New cuts will come from elsewhere and won't affect county athletics.
By JAMAL THALJI
Published June 26, 2003
Finally, some good news for county athletes, parents and coaches.
Weightlifting, junior varsity wrestling and middle school soccer are off the budget-chopping block, and so are the rest of the county's athletic programs.
The Pasco County School District was considering cutting those sports to help meet a $500,000 shortfall in the coming school year's budget.
That would have come on top of other measures the school board approved June 17 to help the district cut $10.3-million from the budget. Among those measures were massive athletic fee increases and a decrease in the amount of games schools can schedule.
But athletics no longer will suffer more cuts, according to Bob Dorn, administrative assistant for secondary, adult and alternative schools. The school district will look in other directions to cut the $500,000.
"There is no intent at this point to add those to the list of cuts," Dorn said. "We think we will be able to manage without those cuts.
"They had been discussed, but since then we've had some more discussions and looked at some other things, and it doesn't seem like we will need to go back to athletics for any more cuts."
The news was greeted appropriately Wednesday.
"I'm glad to hear that," said Gulf football coach Keith Newton. "Everybody thought that after a few days ago the budget cuts were done, then the new cuts kind of worried everybody, and it kind of worried me.
"I'm glad they left athletics alone now, because I think they've done a good job of letting athletics (alone) in the past."
Weightlifting coaches were surprised that the district considered eliminating their sport. The coaches argued that the teams incur few costs other than transportation. All schools have weight rooms, and the lifters don't require expensive uniforms.
"I was surprised it was on there, because we don't spend any money," said River Ridge boys weightlifting coach Mike Marlin. "It's not like we have a field. It's not like we have equipment. The stuff's all in place. It didn't make any sense to me."
Wrestling coaches also are relieved. Junior varsity wrestling gives underclassmen their only avenue into the sport, coaches said, because it isn't supported at the middle school level and unevenly organized at the club level.
"I understand we're in some real budget shortfalls, you knew some cuts were going to come across the way," Ridgewood wrestling coach Vinnie Lowe said. "But wrestling is only a high school sport. The J.V. level is much more valuable there.
"It's hard to see a young athlete staying on for two years who can't get any competition. Nor are there a lot of ninth- or 10th-graders ready to go out there and take the lumps they'll get at the varsity level."
The last issue to be decided is schedule cuts. Dorn said superintendent John Long could decide as soon as Monday on a plan to cut one game from all team sports schedules (except for football) and to reduce J.V. schedules to 80 percent of the varsity load.
