Prep roundtable: Competition costs

JOHN MILLEA • JMILLEA@STARTRIBUNE.COM

Q What is the impact of money on prep sports?

Jim Skelly: The fees are usually the first item looked at for school funding issues, at least in our district. We're looking [in Lakeville] at raising them to at least $230 per student for participation [in a high school sport] across the board and $175 dollars at the middle school level, which is very difficult to swallow.

There's kind of a balancing act between the fee and what that might do to participation numbers, because we want kids involved with athletics. So, it's kind of a balancing act between helping to fund the programs and also being able to raise fees so we can continue on. I remember when I was in high school, I think it was $25. It's changed quite a bit over the last couple decades, and that's going to be a continued hot-button issue.

Al Frost: Our fee [in Minneapolis] is 60 bucks. When we talk about the budget and raising the fees, we talked about what's going to happen to those kids who can't afford that fee? Will kids come out? I just don't know.

We're going to have to come to the decision of what do you want to do with athletics? Do you really want to showcase it? Do you really want kids to participate? We just don't have enough money to pay for some of these things, and the courts may have to help us to determine whether athletics is a right or privilege.

Faith Patterson: You mentioned $230 [in Lakeville]. My god, I think right now we still have kids trying to raise money for the $60. As a coach, you just feel like they don't care. The school district does not care about athletics anymore, and it just seems to be falling by the wayside. It is sad, it really is sad.

We mentioned before about things having an impact on people's lives, and I see this every day. There are several kids in my program that are going through so much, and this is the only thing that's positive in their life. It's giving them an escape, a chance to feel good about themselves, know that they're capable of doing something, feel like they're working for something, and it really is sad.

Al Frost: We're talking about an economic situation with families that have the income and those that don't. Some kids are fortunate that they can pay the $230, and other kids just sit back and hope.

Billy Pierce: With athletics in general in Minneapolis, there is no focus. You have the parks and you have the city board and you have the different youth councils and the police athletic league, none of them work together, instead of pulling together and getting some corporate funding.

There are all these tall buildings here and all these corporations here. Get a movement going to get some corporate funding. Because, bottom line, athletics change lives. And for a lot of inner-city youth, it might be the only thing that could change their life.

Al Frost: We need to decide to do something. You're either going to run the ball on fourth-and-one or you're going to pass it. Don't just sit there and do nothing, because the clock's expiring.

Matt Thuli: I don't think [at Holy Family, a private school in Victoria], we're in as dire a situation as, obviously, the Minneapolis schools are. But we have a budget; we have to stay within something. The tuition that the parents pay goes to help fund many things, and athletics is part of that, but you can only ask parents for so much, so you have to keep it affordable.

Billy Pierce: Having been in Minneapolis and trying to raise money, a lot of kids on my team had parents who weren't involved, and that's how you get your corporate sponsorships, they're the ones doing the footwork for that. So you're doing a lot of it yourself as a coach. You're not just coaching, you're parenting, you're their best friend, you're their teacher, their coach, their fundraiser, you're their bus driver. You drive them home, and you have kids staying at your house and that's the way it is.

Al Frost: I just don't understand, the first thing they want to do is to cut athletics, extracurricular activities, and it's not extracurricular, it's cocurricular. I keep trying to correct people because I think that's probably where we're stuck, because we've called them extracurricular activities for so long that now people perceive it as being extra.

But it's not extra, it really isn't, because you get kids involved with the chess club, Quiz Bowl, all of these activities are great and it makes them a better person.

Jim Skelly: You'd hope society would stand up and say they value these programs and they're willing to put forward the funding.

Q What are the pros and cons of specialization and taking part in multiple sports?

Caitlin Rowland: In eighth and ninth grade, I did track and field during the spring, and if you're a serious basketball player, you're playing AAU basketball in the spring. And there would be conflicts.

I would have to leave track meets early and I couldn't go to away track meets because I had basketball tournaments, and after a while I just felt guilty leaving the track meets early and having to miss practices for that. Basketball was my favorite sport by far, and so I made the decision that I'd make the commitment to that.

The pros would be you focus on one sport, and if you're playing it year round you're obviously going to be better at it than someone who's doing it only during the wintertime. The cons would be you don't have time to play other sports. I guess for me, that was just a choice I made. I fell in love with basketball as soon as I started playing it in first grade and never looked back, I guess.

Travis Baker: I was brought up playing three sports. I enjoy all of them, I have fun doing it all, and I have different friends in each sport. I've made some great friends.

But you are running back and forth. One day I played two baseball games between two hockey games. It gets rough. But for me it was never really an option to focus on hockey, as much as it would benefit me, because I know a lot of kids that are real good hockey players and there are still some that still play three sports.

Maybe I see it more with hockey, but I feel like hockey is becoming more, "You've got to play this year-round. And if you don't you're going to fall behind." And if you have some skill, "I want to be better than this person, I want to go Division I, I want to get a scholarship, so I need to do these things and play at a high level in the summer and maybe not play a sport that I'm not as good at it." And it's hard for a lot of kids.

Matt Thuli: I really think it's good for kids to play more sports. I think it's good to get away from a sport for a little while. And I think it's good because they do learn different coaching styles, different competition, they forge more relationships. And sometimes if you're the best player here and you play another sport and you're not the best, you assume a different role on a team. Then when you come back you're a leader on this team, you understand what that role player is going through, so I think it helps you become a better leader.

Billy Pierce: I think back to Joe Mauer, the pressure to have him specialize, "He could be a great basketball player, he could be a great baseball player, he could be a great football player. He needs to specialize." And here's a kid who gets drafted first, and then he's one of the top quarterbacks in the country and he had fun doing all those things.

To me it's to each their own, it's their comfort level and we want them involved. I'm a firm believer in being involved in other sports. It develops relationships. You want to work together, because that's what you're here for; you're here for the school and the community.

Al Frost: Our kids do not get a break. Football seems to last an eternity, then girls' basketball starts and football is still going on. You've got kids who finish football and have to put their skates on and go play a game. I mean how far have we gone with that? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Joni Sichting: There is overlap. I remember when we had one [free] week in the summer, that was it. I asked an AAU coach, "When do we get to go on vacation?" And he said, "You can go from this day to this day." It was the last week in July and the first week of August.

Billy Pierce: Your vacation ends up being a tournament out of town.

Joni Sichting: I look back and wonder, "Why did we do that?"

Jim Skelly: And after the season is over coaches are saying, "You've got to get in the weight room."

Caitlin Rowland: Even just playing one sport it gets pretty busy. During the season, we have practice about three hours a day, if we don't have a game. For the first two weeks it's three hours a day, then during the bulk of the season it's two hours on the court and then we watch film for an hour after that. We have film review on Saturdays from 9 to 12. Sunday is our day off. I tend to definitely need it.

Travis Baker: We're obviously both real passionate about our sports. And as much as we do practice for all of our different sports, I know that if there are kids that aren't as interested in sports as we are, they get way overwhelmed with that stuff.

Matt Thuli: As coaches there's pressure because, "This school's doing this and this school's doing that, and why aren't we?"

We play [basketball] in the summer; we offer it to our kids, but if you can't make it we don't care. But still it's tough, because as a coach you can tell them, "You don't need to be there." But if we're going to a tournament, that kid is feeling that pressure, "If I don't go, I might not make the team." And as a coach you feel the pressure of, "We've got to keep up, we've got to keep up, we've got to keep up."

Joni Sichting: It's kind of so tragic, the end of the multi-sport athlete as we knew it. Because he may feel passionate about three sports, but then he's thinking, "If I'm not in the gym shooting baskets because I'm playing baseball, then I may not make the team in the fall."

Billy Pierce: I emphasize, "Do something." Maybe get in the weight room, come to some practices, do something. Or try a new sport. If you're doing something and you're staying active, then there's good to come out of it.