Greg Lee: School sports need to be preserved

A co-worker once told me that he believes club sports will some day take the place of high school sports. In other words, there will come a day when school districts will not fund high school athletic programs.

The optimist in me says that will never happen. I can’t envision a day when school districts stop financially supporting athletic programs.

The realist in me, though, says there could come a day when school districts are so financially pinched that they will default – or is the better word forfeit? – their responsibility of offering organized sports at the high school level to club teams.

I’m reminded that this could be a possibility with the recent budget crisis in the Spokane School District. Yet I’m hopeful that that day will never come. I’m encouraged when I see communities such as Wallace, Sandpoint and Bonners Ferry pass maintenance and operation levies that, by and large, preserve their high school athletics for the next year or two. This in school districts that have often had difficulty passing similar levies.

A couple of other districts, including Coeur d’Alene, are facing levies in the next month. Certainly there’s more at stake than just activities. But activities, from my perspective, are as vital as other programs, if not more so.

I believe it’s the responsibility of school districts to not only provide the necessary textbooks that allow our students to learn what they need to learn, but it’s also incumbent upon them to provide athletic/activity programs. Students will suffer academically if they can’t play sports.

Imagine a time when school districts can’t afford to offer athletic programs but allow club sports teams to take their place. In this world, I believe, too many kids will fall through the cracks. There will be many kids who won’t be able to pay to play, so to speak.

Let’s be honest. In many ways we’ve already begun to see an erosion of athletic/activity programs in our school districts. Back in the 1980s in Coeur d’Alene, for example, some athletic programs, including football, were eliminated at the middle school level.

Now certainly the football alternative these days for sixth- through eighth-graders is the junior tackle program. But not all communities offer such a program. In the CdA district, for example, just eighth-grade boys and girls have basketball teams, but their schedules consist of fewer than 10 games. An intramural program is offered for seventh-grade boys and girls, but it’s loosely organized and amounts to just a handful of games.

Cross country and track are offered for eighth-graders. And no organized sports are offered for sixth-graders.

Now, one can argue that AAU basketball takes the place for youth serious about the sport in the middle school or younger grade levels. Still, there’s a cost involved and not all youth can afford it. So whether we like it or not, there’s a little bit of evolution creeping into these programs way too soon. You know the evolution I’m talking about – that only the strongest shall survive. Or in this case, only those who can afford club sports will survive.

Maybe we should start a dialogue to try to find some solutions. Or, unfortunately, that time my co-worker talked about will come true. And my fear is only those who can afford club-type sports will be able to participate. In such a scenario it would be society in general that would suffer the consequences.