Pay to play:

Fort High has set up a two-man committee to look into re-evaluating the user-fee system for its sports programs this summer for the 1999-2000 school year.
Athletic director Rick Wiedenhoeft and vice-principal Ian Simpson could recommend lowering the fees even though the ones here were found, on average, to be less expensive than in Dryden and Kenora.
“Personally, I feel user fees are too high,” Wiedenhoeft said. “Our committee will try to investigate the costs involved in each sport–the number of players, the uniform costs, the length of the seasons–and try to come up with a fair user fee.”
For the 1998-99 season, each Muskie player paid $75 for hockey; $60 for basketball, volleyball, soccer, and football; $50 for curling and cheerleading; and $30 for badminton.
By comparison, players who donned an Eagles uniform at Dryden High School paid more than double in some cases. Hockey players, for instance, each paid $200.
They paid $120 for football (which included a jersey), $65 for junior basketball and volleyball, $75 for senior basketball and volleyball, $30 for curling and badminton, and $65 for cheerleading.
And those figures won’t be coming down, either, said Diane Chappell of the athletic department at DHS–and hinted they may even go up next year depending on their budget.
“Compared to our minor [community] sports, our players get quite a bit in terms or [quality] coaching and practice time,” she stressed.
“When you add up the qualified coaches with the knowledge of sports, the facilities to play and practice in, and the transportation, [the fees] aren’t that expensive,” agreed Simpson.
“As a parent, I have paid those prices and I feel it is worth it,” he noted.
Up in Kenora, Bronco hockey players must raise $500 in “community passes” to area businesses. If they fail to sell that amount, they then are responsible for picking up the shortfall in order to play.
But Kenora athletic co-ordinator Dan Shankowsky said most businesses are quite accommodating to the players, and that the players and their families rarely have to dig into their own pockets for money.
Shankowsky also noted Beaver Brae won’t be lowering its user fees, and may raise them a “few dollars.”
But Wiedenhoeft is standing firm that he would like to see the user fees here lowered–and will make a concerted effort to do just that.
“We’ll try to make up for the 40 percent cutbacks we had three years ago and we might try to take from other departments,” he said. “We’ll try to build a budget based on needs.”
Simpson, though, has a more cautious approach. He warned they will not make cuts–or lower their user fees–if it means programs will suffer in “quality.”
“I would like to see us get more games, better equipment, and new uniforms to improve our programs even further,” he said. “It costs our kids a lot of money for games, with the travel, but I feel it makes us competitive with teams like Thunder Bay.
“I want to keep our programs up so that we stay competitive with them. I don’t want to lower fees at the expense of programs,” he stressed.