Sports Fundraising Ideas

Scotts Valley Police thought they had uncovered who was responsible for the theft of more than $25,000 raised by the Harbor High football team and stolen from the coach’s office in Scotts Valley. However, the District Attorney’s office decided the case is not strong enough.

Chief deputy district attorney Jeff Rosell announced Oct. 28 that unless additional information is forthcoming, no charges will be filed.

“We recently received follow-up investigation by Scotts Valley Police. Unfortunately, there is still insufficient evidence to determine who is responsible for the theft,” he said.

Both Scotts Valley Police and the D.A.’s office had been cautious about their chances of prosecuting a suspect. Although police confirmed the investigation named a single individual, no name was released.

The evidence is circumstantial and faces a high burden of proof, attorneys warned previously.

The stolen money — about $13,500 in cash and $12,000 in checks — was raised by the Harbor High football team over the summer and was being held by the team’s coach in his office when it was taken from his locked desk in late August just as school began. The coach was eliminated as a suspect after passing a lie detector test, Scotts Valley Police earlier confirmed.

Nothing else was taken or disturbed in the office.

The loss is covered by the Santa Cruz City School District’s insurance policy, district officials have said.

By Dirk Meissner (CP) – Sep 14, 2009
VICTORIA, B.C. — The northern B.C. high school teacher who put together an elite wrestling program that produced international champions, including one who won gold for Canada at the Beijing Olympics, says he feels compelled to speak out against the province’s decision to cut grants to sports groups.
Joe Sullivan said Monday the $4,000-to-$5,000 grant he received annually from the government’s gaming revenues was just enough to ensure his program would survive for another year.
“I can’t over-emphasize how much those grants meant to me,” said Sullivan, who ran the wrestling program in Hazelton area, located about 800 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.
“Every year when I would apply for those (grants) you would sort of say a little thank you prayer because you know that this is what is going to make the difference that will put us over the top – and it did,” he said.
Carol Hyuhn won gold at Beijing and the Hazelton Secondary team produced nine other international medal winners and numerous provincial champions.
But B.C. sports and environmental groups are the latest organizations to feel the pain of provincial government budget cuts as the Liberal government struggles with an economic recession and a record budget deficit of $2.8 billion.
Housing Minister Rich Coleman said many sports and environmental groups awaiting government grants from gaming revenues will not get some or any of the money they are expecting.
Sports groups representing 800 youth organizations will receive $19 million in grants this year from the province’s gaming revenues, say officials in Coleman’s office.
Last year, 1,079 sports organizations received $29 million in gaming money from the province.
Coleman was blunt when it came to the cuts that about 50 environmental groups must soon live with. Their grants are being cut by more than $1 million, and groups without three-year signed grant agreements won’t get a penny from the province this year, he said.
“Those that have a three-year commitment or a bingo affiliation will get paid grants this year,” said Coleman. “The rest of them will get nothing.”
Environmental groups are slated to receive letters from the government this week advising them of their budget cuts.
The Opposition New Democrats have been taking aim at the Liberals for the cuts to school, arts, cultural and now sports and environmental groups, saying the government has millions of dollars to promote the 2010 Olympics, but little or nothing for grassroots sports or school groups.
The government has been blasted for cutting budgets for everything from community football programs to parent advisory council playground programs.
“I’m asking (the government) to explain how slashing grants to parents groups in British Columbia fulfills this government’s promise to protect education?” said NDP deputy education critic Diane Thorne.
Sullivan said he coached wrestlers in the Hazelton area from 1990 to 2000. He is no longer teaching.
He said the government grants were small, but they were a valuable part of the program. The wrestlers earned most of the money themselves chopping and selling firewood and doing other community fundraising.
The wrestlers would raise between $15,000 to $18,000 annually to fund their training and trips to tournaments, Sullivan said.
“We did an awful lot of work in the summer fundraising with our firewood projects,” he said.
The fundraising projects provided the largest block of money for the wrestlers, but the team all knew they were receiving an extra boost from government gaming money, Sullivan said.
He said money for athletics is always well spent, especially in rural areas.
“I believe the fastest runner in Canada is probably chasing cows around southern Saskatchewan somewhere and all he needs is a program and a coach to point him in the right direction.”

By Ryan Moses

Posted: 08/16/2009 01:30:30 AM PDT

Donate-to-play plus forgoing pay.

That could be the formula that keeps local high school sports teams alive as they figure out how to survive drastic district budget cuts this year.

Santa Cruz City Schools is giving coaches the option to turn down their stipends in order to reduce the amount their team will have to fundraise this year.

“One of the ways we’ve tried to alleviate the cost to the site is we’ve negotiated some flexibility for paying coaches’ stipends with our employees, which has alleviated some of the pressure on the site to do as much fundraising,” SCCS assistant superintendent Tanya Krause said.

The pressure on coaches to find funding for their teams is greater than ever after the district cut funding for stipends from 40 percent to 20 percent this season. Athletics programs won’t even be able to use that district money since the principals at the district’s three high schools — Santa Cruz, Harbor and Soquel — unanimously decided to put that money toward classroom programs, which are also facing cuts during the state’s current budget crises.

That means it’s up to teams to raise their entire budget, a majority of which goes toward the coach’s stipend. Certificated coaches [coaches who work full time at the school] make between $1,639-$3,125 per season at SCCS high schools depending on the sport, according to the district. That means teams would have to raise more than $300,000 district wide if every coach decided to take

his or her pay.

Athletics directors said it was too soon to tell how many coaches would reject their stipends. Tim McGuire, a former principal and athletic director at Harbor who is assisting the three high schools in handling the crises, said he heard a lot were considering it.

“The coaching stipends are part of what each team needs to fund. If the coach would rather spend his time coaching than raising more money, then they can waive it,” McGuire said.

The three high schools in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, where the school board voted to eliminate all sports funding this year except for athletic directors salaries, are each handling the problem a bit differently. Aptos athletic director Mark Dorfman said some coaches have offered to decline their stipend, but the school plans on paying all of them, though it might not be as much in years past.

“We anticipate paying all our coaches,” said Dorfman, who also coaches the Aptos track and field team. “Some have indicated that they would work for free, but we plan on paying them. I don’t think it’s fair to make them choose.”

Both school districts will be using donate-to-play programs with SCCS asking for $135 and PVUSD asking $150 per student per sport. Like the stipends, though, those fees are optional, and coaches will have to do additional fundraising for their salary, league dues, referees and other expenses.

With salaries that amount to just a couple of dollars an hour through the course of a season, no local coach is making a living off high school athletics. But Santa Cruz girls basketball coach Pat Jones said the stipend is important because it allows him to cover expenses that arise as a result of coaching, such as travel and childcare.

“That’s not why you do it. It’s nice to get that money, but so many coaches do it for so long because they love coaching and building a program, and you just ride these things out,” Jones said. “The stipend kind of allows us to do it because of personal expenses and what it takes to coach. … It’s nice to break even and not have to pay to coach.”

Jones, who is entering his 13th season of coaching at Santa Cruz, said he’s not worried about coming up with enough money for the stipend because the girls basketball program has traditionally been successful with fundraising.

“Not really [worried]. I don’t want to sound like it’s no big deal because I know the district is crunching, but we’re going to have a season and it’s not going to affect how we coach. We’ll have to do some extra fundraisers,” Jones said.

Other programs expect to have a tougher time finding money. Matt Schutz, who coaches the girls and boys varsity volleyball teams at Harbor, said he knows the girls team will be fine, but he’s concerned about the boys program, which doesn’t garner nearly as much interest.

“I’m worried about the guys program. We don’t have the fundraisers and we don’t have the numbers,” Schutz said, adding that other sports have a lot more players but still struggle financially. “Boys soccer at Harbor is a big deal. There are a lot of kids that have interest, but not many of them have money. If you lose that, you lose an in a lot of kids have toward school.”

Schutz is also concerned that having certain programs paying their coaches and not others will create competitive imbalances, because it makes the programs that can pay more like elite club teams.

“That’s when it becomes sketchy because there are some sports that are well funded and there are others that are not,” Schutz said. “It starts to take away from some of the beautiful things about high school athletics. I’m fine fundraising. I don’t mind working hard for those kind of things, but it’s hard. It makes a job that’s already hard that much tougher.”

Contact Sports Desk: Call: 603-742-4455, Ext. 5512 / E-mail: sports@fosters.com Sports shorts

ROCHESTER — A fundraising event to benefit the Spaulding High School boys tennis team will be held at Gary’s Restaurant and Sports Lounge on Route 125 on Aug. 8 from 7 p.m. until midnight.

Entertainment will be provided by Rone Jones, Code 3, Discount Gigolos and Mainly Hawaiian, with a $5 cover charge going to the team. A raffle will feature man prizes, including Bruins tickets and an Omega Z5 .50 caliber muzzleloader rifle.

To purchase raffle tickets, contact Susan Pelletier at 330-3256 or e-mail questions to svptennis@metrocast.net.