A meeting is planned for Friday to discuss eliminating scheduled varsity and JV games.
By JAMAL THALJI
Published June 19, 2003
The pain isn't over for Pasco County athletics: Schedules could be next on the budget-chopping block.
Tuesday night the Pasco County School Board voted to eliminate seventh- and ninth-grade sports and double and triple athletic fees for multisport athletes, some of the measures taken to cut $10.3-million from next year's budget.
Another measure calls for the school district to reduce junior varsity and varsity games to the minimum required by the Florida High School Activities Association.
County athletic director Gus Manticos said he will hold a meeting Friday morning to explore cutting back scheduled games.
"You can cut your throat trying to save money, and you can ruin your programs," he said. "So we're going to be very, very careful. We want to see where this is leading us."
But Pasco County already cut the schedule of every team sport save football by 10 percent before the past school year, from 28 to 25 games. That was to help each school save $5,000 in athletic expenses.
It also anticipated the FHSAA adopting a similar measure to cut schedules statewide by 10 percent for the 2003-04 school year, which it did in November.
But the county's voluntary 10 percent scheduling reduction might not be enough for these tough times, Manticos said. Not with the county facing the smallest per-pupil funding increase in the state, and not with more budget cutting expected in the future.
But how much is too much?
"Right now we're not too sure," Manticos said. "When we said the minimal amount of games, there wasn't an exact number. That equation hasn't been decided yet."
Manticos said Friday's meeting won't be called to implement policy but to gauge the opinions of select middle school and high school principals and athletic directors. What Manticos wants to know is, how much more can the district cut from schedules?
"That's something we have to discuss Friday," he said. "What does that do to these programs? We don't have a whole lot of fat to cut. We took a 10 percent cut last year."
The athletic fee increases ask students to pay more for each sport: $45 and $65 initial fees for middle and high school students, $30 and $50 for each additional sport. If the county cuts schedules and asks students to pay more for fewer games, that will leave kids, parents and coaches unhappy.
"We went down from 28 to 25 games and coaches weren't very happy about that," said Jack Homko, the athletic director for River Ridge Middle/High school. "I just can't see it going down any more. We're paying more and getting less, correct?"
What is the FHSAA minimum? Ridgewood athletic director Gary Anders said the state asks schools to play its district foes in team sports a certain number of times - once in football, twice in other sports - to be eligible for postseason play. District member schools can vote unanimously to play once to decide district honors and playoff berths.
The Sunshine Athletic Conference, formed by the county's nine high schools, also requires members to play each other to decide the conference championship and individual honors. What will happen to that?
Manticos said the school district does not want schools to renege on contracts to play other schools that have been signed. But Anders said that may be too late for fall and winter schedules.
"Virtually all of the districts schedules and so forth have been decided for next year, all the way through winter sports," he said. "We've already had our district meetings."
