Pay to play??

Welcome aboard! I'd been "lurking" for a while before I got the nerve to sign up! I'm from the Atlanta area too but my son won't start high school until next year. We live in Cobb County and I have no clue about "pay to play." I was just wondering what county you're in so I can prepare myself if that is the case in Cobb.

In our area it's 250 per sport

I think "pay-to-play" is another phrase for "athletic fee". As school costs continue to rise, money that had been marked for athletics was shifted to other areas, some of which repulse me.

Regardless, it is an across the board fee for anyone who makes the team. This brings up another problem when parents say "If I have to pay 650 bucks for my kid to sit on the bench, he won't play anymore. People don't realize it now, but shifting budget dollars away from athletics is going to cost other headaches down the road.

One repercussion, and it may be far fetched is that I truly believe that HS athletics develops character, strength and leadership skills. As the number of kids that participate in athletics dwindle so does the pool of potential leaders and in turn the number of couch potatoes goes up. Why did this happen? Because the Croation choir need money for a field trip, or the auto club needed an engine for the kit car, or the 3 person debate team needed to be sponsored.

Selfish on my part, maybe. However, there has always been a separation between the academics and athletics, but, I don't think the academic side understands the potential of the athletic mind.

Well said, rz1.

In these parts, the fee is around $75.

A far bigger cost, the spring trip to a warmer place to play. For the whole family, if you stay in a nice hotel and travel by air: $2,000 or more!

A million dollar signing bonus will just about make our family even on this baseball stuff.

Up here it is 125 to play with 25 for equipment/uniform fees for a 12 game HS season. For legion it is 75, I believe and that lasts from the end of May to the end of July. And from start of September to weather permitting I guess is the fall ball season and that costs 25. Add in travel fees and personal equipment fees to that also.

Ya'll are right. The initial fee is only the beginning. We also did a spring break trip to FL that ran us about 1200.00 (for four days). Also add in cost of travel to other schools during spring and gate fees. Summer and fall only do tourney's so more travel and gate fees. To answer izzismom- I do not live in Cobb Co. but our county borders yours.

I guess we're lucky. It doesn't cost anything to play high school ball here.

There is no such thing here in NC. We do have booster clubs that help with extra stuff but each school has an athletic department which is funded by the county's school board. It is all factored into the budget.

Here schools chip in for sports...enough to buy a few balls maybe

rz1 - around here they don't pay for the choir, debate, or auto club's expenses, either. High School teams run from $150 - $400 a year per player in various sports, in addition to the $$ the booster club provides to all sports.

P-Dog, If you mean there is no participation fee for non-athletic participation, it's probably because funds are allocated by the district to suport such groups. In our district when the budget ax falls the athletic dept is first in line.

The newest district desire is to take the 4 public D1 High Schools (2000+ students/each) and remove 2 of the athletic directors. Now imagine rival schools with the the same AD . To top that, of those two AD would have the daytime hours cut so they could run the school districts evening adult programs.

And they call themselves educators

at my high school in cobb county double it costs the same for fall and summer hs ball, im not sure about the varsity price tho.

5-A school near Austin, Texas. $ 20 to cover the hat and practice t-shirt. Uni's are free but must be returned. Players provide their own pants.

No summer or fall ball though, UIL only allows school supervised bb in the spring in Texas.

Here we have to pay money for all sports, usually between 150-250 w/ discounts for reduced lunch students.

In response to an earlier comment: I debate as well as play sports, and though debate takes less money, it is still important and worthy to fund.

Many of the public schools around here ask kids to pay only a small amount when they ask (i.e. $25 for a hat, BP Shirt, and socks) ... then charge around $40 for the HS sanctioned summer league.

Players are welcome to work the youth camps in exchange for their fee, and the baseball team has a fundraiser at basketball games.

Catholic/Private schools charge a few hundred per season with the kids paying for just about everything.

It's free in our school. School provides uniforms, transportation and sometimes food money. Also new t-shirts every year. We do have fund raisers every now and then but that was for a new net for the batting cage. Boosters helped with that cost.