Bay County athletics crunch: The road less traveled

No matter how Bay District Schools tried to avoid it, the economic crunch has affected high school and middle school athletics.

When the School Board budget was passed earlier this month, extracurricular activities received almost $139,000 less than in 2008. While activities such as band, cheerleading and clubs are included, athletics took the biggest hit. Each of the five county high schools lost $5,000 in funding designated for travel, and thousands of dollars more in coaching supplements.

Some supplements were eliminated, schools put purchasing new uniforms and equipment on hold, and booster clubs have been working overtime to make up the difference.

Of the five county athletic directors interviewed, three provided hard figures, or percentages on how much their schools have had to cut back.

Bay will save between $10,000-$12,000 by not having junior varsity teams in girls basketball, girls soccer and softball. Athletic Director Glenn Manley said there weren’t enough girls who were interested in participating.

“We would have had to cut that money anyway,” Manley said.

At Arnold, Athletic Director Julie Hale had to slice almost $5,000 from last year’s budget. She dispersed $24,562 to 17 sports, band and cheerleading, down $4,842 from 2008. Mosley Athletic Director Tim Jennings cut 20 percent from each sport to start their respective seasons.

To help schools deal with the transportation cuts, the School Board mandated that the county schools need to play each other home and away in all sports except football. In football, county schools must play each other within two classifications, so only Class 1A Bozeman is exempted from playing 3A Arnold, Bay or Rutherford, or 4A Mosley.

In another measure to save money, the school district does not allow JV teams to travel outside the county on their own. In sports such as basketball, volleyball and soccer, where JV games are played prior to the varsity contest, the JV teams can accompany the varsity on trips.

“Almost every other district does that,” Superintendent Bill Husfelt said. “That just saves the travel, saves fewer night games and saves a lot of money on travel.

“We are killing our booster clubs trying to make them raise money. We’ve got enough teams in town where a JV team can almost completely play their schedule without having to leave town.”

The road less traveled

A home football game on Mosley’s schedule doesn’t exactly come with home game perks.

Located in Lynn Haven, Mosley needs to bus its football team to Tommy Oliver Stadium in Panama City, a 3.4-mile drive, according to Google Maps. That trip costs Mosley more than $300.

Traveling accounts for most of each schools’ athletic department budget, with costs at $1.75 per mile and $15 per hour for the driver. The Florida High School Athletics Association reorganized districts this summer, cutting the travel for some local schools.

The football district ranges from Sneads to Bratt for Bozeman, instead of to Tallahassee like last season. The furthest other county teams have to travel is to Tallahassee and Pensacola. However, with the help of booster clubs, schools sometimes enable teams to travel wherever they’d like.

In football, Mosley is playing at Tallahassee Rickards in a non-district game. Arnold is playing in a boy’s basketball tournament in Marshall County, Ky., both on their booster club’s dime.

To help cut costs, Bozeman implemented a 50-mile barrier on how far its teams can travel for non-district games. The Bucks also participated in the Bay County Jamboree in football for the first time and played the larger county schools they wouldn’t meet during the regular season.

“Yes, I chose to go there for the financial benefits of staying in the county,” Bozeman athletic director and football coach Loren Tillman said. “It was something I felt we needed to do for other people to look at us on the same level. Playing everybody in the county is going to be a tough road for most of our athletic teams.”

Teams at Rutherford are cutting back on travel simply by not scheduling some of the same away games as in years past, Athletic Director Kirk Harrell said.

But schools do have limits. Hale put a stop to her swimming teams going to Mississippi for a meet.

The most common way of combating the travel cutbacks has been for schools to use vans instead of buses.

Jennings said a trip to Tallahassee on a school bus could cost about $550. Vans, however, can cost about $80 each, and even if a team needs three vans, that’s still a $300 savings, Jennings said.

Bay and Rutherford’s cross country teams are sharing buses to away meets, Manley said. Arnold has started using vans, as well. However, the Marlins’ football team does not receive travel money from the school, Hale said, so that money is re-dispersed to the other sports which need it more.

“We’re doing more travel than ever before in vans,” Jennings said. “In sports that don’t have as many players, such as cross country or tennis, we’ve tried to get parents approved to take their own cars. Things you wouldn’t do normally, you’re trying to come up with as many ways to cut corners.

“You have to give up some of the things that in the past you’re able to afford.”

Up next: Football programs and booster clubs lend a helping hand to other sports.