Tuesday, we had a school board meeting at Marshall Middle School, which included the presentation and discussion of how some $400,000 in budget cuts for the 1898-90 school year will be handled. Roughly $123,000 of these cuts is in the form of the K-12 busing for all Marshall students; $24,000 was in cuts of the athletic department. That's a 5:1 ratio (give or take a few thousand duckaroos).
So, why is it that only two concerned citizens opted to speak up at the public forum about the loss of transportation to the entire district while a much larger number voiced their opinions about the proposed loss of swimming, golf and soccer?
Why were so many people outspoken about their kids' performance in athletic activities and seemed to take virtually no notice of how their kids will get to school ... which, it seems to me, should be emphasized just a tad more.
This doesn't mean I'm anti-sports. Not by any length. I think it's wrong that sports have to suffer when the budget faces Paul Bunyan. I know how much it hurts, and I realize that scholarships, competitive spirit and pure fun - not necessarily in that order, either - are affected.
But where are the priorities?
A push to have another millage vote before the school year is under way. If Marshall is really serious about saving its sports programs - and its busing, its Gifted and Talented program, its textbooks, and much, much more - then the citizens have to go beyond merely signing a petition. They have to vote for it, too.
End of this portion of the lecture. Next up ...
This is another brain-provoking idea I had thrust upon me at the board meeting, although I actually considered it a few days before. The meeting merely confirmed it.
I have a hard time believing the board decided - should pay-to-play be instituted - it would cost $50 for high schoolers and $25 at the middle school level. It's not that I like to go around spending other people's money (although, if the opportunity arose, i suppose, I'd struggle through it somehow), but these figures seem absurdly low.
A few weeks ago, I interviewed Bill Desjardins, the athletic director of the Lapeer School District. Lapeer enforced pay-to-play for the 1988-89 year after a millage increase proposal failed - $275 for the high schools, $175 for the junior highs - along with cutting two sports. (One schools' booster club helped out by footing 30 percent of the bill, while the other schools' boosters paid for new equipment.)
Last month, after a year of pay-to-play, the voters of Lapeer approved the millage. Pay-to-play will not exist in Lapeer, and the sports will be back in full swing.
On a more local level, Hastings had a $150 pay-to-play fee instituted when its millage failed. And the athletic department seems to be chugging along at a decent level.
So - why only $50 in Marshall? This figure seems grossly low. If Marshall had wanted to be seen as serious about keeping all teams intact, go for a higher figure.
I think the people of Marshall, given a choice, would gladly pay more for their athletes to participate if that team was still able to perform on the field.
Finally ...
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he were sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to.
- Joseph Heller, Catch-22
I like Rich Hulkow. When he speaks, you can't help but pay attention to what he says. His voice is commanding and his reasoning is sound. I look forward to talking football with him this fall.
But with all this budget-crunching that has happened, it was left up to him to ultimately decide the fate of the Marshall High School sports programs. This is not an enviable position to be in.
At the meeting, several disgusted people spoke out against Hulkow, questioning everything from his authority to make the decisions to his views on the integrity of the Twin Valley Conference to "why us, not not someone else?"
Well, I suppose his status as athletic director would ultimately give him the right - the opportunity - to make those decisions. And I think - I know - Hulkow was thrust into a precarious Catch-22.
Hulkow rationalized the loss of soccer and swimming by saying they are not Twin Valley sports. (Golf is a low-participation sport, he added.)
But the thing which may have been overlooked was while six varsity teams were being vaporized, three freshman teams were still on the slate.
The freshmen can be melded into the junior varsity, as is the case with girls' basketball, softball and, perhaps, volleyball. The competition would be greater, but the varsity sports would remain.
I don't want to start telling Hulkow what to do, because I'm sure he knows the Marshall sports situation far better than I. But logic seems to tell me varsity sports, no matter what they cover, have priority over freshman sports. After all, freshmen have three more years to compete, while many varsity sports include a surplus of seniors and juniors who are at the end of their high school sports careers.
Just a thought, coach.
This article originally appeared in The Marshall Chronicle.
