The pay-to-play problem

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Every time I visit a camp I ask each coach a version of this question, year after year: What’s your turnout or how are your numbers?

Depending on the sport, weather, date, etc. I get different answers.

“A lot of kids are in that vacation bible school,” “Plenty of kids are out-of-town on vacation,” “The rain didn’t help much,” “It was so hot, parents wanted their kids to stay indoors.”

I’ve heard it all. But one issue that’s never been said, at least out loud to me, was the issue of pay-to-play.

Running a summer camp, no matter how long it takes, costs money. Whether it’s fees for equipment, T-shirts, water, snacks or whatever, it takes time and cash to run these things successfully. In a county where money isn’t falling from the sky, how do you pay for it? By charging the athlete (read: athlete’s parents).

But again, money isn’t pouring into this county. Come to the city council meetings or the school board meetings and see for yourself how much money there is. Then look at the sports teams. There’s a reason why Cuero has a turf field and what seems like state-of-the-art equipment every season. Money.

Just the other year I was talking to a coach about fundraisers and he was excited to finally have enough cash to pay for new uniforms.

With money being a problem from the city and its citizens down to the schools, how do we pay for things like summer camps?

We can try to take a look at Europe and see how they solve that problem.

It’s been written about endlessly, the pay-to-play concept of sports. Just type in “pay to play soccer” and you’ll see over 42 million hits, mainly articles of how race and class are connected to this pay-to-play system, specifically in soccer. There’s a reason why the United States men’s national team is still nowhere near top dogs like Germany, Spain or even England and France. In this country, we expect athletes to pay for these services. Overseas, they pay the players. It’s easier to attract youth to academies and training camps with the European method than the American one.

But who are paying the players in Europe? Overseas club teams are the ones running camps. Big money squads like FC Barcelona or Arsenal FC have come to the United States to create academies.

How does that help someone here in Gonzales whose dreams are to play basketball though? What about golf?

Quite frankly, it doesn’t.

Which leads back to the original question, who is going to pay these fees?

You know that phrase, it takes a village? That’s what it’ll take here in Gonzales.

If Michael wants to improve his basketball skills but can’t afford it, there’s got to be a way we can get him on the court. Same goes for Sally down the road that has a great driver but her short game needs some work in golf.

How do you solve that problem? My suggestion is setting up some sort of scholarship fund.

I see the press releases that run through our paper, there are scholarship funds for everything, whether it’s academic, agricultural, etc. Why couldn’t someone set up a fund that perhaps the athletic department can monitor so that it alleviates most if not all the fees that athletes and their parents have to pay for these summer camps?

I know there is interest in these sports. I can take a drive around town and see kids playing hoops on the street or in various playgrounds. But not all of them are able to pay that money to get to those camps that are run here in town.

We can go on Facebook and talk about how this town needs “more things for kids to do.” Sports is the answer. Why can’t we be “the village” it takes to get things going?

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