Club sports unlikely to replace high school sports
High school sports from the Friday night football game to basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball track and field, tennis, golf … you name it, it has a constituency who live and die with the outcome of the events. High school sports rank right up there with mom, apple pie and Chevrolets.
Every year, big bucks are spent to give students the chance to participate in sports-related activities, not to mention the ancillary features—cheerleaders, drill teams, pep bands, a venue to recognize those who have done something for a school not necessarily athletic-oriented. The high school football field or gymnasium are gathering places.
Big bucks, however, is a relative term. Voters in Allen, Texas, in 2009 approved a $119 million bond, with $60 million of it going to construct an 18,000-seat stadium for the high school football team. The school has 5,000 students spread out over a 650,000 square-foot area. When the stadium opens this fall, it will only rank as the fifth largest high school football facility in the state.
With education budget issues in Idaho and other states, one prominent business and sports figure in Nevada is proposing a complete rewrite of the high school sports environment. Len Stevens is now executive director of the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce. Prior to that, he was head basketball coach at the University of Nevada and Washington State University. He thinks the time has some to kill high school sports.