This was scary
 

I got to the gym today for a middle school girls "competitive" tip off tournament just in time to see the end of a game. With just over five minutes to go, the score was 46-4. The final was 56-6. Apparently, it was a 5th grade team playing against a 6th grade team. I went up to speak with the coach of the losing 5th graders after the game because he happens to be a friend of mine. He told me his was the only 5th grade girls team to enter the tournament and when that became apparent to the organizers, they offered him the choice of either withdrawing or playing in the 6th grade bracket. He chose to have his girls play.

The officials told me the other team wasn't trying to "pour it on" and when it became apparent it was going to be a rout, they slowed down, made a lot of passes before shooting and pulled up on fast breaks.

The 5th graders have another game tomorrow and the coach told me it's against an even better 6th grade team, who he scouted earlier in the day.

I actually felt a little sorry for his kids.

It gets worse. He will find out next week if any other 5th grade girls teams are even going to be in that league this season. If not, he'll have to make that choice of dropping out or playing against 6th grade teams all season. If they decide to drop out, I'll see if we have room to place those girls on teams in our local rec league (not on the same team, but assign them each to other teams) even though it's past our registration deadline. They'll probably enjoy the games more and they'll only have to pay $95 for the season (plus a $15 late fee) instead of about $450.

Is costs $95 for a kid to play in the local rec league?

Don't know 'em
 

but I assume the coach communicated the circumstances to his players and I'm proud of them for wanting to compete. Obviously difficult circumstances, but there's a life lesson there somewhere.

I was thinking it was per team, not sure though.

Yeah - $95 for grades 3-8 and $110 for HS rec. For that they get 12 games, about 20 practices, a nice reversible jersey in the local HS colors (green and white) and insurance. Compared to other sports around here, that's cheap. We also have a scholarship program and this year we gave out 53 scholarships to kids from low income families. Also - a local restaurant is now giving us 5% of their sales on certain nights and that money goes to buy equipment (shoes, shorts, etc.) for scholarship kids.

Although we are all volunteers on our Board, we do have to rent the gyms for practices and games from the school district (by far our biggest expense), pay the refs, pay a company for website registration, buy the jerseys, pay for a phone line with voice mail, pay for running background checks on all coaches and asst. coaches, pay for equipment (balls, scorebooks, first aid kits, etc.) and supplies plus pay for insurance. And - there's always some misc. expenses. We also allocate about $5000 per season for scholarships. We are a non-profit.

Annual fee is slightly more than that here, and for all the reasons Padgett stated - officials, uniforms, supplies, gyms, trophies, etc. Stuff just costs money.

We too have the scholarship programs to help those that wouldn't be able to afford it otherwise.

There Goes The Mill Rate ...
 

Big cost around these parts is to pay a custodian to unlock, and lock, the doors of the school. While the games are going on, usually all day Saturday, and part of the Sunday, he sits in his little janitor room reading his little janitor newspaper, or watching football, or basketball, on his little janitor television. As a taxpayer I wonder: since he's getting paid overtime, can't he actually do some custodial work while on the clock? I also wonder: why can't the Park and Recreation Department get together with the Education Department to come up with a better system? Unions? Can't live with them. Can't live without them.

Now could somebody please help me down from this soapbox. It's kind of high up here, and I'm not getting any younger.

Better yet, why not get a part-timer to open/close things, so no OT pay is necessary?

Nobody affiliated with basketball is trustworthy enough to have a key???

Years ago, our Board members had gym keys and alarm codes and we would open and close the gyms on Saturdays. However, the school district stopped doing that because of insurance reasons. They found out they would have to add a rider to their policy and it wasn't cheap. Since they have custodians at the schools on Saturdays anyway, they just do that for us now (if they remember - but that's another story) and I'm guessing part of our rental fee goes to cover the cost of them being there on weekends. We actually asked about paying for the rider, but the talks never got anywhere.

Look For The Union Label ...
 

What part of, "Unions? Can't live with them. Can't live without them.", did you not understand? Remember, these are public service/public sector/civil servant jobs.

DYou really sound like a pompous conneticuit asswipe. God forbid the guy gets a little easy overtime after cleaning up after the little darlings all week.

Strike A Balance ...
 

I belonged to a union for over thirty years before I retired (full disclosure: I now work in a nonunion shop). Unions do many good things for their members, but sometimes they go too far. That's why I said "Can't live with them. Can't live without them." I don't believe that sitting around for eight hours reading the paper, or watching the game on television, is a good use of my hard earned tax dollars. I can't suggest a better way, but there must be a better way.

I would be very worried if you saw a cadillac or two with Jersey plates driving slowly by your house!!!:eek:

I guess this is a REALLY RURAL area thing vs. an everywhere else thing. Not sure if they still do it this way, but up until just a few years ago for our local kids rec league, here's how it worked. The principal lived just a couple of miles down the road from the school. She kept the gym key in a little box on the wall under her carport and made this known to all the coaches. When your team had practice, you went by her house and got the key, and returned it there when you were done.