By: Lily Fraser

Paying for a sport is irritating and troublesome to many families, especially for those who can barely afford to give their children lunch money or bus fare.

However, when paying for a sport at Wheat Ridge High School, the student’s guardian must fill out a tremendous amount of forms which include emergency numbers, health descriptions, and a $150 fee alone.
Parents pay this amount of money so that their children can join a club or team sport that they enjoy or to continuously participate in the the sport that they’ve been part of for years.

Recently, Wheat Ridge’s swim team has cut down the funding for buses to meets. For the 2016-2017 season, the team has one bus ride for one meet later on in the year. This raises the question; where does all the money go?

For swim teams, they must pay for a certain amount of swimming lanes for a certain amount of hours during practice time. The Farmers’ team has been set back by budget woes and shortage of bus drivers in the district. All the money that every child pays for their sports fees goes directly towards the general fund, the coaches and officials, and the rental of the practice facility.

Dean Miller, chemistry teacher and swim coach at the Farm, stated, “We pay out of pocket for our practice lanes. None of the money that girls and boys pay to the school goes towards the buses or lanes. We pay to rent the rec center out of our own money.”

Forty girls are on the swim team this season. Multiply forty girls with $150 each and it adds up to $6,000. Not a single penny goes towards the team. “That’s the reason we have fundraisers,” Miller added.

Even the administration is fearing the day when the district will start cutting sports that the school is known for, considering the down-vote of the mill levy and bond issues in the Jeffco district. Starting from the smallest teams with the least amount of kids, sports will begin to be cut. Football, basketball and swimming would most likely not be cut from the school, considering the fact that these athletics contain the most amount of kids on golf, tennis, and soccer teams.

Nick DeSimone, assistant principal and athletic director, couldn’t say much considering the fact that the school administration doesn’t have much information to go from just quite yet.

“We have no idea which sports will be cut,” DeSimone stated. “We look at what we can cut then hope for the best.”

Without much information on what will be happening to the school and its love for team sports, the distress that administration and teachers have been dreading is building up on their shoulders as they continue to keep the school running at full capacity with the education and sports that this school is known for.