Adding New High School Sports on a Limited Budget

Access to quality and diverse athletic programs should always be a priority for athletic administrators. While creating new offerings is an exciting endeavor, challenges can arise that make establishing new programs a stressful venture.

One such issue that is sure to be a challenge is funding. Securing the financial resources for new programs may indeed vary from school to school, and it is typically the first issue to be resolved, followed by a demand assessment.

Determining budget allocations is an aspect that is largely undertaken by school boards and district superintendents for all educational offerings and this would include athletics. These leaders have to have a vision that benefits the entire student body. To determine whether there is interest or a need to add and sustain a new program, a demand assessment can and should be undertaken. If interest is evident and high, then best efforts should be made to fund new opportunities.

It is important, therefore, for athletic administrators to have a pulse of what their student-athletes want to play, and how feasible it may be to meet their needs. This would also involve an analysis of when it would be possible to institute a new offering, and most importantly, how it can be done. Included in all of the logistical decisions would be how to pay for the new program.

In order to assess the interest and needs of students, athletic administrators can utilize several inexpensive or no-cost methods. The athletic director can issue brief online surveys to the student body that could indicate their interests and provide hard data. In addition, an athletic administrator can hold face-to-face focus group meetings with the school’s student-athletes, in which the dialogue is based on what new sport(s) they would like to be considered for adoption and the reasons why.

Both approaches should provide answers and possible constraints that may need to be addressed. With either method, an athletic administrator can assess if and how new offerings can take shape. Furthermore, surveys and focus groups allow for community engagement within a school, in which student-athletes are afforded key input concerning future athletic participation and with no budgetary actions.

Even when funds are limited, innovative new programming can occur. When the Colorado High School Activities Association sanctioned girls wrestling for the winter 2020-21 season, and boys volleyball in the spring of 2021, athletic directors across Colorado had to consider if and how they would add these new programs.

The success of both of these new programs hinged largely on the possible available budget resources, and participation demand from their own respective school communities. Adding both programs were easily manageable by many schools because sport infrastructure and operations already existed.

For example, girls wrestling did not require new wrestling mats or equipment that would place strain on existing budgets. The same was true for boys volleyball expensive net systems, because they were the same as for girls volleyball. The primary additional budgetary concerns centered on coaching salaries and new uniforms that are marginal in comparison to the launching of a new standalone sport, such as lacrosse or ice hockey, in which equipment costs alone can be significant.

If a new sport can be added on the back of a pre-existing sport, the cost factor should be far less, while the impact should also enhance the athletic experience for additional student-athletes.

The ability to add these two sports was relatively easy for many schools, and the question regarding sustainability was also eventually answered. Sport sustainability should always remain a key factor when deciding to add a program. It is essential to not only consider the interest within the high school, but also whether it also exists in middle schools and youth leagues in order to forecast the long-range viability.

In addition, you have to consider how many other school districts offer the new sport. In order to put together a reasonable game schedule, you need opponents, and if there are limited competition options available, it may necessitate excessive travel. This will increase costs and also mean missed class time for athletes.

If a school only projects to have 10 or fewer athletes (depending on the sport) to compete in the new sport offering, it may be too difficult to undertake. However, there may be a creative solution.

With boys volleyball in Colorado, for schools that only had the potential of 10 or fewer candidates, they realistically could not start their own program. However, by sending their athletes to another nearby district school, both schools could field a larger and more sustainable team. Girls wrestling, as more of an individual sport, had more flexibility in which even if they only had four to five girls try out for wrestling, they could start their own team or have the option of joining together with another school.

Regardless of the level of difficulty that program additions may represent, an athletic administrator should rely on key data when considering expansion of the program, utilize their own leadership personnel who can provide support and guidance for each phase that is required, and keep an open perspective on both the short-term and long-term impacts of instituting new sports.