Would you???

[looking in]

Had a friend tell me that his DDs high school(indy area) is going to a pay to play plan because of budget woes. The fee differs by sport. But, the fee floating around for softball will be $600 to play,PLUS a $300 bus fee!!! That for a 3 month season! That's more than I pay for a year in TB!! (fees anyway, we all know the rest!!) They better not have more than 10-12 kids or there will be some screaming going on! Would any of you do it??

[CrushersDad]

WOW, your TB fees are cheap! We pay more than that for a 3 month summer season.

...back to the reason for your post. It doesn't surprise me that some shcools are going to a fee based program. I personally am OK with that; it's way better than the school dropping the sport all together.

[looking in]

You pay $900 for 3 months of softball??? $900(per kid) gets our team 3 or 4 fall exposures tournaments 2-3 winter tournaments or team camps and a full ASA "A" schedule. Qualifiers that is and a couple of the bigger summer exposures! What the heck do you guys do? oh, that $600/$300 is per player!

[jag1]

I couldn't justify paying that for our H.S. schedule/ program.........$900.00 for 25 games, only 6-8 of which are against really quality opponents. That equates to $36.00 bucks a kid per game X 12 = $432.00 per game... (and that's just one team, double that and a high school game equates to $864.00 a game...!!!..) I'm thinking we could get alot more (and better) for alot less, in terms of preparation getting ready for travel ball. (more hitting instuction, club practice, strength/agility training..ect..)
If a pay-to-play plan were to become the norm, I think you would see most of the serious travel ball kids forego the high school season altogether and their competitive travel schedules commencing in April, with friendlies in March, weather permitting.

[smokenmirrors86]

$900 sounds like alot. Maybe they might have to consider supply/demand a little more when pricing.

DD's school has around 3500 students. The softball program averages 40/45 girls/yr split between varsity, jv, and freshmen teams. Charge $900 and I'm guessing they would be lucky to get more than 10 players to participate. I'd bet that most at her school who play TB would rather pay their TB team another $100/200 and start outdoor tournaments in late April and May instead of plunking down $900 and get lots of cold/rain in March and April with their HS team. A few HS teams did not play 20 games last year because of all the rain. Think any HS would give refunds for games not played? Or, maybe they would just make them play no matter what the conditions.

And I think HS ball politics are bad now. Just imagine what it would be like when some folks have $900 in cash from their own pocket thrown into the equation.

[SnocatzDad]

It would definitely make you evaluate what you are getting for $900 I don't think it's fair to break it down by games solely.

What you are paying for is 1-2 hours per day of quality (hopefully) practice 5 days a week for 10-12 weeks located at the school near your house (again hopefully) and transportation to and from away games(last time I checked that's not in a travel team budget). A paid instructor(s) (quality may vary )working in practice and game situations with your kid at about a 1 to 6 ratio, plus the opportunity for younger kids (freshman) to get mentored by older kids (seniors) who they may never have encountered in travel ball due to the age gap but could be a very positive (or negative) influence on your kid.

It has the potential to be the most intensive, convenient and cost effective money spent on player improvement in their softball career. Rougly $10/hour for instructed time, 5 days a week + some weekends. Or it could be a complete waste of time. Results may vary

[coolstuff]

My concern here is that there are many families that HS sports is all they have. They can't afford travel organizations. Their kids might play in the local rec leagues but that's it. There will have to be some kind of sliding fee scale for those families, and I hope they are provided with reduced fees. I don't mind ponying up a full share (although $900 is excessive) while a needier family pays less and their kid gets to play HS sports.

It's a valid point that there may be some very good players who opt out of HS ball and go all TB. But are there 16U and 18U tournaments you can go to March through May? I'm asking because I don't know. Plus wouldn't you need your entire TB team families to make the same decision?

[slapperdad]

Coolstuff, it would not take too much associated cost for me to seriously consider pulling the plug on high school ball. My DD is only a freshman and hasn't even played high school ball yet and has some reservations about playing high school ball at all. Her high school coach chastised her for leaving town to play TB and not staying with the local rec league all-star team when she was a lot younger. Hopefully he'll be smart enough to figure out that ultimately it's going to benefit him and his high school team, I guess we'll find out in a couple of months.

My guess is if this pay to play scenario plays out, and kids start opting out of high school ball, then some enterprising association may start maybe a open division during high school season, where teams over 14 could play.

I agree 100%, the cost thing will drive away kids who simply can't afford it, and that's a real shame in my opinion.

[Coach11]

$900/kid?

That's crazy.

Speak to the schools Athletic Director. Find out a reasonable budget. Find out how short the school actually is. Divy that cost up among the various participants. Hold fundraisers.

But $900 is ludicrous.

[bucketboy]

Doing the math and knowing what the coach's/educators salary is as posted on the township website it's unfortunately not that far off.

15 kids on a varsity roster at $900 each is 13,500

Head coach and assistant salaries in the 7500 range leaves 6k.

say 13 home games at 100 for two umps plus another 200 for softballs leaves 4500.

13 away games and paying a bus driver 10 bucks an hour plus fuel and wear and tear on the bus probably another 1500.

A set of uni's, practice balls, field supplies, and other expenses and it is gone.

I feel the pay to play will open the pandora's box in many areas such as:

We paid to play why is our son/daughter not playing?

The stud player's family can't afford it because of a job loss etc... well can anyone see that lawsuit coming?

OK nobody wants to pay and the school is not going to field a team. Does that mean that they can go play at another high school that does have one? IPS just did away with some football programs at certain high schools and it was proposed that they be allowed to go play at another high school. Wonder what the IHSAA will have to say about that?

Finally what happens if a kid happens to be a 2 or 3 sport athlete. For that family I am thinking a private school may be even more of a viable option than ever before................