Jul
21
It is a brutally hot Saturday morning at Peoria Centennial High’s parking lot, and football players in either tank tops, T-shirts or no shirts are washing cars, earning their way to five days of cooler weather.
Every year coach Richard Taylor takes players from all three levels to Concordia University in Irvine, Calif., for a preseason camp. And every year it’s a struggle to get everybody to come up with the $365 to get away.
There are no handouts.
“We always have kids who fall a little short, and it’s not their fault,” Taylor said. “But we don’t think it’s a good idea just to give them the money. That’s setting a bad precedent. You need to earn it.”
This can be hard on parents and football programs during a time when businesses are shutting down, people are being laid off, kids are having to work, school districts’ budgets are being cut and more schools are charging participation fees.
At Buckeye, after the district failed to override the ruling in November, there are fewer funds for extracurricular activities. That means participation fees on top of camp fees.
“We don’t want to lose kids,” Buckeye coach Bobby Barnes said. “This is supposed to be about them. If we didn’t have sports in Buckeye, we’d have a bunch of kids on the street. It’s what keeps them in line.”
It costs each kid in the Buckeye football program $200 to attend a Sedona camp, which concluded Thursday. Barnes, who said he could tell stories about hardships that would bring tears, seeks sponsors to chip in a little here and there to get kids to camp.
“We had to raise an extra $3,000 this year because kids couldn’t raise money,” he said. “That well will run dry if we don’t do something. It doesn’t mean we all have poor kids. But a single parent making minimum wage or doesn’t have a job, it’s tough. These are good kids. It’s not like they’re losers. It’s just tough circumstances. We still have kids who somehow raise the money to go to camp and don’t gripe and complain.”
Centennial senior linebacker Walter Nunley said the fund raising is more fun than work.
“It helps the team with bonding,” he said. “Some of the people I really don’t know, I get to know them more.”
Last year Centennial football raised $1,500 during its car wash to help get kids to camp.
Taylor said he feels good that all 109 players across all three levels were able to pay their way to the camp Monday at Concordia University, where the agenda includes staying in dorm rooms, practicing twice a day, hitting Huntington Beach once a day and hopefully finding time for an outing to Knott’s Berry Farm.
“I know that there are some coaches who take their players to places, where they sleep on the floor, practice three times a day, and the kids come back and say, ‘Man that was so hard,’ ” Taylor said. “We want our camp to be good, accomplish what we set off to accomplish.
“But I want them to come back and say, ‘Wow, I had a great time. I had fun with the guys. We went to the beach. We went to the park. The food was great. Got to sleep in a bed.’ “
Cave Creek Cactus Shadows coach Greg Davis, hired in April, wasn’t able to get a big jump on fund raising to help offset the costs of the Falcons’ camp in Winslow this week. It cost each player $300. On top of that, Cactus Shadows’ district has a $300 participation fee.
“It is difficult,” said Davis, who brought about 40 varsity players to Winslow, where they slept in the gym, shared by other teams. “You as a coach want to offer something beneficial for your football team and the kids. But at the same time you have to think of the costs having to spend on that.”
Davis is willing to help families in need.
“Me and my family went through hard times,” he said. “Financially, we lost a house. We went through tough times. I’m very aware it can happen to anyone.”
Mesa coach Kelley Moore, who took about 60 varsity players this week to Snowflake at $280 a kid, deals with athletes who come from poor backgrounds and have to work to help the family pay bills.
“I would say 75 percent of our kids can’t afford it,” Moore said. “That’s why we fund-raise all year. For us, camps are not so much about football, although we do a lot of it. It’s more about life and character and how to overcome struggle.”
Some schools didn’t do camps this year to cut back on costs.
Moore said he feels it’s important to get kids away from their normal environment for at least a few days.
Moore doesn’t allow electronics at camp. No texting. No video games. No Facebook.
“If we did it at home, they’d have the same old distractions,” he said. “This forces them to talk to each other. That’s what makes the chemistry better.”
