Imagining a Rosemont High School without Sports

If the Sacramento City Unified School District pulls all funding for sports at , the results will be catastrophic, the school’s athletic director said this week.

“If [sports] don’t get funded, it’s really going to be the end of high school as we know it in the Sac City district,” said Paul Martinez, the athletic director and varsity baseball coach at Rosemont High School. “It’s going to be like going to a tech school or something.”

The district’s board of education last week approved a with $28 million in cuts, including cutting all support for co-curricular activities: pay for coaches and trainers, uniform replacement, transportation to and from games and other areas. would include district-wide pay cuts, increased class sizes and laying off one assistant principal at each high school. In all, the cuts to sports and other co-curricular activities total $1.26 million across the district.

The cuts will become reality if a isn’t approved in a special election this June. The district’s “best-case scenario” still projects a $9 million deficit.

At Rosemont, Martinez said if the district eliminates funding for sports, coaches would have to work for free and new sources of revenue would have to be found. The school spends around $173,000 a year on co-curricular activities, with about 80-90 percent of that money going to sports, district spokesman Gabe Ross said. The other funding goes to yearbook, drama and band programs.

“We’re going to have to be like everybody else–raise ticket prices, charge for parking–it’ll be just like going to the Kings game,” Martinez said, adding those steps may be taken even if the district continues to fund sports.

Martinez was pessimistic about the possibility of fundraising to make up the difference, saying sports receive little outside support in Rosemont.

He said some local businesses, like and the gas station on Bradshaw Road, have been staunch supporters of the school, but most have done little.

Martinez estimated that Rosemont High School receives only about a quarter of the support that most high schools get from their communities. He recalled , whose stadium is filled with ads for local businesses.

And the solution likely won’t come from booster clubs, he said.

“[We spend] $90,000 a year on coaching staff at our school,” he said. “That’s a tremendous effort for any booster club.”

Michael Pritchett, the school’s football announcer and a parent-teacher-student association member, said boosters could fill in small gaps, but wouldn’t be able to support entire programs.

“Fundraising is always available for nickel and dime stuff,” Pritchett said in an e-mail. “We can't do a nickel and dime fundraiser for this one.”

Martinez also worried that students would simply transfer out of the district if sports were eliminated.

“I think the district is cutting their nose off to spite their face,” Martinez said. “Whatever they say they’re saving by cutting athletics, they’re going to lose in [average daily attendance funding] from kids leaving.”

Rick Wanlin, the head varsity football coach, said he could think of a few students who likely would have dropped out if it weren’t for sports.

“If you didn’t have that carrot in front of them, they wouldn’t [be there],” Wanlin said. “Even if the motivation is only to play football, they’re still getting their education and moving forward toward graduation.”

Ross, the district spokesman, said the projected cuts didn't include any projections about changes in average daily attendance funding because it would be impossible to predict.

When these cuts were decided at last week’s board meeting, Superintendent Jonathan Raymond said the district would still try to find a way to fund sports.

“My college dreams wouldn’t have happened but for athletics,” Raymond said. “We’ll do what it takes to figure out how to get it supported and get it funded. We’re not taking it away right now and we’ll figure out what we have to do.”