In the summer of 2013, school administrators, community members and parents met to discuss the inclusion of lacrosse to the Mission Bay High School slate of athletics, with the understanding that although it is a CIF recognized sport, it is not funded by San Diego Unified School District. Committed parents and players reached out to the community for funds to help get sticks in the hands of kids who would otherwise never be exposed to the fastest growing sport in the country. Grants were written, fundraisers slated, coaches hired, kids excited … and lacrosse was off and running. Over the next two seasons, Mission Bay boys and girls played in all-star county games; the school was visited by college recruiters, and one female athlete committed to play Division 1 college lacrosse. The teams are made up of 90 percent IB students with GPAs above a 3.0, and students have transferred to MBHS because it offers lacrosse. But the state of lacrosse hangs in the balance for the Buccaneers due to lack of funding. Although the administration supports the sport, its hands are tied, and lacrosse is in danger of being cancelled if a significant amount of funding is not raised by the end of the school year. It costs roughly $12,000 a season to support lacrosse at the high school level. Coaches’ stipends, equipment costs and referee fees are what make up the cost and need to be raised each year. Each year, the athletes are asked to fundraise, and each year hearts were broken when they had a difficult time raising enough money to pay for a sport that means so much to them. San Diego Unified School District has maintained the same level of funding for athletics without taking into account inflation or additional expenses for more than 20 years. This poses a huge problem for the site-funded sports such as lacrosse, because the school cannot require the student athletes to pay to play, leaving the onus on the parents and community. If you would like to discuss sponsorships, purchase a “brick” for the stadium or make a donation to help keep lacrosse at MBHS, contact Missy Kroeger ([email protected]) or send donations to: Mission Bay High School Alumni Association, FBO MBHS Lacrosse, MBHS Alumni Association, 841 Turquoise St. Suite F442, San Diego, CA 92109. Nationally, school sports lost $3.5 billion in funding from 2009 to 2011, and 27 percent of U.S. public high schools will offer no sports by 2020, according to Up2Us Sports, a coalition of sports-based youth development programs. Dick’s Sporting Goods is funding a film project through its foundation, which aims to raise money for youth sports. The film, due out this year, puts the spotlight on a high school girls lacrosse team.
“The majority of people in the country don’t realize there’s an underfunding problem. The general feeling is that sports are flush with money, but there’s a different picture. We’re trying to bring it to people through storytelling,” said Ryan Eckel, vice president of brand marketing, Dick’s Sporting Goods, in a recently published article. With the national epidemic of childhood obesity at an all-time high, lacrosse provides children a physical outlet and the ability to enjoy an after-school sport prior to returning to the everyday pressures of being a student and teenager.
