WESTBROOK – It’s a story that’s playing out all over the state, with the economy still shaky and most local school districts looking at budget shortfalls, tough cuts have to be made across the board, and that includes athletic budgets.

As each town and school district starts the process of coming up with a budget, athletic directors have been struggling with balancing the needs of the student-athletes in their programs with economic reality. That reality holds true for Westbrook and Gorham high schools as the athletic directors there work to keep programs operating at a high level while at the same time keeping the cost to the taxpayers down.

The financial crunch facing schools has led local athletic directors and school administrators looking for ways to fairly spread the burden of paying for school athletic programs.

Pay-to-play

One way many school districts in Maine have dealt with the problem of tighter budgets is to implement a “pay-to-play” system, where students pay a fee to participate in an activity or sport.

Gorham Athletic Director Gerry Durgin, who will be retiring from his post as of July 1, said that Gorham has looked at a pay-to-play system in the past. “We presented (such a system) a year ago, and at that time the school committee voted not to implement a ‘pay-to-play’ policy,” Durgin said.

Like Gorham, there is currently no participation fee in Westbrook, but due to some massive budget cuts looming for 2011-2012, it is something that is seriously being considered.

Westbrook Athletic Director Todd Sampson said while his initial 2011-2012 budget proposal did not include a participation fee, it did contain some major cuts, including the elimination of all middle school athletics and activities, high school freshman teams and varsity ice hockey, a cut of approximately $200,000 from the 2010-2011 budget.

Westbrook has “tried to steer clear” of pay-to-play in the past, Sampson said, adding that with such massive cuts in the proposed budget, the school committee’s budget committee told the administration that pay to play has to be considered as a way to save some of the threatened programs, especially the middle school programs.

“The middle school (programs) have to be a priority,” Sampson said. “It would be a disservice to the students and the city to be the only middle school in southern Maine to have no athletics or activities.”

The ice hockey program is an expensive one to run, with ice time costing up to $225 per hour, Sampson said. “That initial ‘sticker shock’ becomes an issue,” he said.

Sampson said the administration is looking at programs in Falmouth and Scarborough to come up with a model for Westbrook. While nothing has been decided, Sampson said that one possible system under consideration would set the fees based on the sport played, with more expensive sports like ice hockey having higher fees. Sampson added that the fees would have to be kept at a level that would not be prohibitive for athletes. “We have to be careful that the cost isn’t so high that it eliminates some kids right away,” Sampson said. “(But) we’re all going to have to feel some pain and we all need to be part of the solution.”

The Westbrook School Committee held a public hearing on the school budget, including the possibility of athletic participation fees, on Wednesday evening. See www.keepMEcurrent.com for more on that meeting.

Sampson said he planned on recommending that the school committee approve a pay-to-play system in the interest of saving programs. “If it means saving middle school athletics and as a solution to save the ice hockey program, that would be my recommendation,” he said.

Cutting back

on travel

Rapidly escalating fuel costs have hit everyone in the wallet, and school sports programs are no exception.

With the cost of travel to away games constantly on the rise, schools have looked for ways to stay closer to home and cut back on travel expenses.

Due to league obligations, most schools don’t have much flexibility when it comes to scheduling varsity games, so there isn’t much that can be done about cutting back on travel when it comes to varsity teams. But schools have greater flexibility when it comes to scheduling scrimmages or exhibitions as well as junior varsity or freshman teams’ games, and have looked to find savings there.

In Gorham, Durgin said the school has reduced the number of games at the junior varsity and freshman levels and cut back on the number of scrimmages as well. Additionally, Durgin said that he looks for ways to combine teams, especially on longer trips, to save money. “We have (cut back on) sending sub-varsity teams longer distances unless they are traveling with the varsity team or another team,” Durgin said.

Boosters

provide help

The financial reality facing school athletic budget means that athletic directors have to lean on booster clubs to help to pay for programs, and both Sampson and Durgin said that their booster clubs have provided invaluable help in the past and will continue to do so.

With Westbrook facing big cuts for the next school year, Sampson said that the boosters would be called on to provide even more help. “Westbrook is going to have to begin to lean on booster groups to help with tournament registration fees, travel to New England (championship tournaments) and potentially other general supply needs,” Sampson said.

Durgin said that boosters do provide important aid to programs, but he added that sometimes having the boosters help pay for things could lead to questions of ownership of certain materials. “Unfortunately, many teams fundraise, placing much pressure on coaches, players and parents and then the pressure comes from defining the purpose of the fundraising (such as who does the equipment purchased with outside money belong to),” Durgin said.

Other ways to pay

While the booster clubs provide support, schools have to look to raise money to help support their athletic programs, and athletic directors have had to get creative to find new revenue streams.

One way Sampson is looking at generating more revenue for Westbrook is to raise the ticket price for admission to Westbrook sporting events. Currently, it costs $3 for adults and $2 for students to attend Blue Blazes’ games, with seniors being admitted for free. Sampson said he is looking at a price hike, though he did not have a specific figure available.

Playoff changes

While the schools have done their best to cut costs when it comes to sports, the Maine Principals’ Association has also made some changes in the interest of saving money. Some of the biggest changes implemented by the MPA involved the reduction of the number of playoff teams in each sport and reducing the number of exhibition games each team is allowed to play.

In previous years, two-thirds of teams in each class qualified for playoff berths. In the last two years, only the top half of each class made the playoffs, a change that the MPA said would save on travel costs.

Sampson said he felt that the savings were not as great for southern Maine schools as they were for schools further north that have to travel longer distances for away games. “Those concepts work well for smaller rural Maine communities,” Sampson said. “But when there were prelim tourney games in Class A West, Westbrook would generate revenue at these games due to the gate and concessions.”

Like Sampson, Durgin questions the effectiveness of the changes, adding that other changes made by the MPA have actually put an additional stress on schools like Gorham instead of helping.

“There is much debate on did the reduction actually help or was it a political statement that we are doing something,” Durgin said. “Officials’ fees do continue to go up along with mileage reimbursement … yet those lines in our schools’ (budgets) are being reduced. Officials want our endorsement on three-man systems, I repeat the lines for officials have gone down in the last three years – less money doesn’t support more. Doing more with less isn’t working!”

Durgin added that despite the tough economic times, school sports programs are still vital to students and the cities and towns where they live. “I think most school athletic administrators are doing a terrific job problem solving and making the best of managing people and limited funds,” he said. “These are very stressful times, but the values of these activities in our schools and communities could not be more important than now.”

Westbrook’s Manny Vincent leaps for a touchdown against Gorham this fall. Both the Gorham and Westbrook high school athletic programs are dealing with the reality of putting together budgets while the school districts are trying to deal with tough economic times. File photo

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