Paying to play

Area high school students are finding a new obstacle that is arising when a new sports season starts.
They are finding that if they want to play a particular sport, it's going to take more than just heart, will and desire to win. It's going to take a little extra cash too.
Schools all over the county, as well as the state, are finding that they no longer have the money that will allow them to fund fully functional athletic departments.
"It's tough," Ann Arbor Pioneer football coach Jeremy Gold said. "When we were kids and even when our parents were coming up, sports were free. This wasn't something that people had to worry about. If you wanted to play football or basketball, you just had to go out for the team."
However, things are different these days.
Massive budget cuts are affecting many of the school districts around the state, and even though athletics are a high priority almost everywhere, money is still being cut from sports programs.
So what are athletes and coaches to do?
Is it conceivable that school sponsored sports are being slowly phased out? It it possible that sometime in the near future, public schools will just drop athletics completely in order to save money?
Gold doesn't think so.
However, these new challenges force schools and booster clubs to find new and creative ways of raising money.
Pioneer will be holding a spaghetti dinner along with an auction on Wednesday to help raise funds.
"It's a new era," Gold said. "It's important for us as coaches to make sure that every one who wants to play a sport can. So we have to work harder to make that happen."
Money problems are nothing new.
Schools like Saline, Dexter, Chelsea and Milan are all having to make cuts; this isn't something exclusive to Ann Arbor.
However, in order to keep sports around and keep young athletes playing for their schools, coaches like Gold and members of the community are going to have to try a little hard than they used to.