Pay to Play Comes to LHS with the Levy Failure

The Lakeland High School 2024 levy has failed, which means plenty of things for the future of Lakeland but what does this mean for Lakeland athletics and their athletes? High school sports are a huge part of many of these students’ lives and play a big role in their futures. 

One of the beauties of high school athletics is anyone can go try out for whichever sport they want too. There are no restrictions, it’s a great opportunity for kids to get out and try new things no matter their personal circumstances. 

There has been a possibility floating around that “pay to play” could be coming into effect due to the lack of money to fund these athletes and their athletics. The current estimates would be that it could cost $1,800 per athlete to fund athletics without levy funding. 

The pay to play mandate does a lot of things but the main problem is this limits the number of kids that can play sports. 

Not every kid has the money at home to just throw at athletics, it’s a privilege to be able to play sports for free and making it cost money would do some serious damage to not only the numbers, but the athletes as well. 

“I feel like a lot of people take sports for granted,” Cyler Bauer said. 

It’s true; you never really know what you have until it’s completely stripped away from you. 

As of right now, Lakeland athletes have never experienced something such as this, but how does a school respond to this situation? 

The Caldwell Experiment

Caldwell, Idaho has gone through some hard changes in their school district. The school district’s levy failed and after over 30 years of funding athletics they were forced to turn to pay to play. 

“Under the new plan, Caldwell High School athletes pay a maximum of $200 in individual pay-to-play fees. If a student participates in three sports, the district will waive the cost of the third,” according to Sadie Dittenber with Idaho News. 

“Families may have to choose between paying their rent or paying for athletics,” Dittenber said. 

Caldwell is forcing $100 per sport per athlete, although that seems like a lot for a school athlete, Lakeland could possibly be forced with some higher prices. 

If prices in the hundreds like that are hurting communities, someone can only imagine what prices higher will do to Lakeland. 

LHS Impacts 

These costs are avoidable by simply not playing sports, but what happens when kids get sports stripped away from them? 

Kids will tend to use sports as an outlet, a way out of tough times in life. Not everyone’s homelife is ideal and for a school to take away someone’s escape doesn’t seem fair. Sports also allow kids to get a chance at full ride athletic scholarships. 

For an average income family paying for college can be a nightmare or sometimes not even in the picture. 

With athletics, kids get the chance to earn a full ride from colleges all over the country. This not only is an amazing accomplishment but an opportunity like that can change someone’s life forever. 

A generational change for the better, but not if pay to play is in the way of this. 

I feel like athletics is not the only thing that gets deeply affected, some faculty members could possibly lose their jobs. 

One of the most important things in sports is not only the players, but the coaches who dedicate their time to take these athletes under their wing and show them what it takes to win. 

One of the hardest things coaches face is the genre of play time for all athletes. Parents and all types of family come to these games expecting to see their child play, and sometimes that just isn’t the case.

It’s so hard for a coach to truly play everyone the same amount and some parents do understand that, but with this pay to play aspect parents might not be as understanding. 

Forcing families to pay for their child to participate and not seeing them play enough could cause some serious problems and puts even more pressure on coaching staff. “Having to worry about winning, and on top of that having parents upset because they paid to see their kid play is not what a coach needs at a high school level,” Rylee Dragon, a LHS senior who is an avid Hawks fan, said. 

Numbers

A sad reality that Lakeland could face is this pay to play bringing down some serious numbers. A lot of students love and adore sports whether they’re playing in them or simply just watching in the student section. 

Taking the easy access ability away from these sports will most likely have a huge impact on numbers of athletes and also numbers of fans in the crowd. 

Sports bring kids together, a team turns to a family and teammates turn to life long friends and memories. 

Taking that experience away from some kids just because they can’t afford it is devastating for the future students of LHS. 

“Some of my greatest memories are from high school sports,” Jace Taylor said. 

My Take

Sports aren’t just an activity to keep in shape, it’s an experience that teaches valuable life lessons and can really help someone find out what kind of person they are. 

The schedule of waking up early for practice and staying late shapes kids and allows them to feel what it feels like to want something. 

The feeling of determination and commitment, being surrounded by your teammates and getting a sense of accomplishment, that’s what sports are all about and the thought that some students may never get that experience due to the fact their parents aren’t in a certain financial position to make that deposit is a hard truth to swallow. 

As of right now, Lakeland looks to run another levy here shortly asking for less money than the previous one that failed. Will asking for less money really make that much of a difference? 

The funding for these athletes is serious money and I truly hope that it’s enough to cover athletics and allow students to go out and have fun for free like it always has been.

I have been an athlete for all three years at Lakeland High School and I will continue to be one until I graduate. One thing I’ve noticed in my time in sports here is the impact is the most important thing. I’ve seen kids turn a new leaf just from the feeling of being on a team.

Sports can and will continue to change lives and I will continue to firmly disagree with the pay to play plan. With me being a Junior and having the biggest year of my athletic career just around the corner, I will not stand for this.

High School goes by way too fast and for most athletes these are the last years they’ll be in a uniform with a team and a coach.

Don’t take these memories away from kids who can’t afford it, these aren’t just memories either these are life long stories that one day will be told another generation of High School athletes, and in my opinion I don’t think its a good look for Lakeland to be the school to take that away from some people.