gas prices effect your school district/wrestling team?
Posted on Mon, Jul. 28, 2008
Gas costs pressuring high school teams
By Jennifer Smith
jsmith3@herald-leader.com
The wheels on the bus go round and round.
And the prices at the pump go up and up, which is causing several area school administrators to say ”shorten your trips.“
The rising cost of gas is fueling mandatory travel restrictions for sports teams in school districts such as Jessamine and Franklin counties.
Franklin County has a new policy limiting road games to counties within a 50-mile radius on weeknights and a 75-mile radius on weekends. That limits teams at Franklin County and Western Hills to about 39 counties to which they may travel on weekends.
”We have made adjustments and changes that help with the cost of diesel fuel as well as keeping these players from being out so late on school nights,“ said Wayne Dominick, a district spokesman.
Some exceptions will be made for games against district opponents and postseason contests. All home-and-home contracts already in place will be honored this season, he said.
Unlike Fayette County, which leaves the cost of transportation up to the booster clubs of each sports team, many school districts have been footing the bill for buses, drivers and fuel.
That soon might be a thing of the past, said Julian Tackett, an assistant commissioner for the state high school athletic association.
”Superintendents are asking the "why' question more,“ Tackett said. ”They say, "I don't care about how you did it last year or for the last 20 years. We need to make some changes.' “
This month Tackett has been traveling around the state meeting with school administrators about various topics, but the No. 1 issue seems to be the rising expense of travel.
Officials are gasping at the nearly 70 percent increase in the cost of diesel fuel for their buses, which get roughly 6-8 miles per gallon.
As of Friday afternoon, AAA listed the average cost for diesel in the Lexington area at $4.65 a gallon, up from $2.82 at this time last year.
”There's not a group of superintendents or a group of coaches that aren't talking about travel restrictions,“ Tackett said. ”They're all trying to contain it. ... It's happening everywhere. They're having to make some hard, prudent decisions.“
Franklin County's mandate concerns coaches. If teams choose to travel outside of that defined radius, booster clubs will be expected to pick up the tab.
Tracy Spickard, athletics director and softball coach at Franklin County High School, said she thinks her boosters will be asked to do that at least once this season.
”I'm not sacrificing my kids because of our economic situation,“ she said, noting that playing in tournaments in Western Kentucky is a necessity because historically, that's where the top teams in the state are.
Road games at distant locations also are good exposure for players who are trying to make All-State teams and earn college scholarships.
”It's going to affect everybody and we're all going to be making adjustments,“ she said. ”It's going to force a different philosophy in our scheduling.“
Some coaches worry that the rule will keep them from playing teams in their region, but the board has made allowances.
If a school falls outside of the 50-mile radius but is still in a county that falls within the distance, the Flyers can go there.
”It's not quite as bad as what it was initially thought to be,“ Spickard said. ”We heard 50 miles in the beginning and that wouldn't even get us to Madison Southern, which is in our region. If you couldn't even play teams in your own region, that would be pretty detrimental.“
Other counties are taking serious looks at the policies enacted in Franklin and Jessamine counties.
Rowan County Superintendent Marvin Moore plans to take a similar proposal to his board at the beginning of next month. The district's pockets, like its gas tanks, are running on empty, he said.
”We've got to curb these trips,“ Moore said. ”We've got to get kids to and from school first.“
He will suggest a 60-mile limit for travel on school nights and an 80-mile limit on weekends.
”We have spoiled coaches and we have spoiled players from the standpoint if they had 10 or 15 to go on a trip, we got a bus for them,“ Moore said. ”But the way this economy is, we have to make some serious changes.“
He has budgeted $450,000 for diesel fuel this school year and doesn't think it's going to cover the cost ”unless we come up with some creative ideas and ways to cut back on some of these trips.“
The school will honor its contracts in place now, but it probably won't be booking any more games outside of the defined radius, which stretches to places such as Lexington, Ashland and Frankfort.
”Trips to Hardin County and Bowling Green, those kinds of trips, we're just going to have to say, "You need to play someone closer to home,' “ Moore said.
Non-varsity might suffer
Travel restrictions aren't the only ideas on the table for Moore's district and others.
There hasn't been a mandate from the district, but coaches have been ”strongly encouraged“ to schedule games close to home, said Lee Kendall, athletics director at Harrison County.
In Rockcastle County, the district's yearly fuel budget has ballooned from $150,000 five years ago to $450,000 for the coming season.
”I don't know exactly where the extracurriculars will wind up if the pattern continues,“ Rockcastle County assistant principal and athletics director Barry Noble said in an e-mail. ”It just doesn't look too promising down the road.“
That school system is looking at increasing the number of boy-girl doubleheaders for basketball and will look into putting boys' and girls' teams on the same buses for road games. It also will attempt to reduce the number of buses for football games.
Madison Southern is looking for ways to improve fund-raising, including a golf scramble Thursday. The school is trying to raise $10,000.
One of the most talked-about ways of reducing fuel costs is restricting travel for junior varsity and freshman teams.
Moore in Rowan County has suggested creating more round-robin events for those non-varsity teams.
Doug Sallee, Madison Southern athletics director, thinks non-varsity teams will suffer the most.
”I see it really hurting our feeder program,“ Sallee said. ”I could see where somewhere down the road freshman teams would have to be cut or schedules reduced.“
In the past, many schools took three buses to road basketball games — one for varsity, one for JV and another for cheerleaders — because they all wanted to leave at different times.
”That time is over,“ said Tackett, the Kentucky High School Athletic Association official. ”They're all going to have to go together. ... There's no clear-cut answer or somebody would have done it a long time ago.“
Other states cutting back
The KHSAA does not plan to mandate any kind of statewide travel guidelines, Tackett said, but it is looking closely at what other school districts around the country are doing so that it can pass along that information to member schools.
In Mississippi, the high school athletics association has approved a plan to cut the number of varsity games by 10 percent, beginning in the fall for all sports except football.
In Washington and California, some schools are implementing a mandatory athletic participation fee to help offset surging gas prices.
Some districts have even discussed eliminating bus availability for sports teams, leaving the cost of travel completely up to individual teams, much as it is in Fayette County.
That's a scary thought to Tackett.
”I can't imagine turning loose a football team with 60 or 70 kids in a caravan of cars,“ he said. ”That brings on so much liability.“
Some high school athletic associations are raising the cost of admission to games, but Tackett said the KHSAA has chosen not to increase admission prices for any of its championships this season.
It wants to keep prices affordable for parents and fans who already are struggling with their own personal fuel costs.
In other states, including Tennessee, athletic associations have drastically realigned their districts to reduce travel. That might be something Kentucky has to look at, the assistant commissioner said.
Kentucky's football coaches voted in May to begin cross-bracketing in the postseason, pitting teams in one district against teams in another district to eliminate the repetition of playing the same district teams repeatedly.
In Class 4A football, the 7th District includes Bell County, Knox Central, Madison Southern, McCreary Central and Rockcastle County. It's a 160-mile round trip from Madison Southern to Bell County.
”That's far enough as it is,“ Tackett said, but then you look at who that district could face from District 8 once they got to postseason play.
Say Bell County were fortunate enough to advance. It could face a 420-mile round trip to Greenup County.
If Fulton County in the 1st District of Class A advances, it could face Bethlehem in Bardstown, a 491-mile round trip.
If it becomes a battle between the coaches, who want to play against teams in a different district, and the school officials, who are trying to save every penny, Tackett can guess who will come out on top.
”Our schools — within their own buildings — are going to have to decide what's best, which is more important: a new look at a new team or travel expenses,“ Tackett said. ”Superintendents are the custodians of the money and eventually, they're going to win the argument.“
In other states, athletic associations are encouraging their member schools to play against their neighbors, regardless of enrollment or classification, like ”a school the size of Dunbar playing a school like Sayre three or four times a year to save money on gas,“ he said.
The KHSAA has no plans to realign districts. It tries to keep districts and regions as consolidated as possible.
”We have some critics who would rather use competitive ability to divide teams,“ Tackett said. ”But our first criteria is, was and always will be travel difference.
”It doesn't matter that district realignment in tennis puts the two best tennis programs in the state in the same district. They're right next door to each other. We've got to keep geography as our No. 1 thing.“
http://www.kentucky.com/254/story/473210.html
