A well-established girls basketball team at Dixie seems like a dream, an expensive dream at that. School funding and Booster Club money help Dixie’s sports teams. With their money, teams are able to buy the appropriate supplies that they need to play. It is helpful; however, they are wasted on one team in particular: girls basketball. If Dixie wants to benefit the school, they should get rid of the girls basketball team because they lack skill and talent, the money that the team would normally spend could go toward new services and supplies for Dixie’s athletic program, and it would weed out the truly passionate players.
Dixie should cut the girls basketball team because they lack skill and talent. They won nine games in their 2018-19 season and two in their 2017-18 season. The team only wins against other lackluster teams like the South Carolina School of the Deaf and Blind, who only competes well against other deaf and blind schools, and Calhoun Falls Charter, who lost almost every game they played (MaxPreps). At the 2019 Dixie Athletic Banquet, the team’s Most Valuable Player averaged seven points a game which translates to three successful shots. The team is not exactly in the running to win a championship any time soon. The teams spends seven-thousand dollars on years when they purchase uniforms and spend four-thousand on the years that they do not. The team’s biggest expenses are coaching and uniforms. In an interview with former athletic director Frank Brown, he explains the cost of uniforms,“The boys and girls teams are put together, but in total both teams’ home and away uniforms are around $6,500.” This means the girls’ uniforms cost around $3,250. The former soccer coach Machelle Gray stated that head coaches make $2,700 and assistant coaches make $1,300. If Dixie were to rid the girls basketball team, that would bring in a surplus of around nine thousand dollars. With this surplus, Dixie could provide new supplies and services for the athletic program.
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Dixie should cut the girls basketball team because the money that Dixie spends yearly on the girls basketball team could go toward supplies and services that the athletic program lacks: a new mascot and an athletic trainer. The Stinger the Hornet mascot costume has been a part of Dixie football games for ten years (Brewton). The age shows with the snapped off antennae and faded black mesh fixtures. The mascot is a school staple. Clemson University’s is the Tigers. Dixie High School’s is the Hornets. The money could help the school buy a new and presentable mascot costume. Dixie also lacks a proper athletic trainer but does not lack sports-related injuries. Having an athletic trainer at Dixie could help prevent serious injuries from occurring at school. At games, an athletic trainer can provide immediate care within seconds (Pryor et al. 156). Events have occurred at Dixie where having an athletic trainer would have helped tremendously. During one of the 2019 boys soccer playoff games, a player from Ridge-Spring Monetta suffered a broken rib. The most anyone could do was call an ambulance which took forty minutes to arrive. With an athletic trainer on site, the injured player would not have had to wait forty minutes to get medical attention. If there is not an athletic director, coaches will have to take on responsibility and make judgements when it comes to a player getting injured even though coaches are not trained or prepared for medical emergencies (Lyznicki et al. 273). A player’s injury should not be the responsibility of the coach as they are only responsible for coaching the sport. Having an athletic trainer would give coaches the responsibility of coaching. The responsibility of dealing with injuries would be left to the professional.
Dixie should cut the girls basketball team because it would weed out the girls who are passionate about playing the sport. A French study found that there are four motives to playing a sport. One of the reasons for participating in a sport is the social aspect of it (Recours et al. 3). Spending thousands of dollars for a “Spend Time with Friends” or “Find a Best Friend” club is a ridiculous idea, but some girls on the team join with those motives in mind. The riddance of the girls basketball team could be seen as getting rid of the opportunity for high school girls to play basketball. This is also a way to figure out which girls are actually passionate about playing. The passionate players could go on to join a club basketball team; however, these teams can be quite expensive, ranking up to around $5,000 without a sponsor. Not everyone can spend that much money for a child to play a sport. A cheaper solution is to create a basketball club at Dixie. The members of the club could have a t-shirt and play basketball every other day in the school gym. Not only would it be a cheaper option for the girls, but it would also be cheaper for Dixie as they would only need to provide a place for the girls to practice.
If Dixie wants to benefit the school, they should get rid of the girls basketball team because they lack skill and talent, the money that the team would normally spend could go toward new services and supplies for Dixie’s athletic program, and it would weed out the truly passionate players. Dixie’s athletic program would benefit with a surplus of seven thousand dollar. Even though the money comes from getting rid of a team, the benefits outweigh the consequences.
Works Cited
- Brewton, Lori. “Personal interview.” 23 Aug, 2019.
- Brown, Frank. “Personal interview.” 19 Sep. 2019.
- Gray, Machelle. “Personal interview.” 26 Sep. 2019.
- Lyznicki, James M., Joseph A. Riggs, and Hunter C. Champion. “Certified Athletic Trainers in Secondary Schools: Report of the Council on Scientific Affairs, American Medical Association.” Journal of Athletic Training 34.3 (1999): 272-276.
- MaxPreps. CBS Broadcasting Inc., 2019. Web. 20 Sep. 2019. .
- Pryor, Riana R., Douglas J. Casa, Lesley W. Vandermark, Rebecca L. Stearns, Sarah M. Attanasio, Garrett J. Fontaine, and Alex M. Water. “Athletic Training Services in Public Secondary Schools: A Benchmark Study.” Journal of Athletic Training 50.2 (2015): 156-162.
- Recours, Robin A., Marc Souville and Jean Griffet. “Expressed Motives for Informal and Club/ Association Based Sports Participation.” Journal of Leisure Research 36:1 (2004): 1-22.
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