cut all transportation funding for basketball, soccer, and wrestling.

All sports teams at CVHS are self-funded. The donations made by athletes’ families pay for equipment, coaches’ salaries, officials, league dues, transportation, and any other athletic expenses.

To run the entire athletic program it costs $320,000 per year. So far, the CVHS fall sports have raised $36,524, only 45 percent of what’s needed from that season.

CVHS has asked athletes’ families to donate different amounts based on the expenses of their sports. For example, cross country runners are asked to pay $225 per season, baseball players are asked to pay $325, and football players are asked to pay $350. The costs of the program per athlete ranges from $225 to $350.

Because athletes’ families have donated less than the department needs to pay its bills, spending cuts may impact winter and spring teams.

An athlete’s contribution can be paid in many more ways other than just a check at the beginning of the season. Donations, sponsorships, fundraisers, or installments, are among the various available options.

All athletic contributions are sport and season specific. This means that each team is responsible for funding their program. For example, if the swim team does an outstanding job fundraising and exceeds the required amount needed to fund their sport, these funds cannot be transferred to another sport in order to help them meet their budget needs. Instead, individual teams fundraising money is placed in that sport teams’ ASB account and is only accessible to that specific team.

For the past six years the athletic department has been alerting teams of the consequences of not funding their sport. There were many close calls, but no official cuts were ever made.

Last year, all three winter sport teams had very low athletic contributions. As a result, this year, all transportation for these sports will be cut because the athletic department cannot afford the cost of the buses.

The athletic department is hoping that this change will bring more awareness towards the problem and influence more families to help fund their children’s sport.

“Their donations pay the coaches’ salaries, so the parents that don’t do anything are basically telling the coaches, you’re not worth being paid,” stated Andy Popper, athletic director.

This year’s team contributions will ultimately influence the decisions made for the same teams the following year. If this issue continues to escalate, greater changes will have to be made, possibly including cutting JV teams, or the utmost, cutting out a sport entirely.

These are the amounts the teams have raised through mid-November, as reported by the finance office:

Freshman Football: 43 percent, $4,002 in donations/fundraising, $9,450 requested ($350/player)

JV Football: 40 percent, $3,381 in donations/fundraising of $8,400 requested ($350/player)

Varsity Football: 57 percent, $6,401 in donations/fundraising of $11,200 requested ($350/player)

Girls Golf: 62 percent, $1,000 in donations of $1,625 requested ($325/player)

Girls Tennis: 79 percent, $7,615 in donations of $9,675 requested ($225/player)

Girls Frosh/Soph Volleyball: 23 percent, $825 in donations of $3,575 requested ($275/player)

Girls JV Volleyball: 25 percent, $825 in donations of $3,300 requested ($275/player)

Girls Varsity Volleyball: 55 percent, $1,950 in donations of $3,575 requested ($275/player)

Cross Country: 37 percent, $4,875 in donations of $13,050 requested ($225/player)

Freshman Cheer: 25 percent, $900 in donations of $3,600 requested ($300/player)

JV Cheer: 65 percent, $3,100 in donations of $4,800 requested ($300/player)

Varsity Cheer: 25 percent, $1,500 in donations of $6,000 requested ($300/player)

Dance Team: 5 percent, $150 in donations of $3,300 requested ($300/player)