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FL: Duval County, Private funds might save sports

05-Jun-2011  Jacksonville.com

Usually this time of year, Duval County athletic director Jon Fox is working on schedules for next year and preparing for vacation. Not this year.

The Duval County School Board instructed Fox on May 27 to seek fund-raising from private sources to help fund the sports the board will likely cut when it votes on its final budget this summer. Those varsity sports — cross country, golf, tennis, wrestling, lacrosse and slow-pitch softball — as well as junior varsity soccer will only survive the budget crunch with financial help from the community.

The board requested Fox start a foundation. In time, he will. For now, he's trying to save the eliminated sports.

"I've met with leaders of the golf community this week, as well as tennis, cross country and lacrosse," Fox said. "I'm very optimistic after these meetings that all four of these sports will be saved. We're not there yet, but each group truly understands our plight. I'm feeling much better than I was. It's been heartwarming and gratifying. These were very fruitful discussions."

Fox says there have been no funds promised from the groups in terms of specific amounts. In all, the cuts involving high school sports amount to $445,298 in coaching supplements. However, that figure is based on all 17 Gateway Conference schools fielding a team in each sport. The figure also factors in an assistant coach, which isn't always needed at a school that has low participation in a sport.

"I think somewhere around $381,000 would do it," Fox said. "The people I met with needed to go back and meet with their groups to come up with their fund-raising plans. Some wanted to contact individual people of interest in their particular sport. It's being done in a variety of ways, but nothing firm has happened yet because we just met this week."

Fox has meetings scheduled this week with wrestling and soccer supporters.

The total sum to save cross country, golf, tennis and wrestling are all slightly under $70,000 each. Lacrosse is not as costly. While Fox budgeted lacrosse at $69,598, it's cost is actually much lower. Fox must base his budget figure on full participation for all 17 schools, but only eight schools fielded lacrosse teams this past season. If no other school added the sport to its roster, the cost to save lacrosse would total roughly $33,000.

Whether the money raised would go into a general pool or be separated by sport is something the board and superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals must still figure out.

"My thinking is if an organization raises the money needed for the sport that's near and dear to its heart, it should get that sport back," Fox said. "I'll lobby for that as hard as I can. We'll bring them back one at a time. I think that's the fair thing to do."

Timing also factors in. Cross country and golf are fall sports. Fox stated the money would need to be raised by Aug. 1 to save those sports. Tennis is a spring sport, which drastically extends its fund-raising deadline.

So, what about the foundation?

"That's round two," Fox said. "The first step was to try and get back as many sports as I could by gathering community support. Setting up a 501 3c [non-profit organization] would have been time consuming with a cost involved.

"At some point, we'll bring the people together who are the movers and shakers in their respective sports and come up with something that will sustain us down the road.

"Eventually, there will be a foundation, but that's not the immediate need. Pay-to-play also hasn't been touched yet."

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