How much do you pay to play HS?

[yeahh]

Wow, sounds like a lot of people's costs are minimal. My daughter is not in HS yet, but my son does play basketball & baseball. Baseball starting fee is 450. Practice shirts, shorts, hoody etc..are all extra. There is also about 4-5 fundraisers. End of year banquet is another additional fee. Summer & winter leagues are also extra. All in has to be at least 1,500...and thats just baseball, not including basketball which is close to the same.

The real pisser is that basketball and baseball both fund raise at the same time!! You can only ask so many people for money LOL!

 

[pdqkevin]

Our HS softball boosters had to raise $600-700 per player from fundraisers and donations because we got minimal support from the school (i.e. 3 coaching stipends total for 2 teams, umpire fees for home league games and buses for away games on school days - no balls, uniforms, etc). Calif law does not allow schools to charge pay-to-play fees as interscholastic sports are considered part of the guaranteed "free" education, so we made the program's finances extremely transparent and strongly prodded families to cover their share via fundraisers and/or out of their pocket.

A major point of irritation is we had to maintain the field year-round, however the district required non-HS teams pay them for using the field.

A very accurate discription of HS softball here in SoCal.

Expenses that have to be paid for by parents or acquired via fundraising are a minimum of 3 dozen new game balls per team, tournament entry fees of $250-$650 per tournament and 3 or 4 tournaments max (different CIF sections allow different number of tournaments) per team and 4-8 dozen practice balls.

As far as field maintainence costs the school provides water and most of the field lining chaulk while also cutting the grass and once a year refreshing the dirt infield. They do not fix broken sprinklers, adjust the sprinkler controller so that watering doesn't occur during practice hours, do any of the infield Maintainance such as dragging it, keeping it wet enough or pulling the weeds that volunteer all over the place. There is also the cost of fertilizer which we have to both buy and apply as well as buying vinegar and rock salt, because we arn't allowed to use round-up or weed-b-gone, which if you mix it in high concentrations can kill the grass that grows under fence lines, gasoline for our gator tractor (a wonderful donation to the program from a few years ago) which we use to drag the field. We also have to do all the field prep before games but at least we now have the girls do all of the chaulking.

Kids who are new to the program get a new batting helmet, bat bag and team sweatshirt. Everyone gets practice tee shirts, shorts, socks, visor and this year a team windbreaker. It costs $400 for new players and $250 for returners. If however someone doesn't pay there is nothing we can do about it including not asking them to return next year.

The non-school money we spend on each of our teams is about $3000 for the spirit gear, about $2000 for tournaments, about $400 for balls and at least $600 on things like chaulk and gasoline for a total of about $6000 per team. Assuming 15 kids per team that is $400 each so fundraising is essential. That also doesn't include non-recurring unexpected expenses like the bill we had to pay to have our gator repaired last year or the $2000 we just had to pay to replace the shade screens on our dugouts. It also doesn't include any money for uniforms which cost about $200 each and we need 40 sets each of both home and away every 5 to 8 years.

 

[crystlemc]

My question would be, How much does your Football team pay?

Our school district does not have football. Because of that, we lose a lot of athletic families to open enrollment to neighboring districts. If son A wants to play football, he and daughter A (stud softball player) both transfer for ease of transportation. I can't wait until my kids graduate...

 

[obbay]

Every Activity(except for Hockey) is $260 per season so it costs the same to be in the Marching Band as it does to be on the Football team or the Cheerleaders. in addition, they all have various fundraising activities. For softball, $260 gets you get the use of a uniform for the season and balls and umpires from the nearby Perkins School for the Blind . they play on town-owned fields that the town sort-of maintains.

 

[Slappinandstealin]

We live in upstate NY, where the public schools are excellent, and all the sports in HS (and MS) are free. There is a booster club that raises extra money, but it isn't tied to individual players.
I guess those high taxes pay for something!
Our travel team U-16 is $600 not including hotels at tournaments. It does include inddor playing time in the winter...which is long and cold...In fact, it's spitting snow here now.