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Schools

Coaches React To $50 Athletic Fee

Mixed feelings emerge among high-school coaches over impact of $50 athletic fee.

Last week’s announcement that high-school students will have to fork over $50 to participate in interscholastic athletics has left some coaches within Prince George’s County wondering how the fee will impact their teams going forward.

“Usually each year it’s a challenge for some students to get money to pay for their athletic physicals,” said volleyball coach Madeline Sease. “And now they have this $50 activity fee on top of it. It’s unfortunate, and I just hope we don’t lose any players.”

That could happen, Sease said, recounting the moment she first learned of the fee while among players and coaches. “It was [a shock]. One of my volleyball players [was] stunned because she knows her family’s situation, and she said, ‘I’m not going to be able to play.’”

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“That broke my heart," said Sease. 

The annual fee, which is slated to take effect this fall, will be collected prior to the start of each sports season, and cover each athlete for the entire year — no matter the number of sports participated in, according to a June 9 press release.

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Students who tryout for a team but don’t make the cut will not be charged the $50. Meanwhile, those unable to pay the fee may request a waiver or a “modified payment plan,” which will be granted by school principals on a case-by-case basis.

To some coaches, the waiver issue alone warrants pause.

“Officially, I don’t know how much of a waiver it is,” said Tom Green, ’s athletic director and football coach. “What I read was if the principal gives a young man or woman a waiver, the school is still responsible for paying the $50 for that kid, whether it comes out of the principal’s budget, the athletic budget, the football budget or whatever."

“If you have X number of kids participating, your school has to cut a check for X number of dollars. So, if the school’s still paying it, is it a waiver? You’re just moving the fee somewhere else.”

Green also wondered how equitably money will be doled out from the county since many schools don’t field the same number of athletic programs. Several of Prince George’s County’s smaller schools, for instance, don’t have enough students to field junior varsity programs or even varsity programs like girls’ soccer.

“At the bigger schools — like a Flowers or Roosevelt, or Bowie or — the county’s going to be taking twice as much money [in fees] from our schools,” Green said. “But you’re giving us the same thing that you’re giving Fairmont, Forestville and the 1A schools."

“It doesn’t seem fair to me, you know?”

Green’s concerns are not alone amid deep budget cuts already involving the elimination of middle school sports in the county.

 “To see the middle school sports disappear again ... this year is tough,” said Michael Strother, who coaches the Gwynn Park girls’ basketball team. Our kids need some place to go, and athletics allows them to participate in something after school and build some camaraderie, teamwork and a sense of pride of being a part of something.”

Yet other coaches expressed guarded optimism that the activity fee may prove beneficial for athletes both on and off the field.

“I’m hoping with this $50, this will really make the kids work to play,” said Dalitso Chinkhota, who coaches Parkdale High School's boys’ soccer team. “Not because it’s something that they can just get away with, but now you’re actually paying to play; it’s not free anymore."

"Hopefully that will help inspire and motivate them to do better in the classroom,” Chinkhota said, referring to an "E" grading rule that prevents student athletes from participating in sports when their GPAs dip below a 2.0.

Parkdale boys’ basketball coach Tremaine Price added that just as with the "E rule," the $50 activity fee is something that coaches will have no choice but to live with.

“It’s kind of just like how the ‘E’ [grade] rule has kind of put a strain on student athletes who want to play,” he said. “Once they figure out that they’ve got an E [grade] and they can’t play, they’re just like, ‘Why bother?’"

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