[ewokXC1995]

Looks like 14 Red is nothing but a troll !

[RedAuerbach]

If we look at sports from a cost perspective (which I am totally against), it is pretty simple. A good football program will make some money, while boys' basketball must have a very good year to break even. Pretty much everything else is a money loser. Having said that, so is everything else at a school. The science, English, math ot history class has tremendous costs (teacher's salary, books, computer, electricity, etc.) and produce no income. However since lifelong skills are being taught - these classes are worth every penny. The same holds true with sports.
I hate the fact that we are even having this discussion. As a student, I had no idea what "pay to play" was. Times were tough 30 years ago, but the community valued the school and the kids. Today, we have allowed people on the extreme to rule the conversation. Many of these people participated in sports when they were students. These sports were paid for by the community, but now as adults, they want to deny these same opportunities to today's students. John Wooden once said, "Happiness begins when selfishness ends". It is too bad that some adults don't take his advice.

[shawnee]

Well said Red.

[towguy21]

Great post!

[slack419]

I am not here to argue how profitable our sport is but I will tell you that I do not believe the quality of the sport is falling off. All you have to do is go to the state meet and year after year there are records falling and the gap between DI and DIII appears to be narrowing ever so slightly.

I just attended a DIII small school conference meet tonight and witnessed some amazing races. I witnessed a 58 second last lap of a mile where the winner ran 4:13 and second place is a distance 4:20, that would stand on the podium at state any year. I saw two girls go 5:00 and 5:06 in the mile. Then in the 2 mile I saw the same individual run a 2:10 last 800 and run 9:28 in the 3200 and it took 10:22 to even place. I know 10:22 is not a blazing time but to have that kind of depth at a DIII conference meet is awesome. Also, the girls pole vault champion cleared 12', which would have placed is amazing since 10 years ago many schools wouldn't even allow girls to do pole vault and now they are competitive with many males in the event.

I have only been out of high school a little over 10 years and the times at this conference meet were faster than an entire Regional field. I realize that this doesn't include all track events, it is a mere sampling of how track and field is very strong right now.