The football team plays on their new turf, while the golf team struggles to get the team to meets all together on a bus.
The basketball team celebrates victories on their freshly re-done floor, while the field team practices with decades-old equipment.
When these disparities between sports teams happen during the school year, students point to differences in funding as the reason. But, according to an interview with athletic director Nicole Norris, that’s not the full picture.
ELHS offers 19 varsity sports to its students, but they don’t all receive equal amounts of funding. Each year, Norris distributes funds across all the teams for equipment, scoreboards and field maintenance.
When deciding the distribution of money, the district first allocates funding to athletics as a whole. After this, Norris decides how much money each sport gets. Through meetings with coaches, Norris decides how the funding is distributed, prioritizing safety first. If a team wants extra gear like team branded bags or jackets, the money comes out of their fundraising accounts. For some equipment purchases, it requires just a simple request with research behind it. But bigger purchases, like a scoreboard, have a long process that can take years to see through
“[For smaller expenses], the amount of time to get them would depend on the process of research, requisition, ordering and then availability from the supplier or vendor,” Norris said. “If we need new uniforms for a team, we usually start that process about a year in advance to look at options, determine sizing and ordering.”
When students claim that some sports are underfunded in comparison, they point to the “extras,” like matching backpacks or jackets. However, Norris said that these items come from fundraising accounts for each team, not money allocated from athletic funding.
Overall, Norris believes the district does a good job of funding its athletics. She said there will always be more that she wants for student athletes, but over time, they will get what they need to be successful.
Several athletes would welcome potential changes with more funding available to their sport. According to wrestler Eesha Umachandran (10), extra funding or access to a separate wrestling facility would improve efficiency in practice. Every practice, Umachandran and the team spend around 40 minutes just setting up and putting the mats away.
“[With just] a mat, exercise bikes, and a couple resistance bands, we could cut weight a lot easier,” Umachandran said.
Other teams have to get creative with their funding, as they are not considered varsity sports and thus do not receive funding from the school. These sports, like water polo and the dance team, are afforded spaces in the building to practice but don’t receive money from the athletic department. Because they are not funded by the school, club sports rely on independent boards and fundraising to get what they need.
Despite the differences in recognition and support between varsity and club sports, athletes of certain varsity and club teams think that they share similar issues. According to Jeffery Keesler (11), water polo often faces issues when buying new gear and getting to games.
“We have a separate board that has all of our monetary value, and that’s how we get our money, and we pay for it,” Keesler said. “We all have to drive
separately to tournaments, which sucks for the team.”
In order for club sports to receive funding, they would have to be approved to become a varsity sport, a process that involves communication
with the athletic department and utilization of existing resources.
“Determining which sports we offer depends on many factors – most of which involve funding, resources and if we have enough students to participate without causing a negative impact on our existing programming,” Norris said.
