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| Author | Comment | ||
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 JTawa |
New Column! A high school coach, desperate for $, takes us through his season |
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Registered Member
Posts: 13629 (05/13/08 12:26 PM) Administrator |
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expertidiot |
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Registered Member
Posts: 298 (05/14/08 7:27 AM) |
Couple of ideas, from someone who does the middle school thing:
- Has he thought about a "dues" structure, similar to club volleyball. Our middle schools receive no funding from anyone, and we just split up the cost and charge each family around $200. It's peanuts, really. We pay for jerseys, spandex, a few new balls, and pay for the coaches. If he can't charge the parents for the entire cost, certainly he could have the dues cover part of the cost. - How about a camp before the season starts, with tryouts at the end of the camp? For example, a 4 day camp at the end of July (Mon-Thurs) and tryouts on Friday. Camp costs $100-$150. With 40 campers, this is $4000-$6000. You can pay your coaches and still be left with a lot of money to run the program. - The costs that he outlines seem a little high. I'm wondering what else he pays for besides uniforms, balls, coaches, and referees for game day.... Anyway, good article, and I think he's way too hard on himself about his writing ability. He's a good writer.... |
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JTawa |
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Registered Member
Posts: 13629 (05/14/08 9:40 AM) Administrator |
Either that or he has a good editor!
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volleygal08 |
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Registered Member
Posts: 28 (05/14/08 10:56 AM) |
I'm guessing gas for buses for away games is also part of the equation, and with fuel costs.. not a little one anymore. I agree good article and I look
forward to more!
Athletic fees at least here in southern Ohio are pretty much the norm for team sports. They range from the low end... (50-100 per player, per sport played) to the extreme high end when school districts can't pass a levy. A local district that could not pass a school levy had to institute a $900 dollar athletic fee per student per sport! I also wonder about what it says about our sport when you reflect on the comment that the football team and basketball team had established boosters programs that could jump in and start the fund raisin effort quickly. I think that too is also the norm at most districts... Football makes sense give the sheer numbers of players, but basketball is comparable in # of athletes involved, and they also seem to have a better support structure in place at most districts than other sports? |
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live4vb |
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Registered Member
Posts: 635 (05/14/08 12:08 PM) |
JTawa wrote: Well, I'll applaud both. Very engaging and entertaining. The you-tube feed is hilarious. I am looking forward to the updates. |
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Karl |
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Registered Member
Posts: 18 (05/15/08 11:47 AM) |
ExpertIdiot Wrote:
Couple of ideas, from someone who does the middle school thing: - Has he thought about a "dues" structure, similar to club volleyball. Our middle schools receive no funding from anyone, and we just split up the cost and charge each family around $200. It's peanuts, really. We pay for jerseys, spandex, a few new balls, and pay for the coaches. If he can't charge the parents for the entire cost, certainly he could have the dues cover part of the cost. Karl says: Yeah, but there was too much red tape to cut through. The school district still wants to be in charge of middle school athletics, and I couldn't wrestle administration rights away from them. The price tag they quoted was that. I don't really know how to get around that one. - How about a camp before the season starts, with tryouts at the end of the camp? For example, a 4 day camp at the end of July (Mon-Thurs) and tryouts on Friday. Camp costs $100-$150. With 40 campers, this is $4000-$6000. You can pay your coaches and still be left with a lot of money to run the program. Karl wrote: We do run a summer camp. It is at the end of July, that is our "assigned" week to get gym space at little/no cost. Our deadline to have the money in for our 7th, 8th and 9th grade programs is June 15th. I will get some registrations in for a July 28-31st camp in before June 15th, but I can't count on all of them coming in before that date. Great money maker, logistically impossible to bank on those funds appearing in our booster club account before the imposed deadline of June 15th. - The costs that he outlines seem a little high. I'm wondering what else he pays for besides uniforms, balls, coaches, and referees for game day.... Karl wrote: I didn't come up with the $ figures for saving these grade levels. The school district did. In essence, they said jump - and I said "Crap! How high?" Coaching, referees and transportation figure to be the bulk of those costs. Our 7th 8th and 9th grade teams run a schedule totally independent of our 10th, JV and Varsity. Buses are ridiculously expensive and coaches should be paid fairly. To be quite frank, is the salary I make for the job of Head Volleyball Coach "fair"? Considering the hundreds of hours I willingly and happily put into the program on an annual basis? Ummm... If I was living in a 3rd world country then probably yes. Anyway, good article, and I think he's way too hard on himself about his writing ability. He's a good writer.... Karl wrote: Great feedback ExpertIdiot! You make some good points and raise some excellent questions. I will try to explain more in depth as the series continues to unfold in this column. Thank you for the kind words at the end of your post, and I hope this is an entertaining piece for all of the prepvb.com readers! Thanks again to John Tawa for the opportunity to share our story here! The generosity and positive comments have been fantastic. If you feel compelled, please contact me as to how you can help us. Sincerely, Karl Katzenberger - ahsvb@hotmail.com
Last Edited By: Karl
05/15/08 11:52 AM.
Edited 1 times.
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olddblueeyes |
Hmm... | ||
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Registered Member
Posts: 55 (05/16/08 1:50 PM) |
...ever think that maybe your energy is wasted on a state that elected Jesse "The Body" Ventura as Govenor?
"Ventura's main campaign promise was a tax refund to Minnesota
residents. The state was running a budget surplus at the time, and Ventura believed that the
money should be given back to the public. In political debates, he often
admitted that he had not formed an opinion on certain policy questions. Sharing many views
with libertarians, Ventura frequently described himself as fiscally conservative and socially liberal."
Last Edited By: olddblueeyes
05/16/08 2:00 PM.
Edited 3 times.
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Karl |
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Registered Member
Posts: 18 (05/16/08 5:16 PM) |
oldblueeyes wrote:
While I appreciate your energy and understand your plight, the taxpayers of Minnesota and the officials they have elected need to address the shortfall as it's done in every other state, city, and school district IMHO. Karl wrote: I don't know if I'm allowed to link to other sites on this board, but the Minneapolis Star and Tribune just did a 3 part piece on this issue. It was well done. but the real driving force behind the story is the comments and feedback sent by readers of the paper to the website. Sometimes angry, misguided, enlighted, passionate - just a spewing of public opinion. I'm not sure which camp I am in as to who is responsible for the shortcomings in school districts. I just know that it is suddenly my responsibility to raise funds for these kids to have an opportunity to play. I know that is definately not fair for the fate of these playing opportunities to rest upon someone who can barely get dressed by himself in the morning - but it is the current state of affairs. I do know that I commited to volleyball and kids, and I am going to do everything in my power to not allow this travesty to occur due to lack of money. Trust me, if I was independantly wealthy - this wouldn't be an issue and I wouldn't be cyber-panhandling in the manner I am. Unfortunately, I am not - so I am doing everything I can - including appealing to likeminded individuals such as yourselves to help us. I am however hopefully providing a service in return. A potentially very entertaining column that will entail our story as it moves along this fall. I am asking the kids, parents and supporters of our program to work hard to raise funds. It would feel remiss if I was not doing the same. Karl |
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JTawa |
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Registered Member
Posts: 13629 (05/16/08 5:29 PM) Administrator |
When I covered the city beat as a newspaper reporter, my job encompassed covering the Manhattan Beach Unified School District, a district that received the
same ADA (average daily allowance -- per diem per student) as other schools across the state.
Why did the district have more so it could do more? Because of extensive local fundraising efforts to a wealthy community interested in the welfare and well bring of its children. Even the wealthiest districts fund raise like mad. The notion that districts rely exclusively on taxes to operate is just not true. |
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olddblueeyes |
Hmmm... | ||
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Registered Member
Posts: 55 (05/16/08 5:38 PM) |
...and while I do respect your drive and goal, also know that as long as you continue to assume this responsibility, those that should be addressing this issue
state, taxpayers, school board, etc, will absolutely allow you to "have at it" rather than addressing the issue themselves. Please clone youself,
come to my town, do the same for our district so I can enjoy reduced taxation and still have HS athletics...
P.S. Rather than cut and paste or re-typing the post you're responding to, just hit the "Quote" button under the post and it will be done for you... |
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olddblueeyes |
Hmm... | ||
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Registered Member
Posts: 55 (05/17/08 10:08 AM) |
....fully understand that JT. I project it'll cost each parent between $400-$500 for their players to be on
varsity this season...and the parents of the additional teams in the program will also get hit. In addition, we'll get hit with fund-raising
initiatives, request for additional donations of gifts (food, drinks, pre-game meal), equipment (warm-up shirts) and "yes" cold hard cash beyond
the fee. We rotate the jerseys every couple of years from the varsity, to the JV and so on.
Beyond that, there are major school districts in our area that do not have middle school volleyball programs. Those that do have 8th grade only, nothing below that level. And even beyond that, we have not had an assistance varsity coach since my player entered high school nor more that one coach per team at the remaining HS levels. On occasion, especially toward the end of the season, the JV, Soph coach joined the Varsity on the bench. Exacerbating the problem in our district is that all this coaching positions must go to teachers first as a supplement to their income, whether they have a clue about VB or not. That eliminates any level of volunteerism from parents that might have the time and actually know something about the game. I remember very well my daughter's 8th grade team, undefeated, and stacked with club players. The total contribution from that teacher/coach that season was making team brownies for victories, shouting "Ok we need to get serious now" from the bench, and demonstration of the underhand serve during tryouts! No doubt in my mind that the total sum of knowledge gained in the 8th grade program could've been exceeded in two Saturday sessions at the high school with a knowledgable coach. Again, best of luck to the coach. Look for ways to continue to cut cost...varsity assistant?; spread more cost among those that are benefiting, the players and parents; look for volunteers that will work for minimum pay, we had one work for $1 last year to make her an official; and energize the parents to get after it, the article reads that the coach is taking on way too much himself.
Last Edited By: olddblueeyes
05/17/08 3:33 PM.
Edited 1 times.
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