Bigger is Not Always Better

Show me the money........

*Update- I found the stipends. They are listed in the union contract. Would not have looked there in a million years.*

This is my seventh season coaching middle school cross country. I was not a runner in high school, so I have no recollection of what cross country was like “back in the day.” My husband was. Even though he’s older than dirt, he remembers racing in high school. He’s from a city of roughly 135k people. There were three high schools then, and all decent sized. When they had a race, they ran in the city park, the runners would be handed a popsicle stick at the end with their place on it, and if coaches wanted times, they kept their own stopwatch. There would be few bigger races with more than 2-3 teams, but those invites were only once or twice a year. A bus took the team to away meets, and most parents didn’t go. I’m sure you are thinking, well there weren’t that many people who ran back then. I assure you, their teams were bigger than ours. They had a varsity, a junior varsity, and a freshman team for both boys and girls.

Stay with me, I promise this is going somewhere. In August, we took our middle school to the first official race of the season. We drove to Clarksville, and this is what most of our parents ran into. There were over 800 middle school runners at this race.

That was just the middle school number. There were 200 high school runners. This race was hosted at an elementary school. Needless to say there was not enough parking. Why all the cars? Is cross country pulling record numbers of fans? No. There was one school with a bus, the rest of the teams were transported by parents. Here’s where it really gets fun. They charge for parking. $5 a car. At this race they mistakenly told parents they weren’t taking cash, so the line got longer while they waited for people to pay with GoFan. It was a mess. This has to be a one time deal though right?

The next weekend we took the middle school to Macon County. 400 middle school runners and 93 elementary runners. Same deal, pay to park, all parents drive. That night we were in KY for a high school race. There were just shy of 500 runners with the middle school and high schools. Much bigger park, much better parking. The race we skipped was in Hendersonville.

Do you see that???? 1306 runners!!!! You wait to get into the park so you can pay, then you wait to get out because there are 1000 cars. It’s insanity. Why on God’s green earth is this going on?

As you might have guessed, I have a theory. All of these races are now timed with chipped race bibs. These are timed by a company just like the marathons or 5ks in Nashville. Those timing companies cost money. We’re talking $900 or more. The EMS is at these races. I’m guessing that’s not free. There are porta potties, those aren’t free. Some races rent sound systems, more money. Off duty sheriffs at some. Medals and trophies cost money too. I’ve heard that some of these bigger races pay the parking attendants. If you aren’t using a school, the parks have fees. These big races cost money. I know our program only gets $500 a year from the county, so we surely aren’t paying for a big race. The small fee we take in pays for race fees to enter these big races where we then pay to drive there and pay to park.

Problem number one is that there isn’t any money in public school sports. Every sport and both schools across our city raise money. Well, some of them raise money, some of them just squeak by. In a town of 15k people, you can only fund raise for so many activities. Beta needs money, football needs money, junior cheer, dance, the band, the PTO, and travel baseball all ask for donations for something. Some of those are private and extra, and my personal opinion is pay for that yourself. The public school activities are not funded and so now both sides of the city with two different county schools are asking the community for money. There isn’t enough community or money, so some sports are doing really well, and others, well are spending $5 to park in Bowling Green.

Problem number two is that everyone thinks bigger is better. Bigger races with fancy clocks and race bibs are where it’s at. No one is willing to say enough! No one is willing to say I can’t pay another $5 after I’ve spent the money on the sports fee, the gas to get here, and shoes for my kid. No coach is willing to say, we are only going to host a small race with a couple of schools and keep our own times. Everything has to be big. The people want it. They want the big gulp, the big house, the big vacation, the big game, the big race. Their kids are worth it and deserve it. It doesn’t matter the cost to their pocketbook or their sanity.

School sports used to be for everyone. Everyone could afford them. At least where I grew up in Northern Minnesota. I swam and dove for my high school. We had a bus for every away meet. My parents didn’t come because they had jobs, and I got on a bus. We had a bus for softball games. We even had a van for the cheerleaders because we didn’t ride the bus with the basketball players to away games. You didn’t need to have played volleyball since you were six to make the middle school team. In fact, I made the junior high diving team after just playing around on the diving boards in the summer. I went to state twice, and only ever went to one camp. I didn’t train year round like the girls in the big city, so I never placed at state, but today, no one cares what I placed at state.

I’m ranting and want to rant about kids’ sports, but this is not that article. My rant is about my taxes and where they are going. We have deemed as a society that extra curricular activities are good for our young people. Colleges look at what activities your child was involved in. Today, it seems those activities are only for the people with money. Where are my taxes???

See this? This is middle school cheer. $1075 to cheer for middle school sports. I didn’t spend that as a high school cheerleader. But don’t worry, there are opportunities for fundraisers. You see that right? They tax my property for schools. They tax my wheels for schools. The state has a tax for schools. The feds give some of my taxes to schools. Yet here we are fundraising for extracurricular activities that colleges have now deemed necessary to have a well rounded student. If you find the budget on the Robertson County Schools website, let me know. I’m not having a lot of luck. I can’t even find minutes from school board meetings or study sessions. I can find the videos and the agendas, but no packets that go with them.

I probably just killed any chance I have at getting a job teaching in my county. All new hires have to go before the school board. My school board doesn’t want to hear from me, unless it’s an agenda item. How do you get an agenda item that states, “We want to see a line item budget that tells us how our money is spent, and we want the opportunity to address our school board when we have a grievance?” If you figure that out, let me know. And before you say, but aren’t you already a county employee? You coach cross country. Nope. Seven years as a volunteer. Robertson County only pays staff a stipend for coaching. How much you ask? Not sure. I can’t find the documentation that shows what they pay. I do know it’s a percentage of their base pay, but the stipend list is not on their website where I can find it.

Is there an answer to “where is the money?” Probably, but what does it matter? The “smaller” sports will continue to struggle until there is no teacher to coach it, and the sport will go away. (see East Robertson Cross Country) And the more popular sports will continue to have booster clubs and raise all of the funds in town. As a society, we will wonder why more and more kids stay home and play video games. We will lament it, and continue to scroll our TikTok feeds.

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