"Hold that line, team, hold that line."
The next time you hear that chant at a prep football game, it might not be coming from cheerleaders or fans from the sidelines. Instead, the source might be from administrators and parents.The line? Not the offensive nor defensive lines - rather the bottom line.
Football is just one of the prep football sports suffering from skyrocketing costs - costs that are, in some instances, being passed on to the teenage participants. And football isn't the most expensive extra-curricular high school activity - just ask the parents of prep baseball players or cheerleaders or the school official trying to rent a civic pool for swimming.
Where better to find a barometer of prep football costs than at Hunter High, the first high school to open up in the metropolitan area in a half-dozen years? The school is shelling out nearly $50,000 to equip its football program, and the price tag isn't lost on Coach Mike Fraser, formerly of Granger High.
Fraser, who has been making football-related purchases for Hunter since early January, can easily list - with some reference to purchasing orders and equipment catalogs - the cost to equip an individual player.
Take a helmet, all the pads, jerseys, pants, shoes and practice outfits necessary and add in some fees - a 20-day clinic fee, a participation fee and the new helmet-reconditioning fee - and the cash register rings up at $451.
Of that cost, the player picks up the tab on all three fees, the practice jersey and the shoes, to the tune of $136. And that's without any of the `fad extras' - gloves, extra pads, towels, eye wear, braces, leggings and such.
Fraser is quick to recall such costs from his 1979 season at Granger High, when a helmet worth $105 today could be bought for $38 and shoulder pads valued at $55 now were at $25 then. And players had no participation fee, no helmet-reconditioning fee and only a $3 conditioning-clinic fee.
"I think it's becoming, if it stays like this, that there will be some places in the (Salt Lake) valley where sports are socio-economically not feasible for kids," said Fraser.
Meanwhile, Hunter High is footing a $48,000 bill in start-up costs for its football program. The figure is a bit deceiving, since $12,000 is for a first-class weight room that will also be used by physical education classes and Hunter athletes competing in other sports.
"It's been an eye-opening experience for us," said Fraser, aware that the costs not only boggle the mind but the checkbook as well. At Granger, he would spend from $2,800 to $4,200 a season on "maintenance" costs for the football program and its equipment. Consider what a school has to spend for other items that are often taken for granted - a playing field, a practice field, stadium seating, a small press box, goalposts, training equipment, practice equipment, balls, tees, video equipment . . . and the list goes on and on.
And stadium lighting for night games becomes a Catch-22 situation. Gate revenues take a sizeable jump from afternoon games to night games. You need more gate revenues, so you need lights, so you need more gate revenues to pay for the lights.
Short figures $30,000 would cover a lighting system adequate for prep football at Hunter. "You'd get more gate receipts, but where's the money?" he asks.
Several more schools this year have found the ways and means to make prep football a prime-time sport at home, with the likes of Brighton, Lehi, North Sevier moving to nights games this year and others hoping to follow suit next season.
Of the state's 55 4A and 3A schools, 44 prep football teams will play 7 or 7:30 p.m. games this year. Those still with afternoon home games include Alta, Cottonwood, East, Granger, Hunter, Jordan, Kearns, Olympus, Taylorsville, West and West Jordan.
Short figures that it costs several hundred dollars just to conduct a home football game - $50 per official for four-man crews, plus wages to ticket-takers, security, announcers and chain crews.
"We're shifting more financial responsibility to the students in all areas in participation fees, and it will always be that way. It's really a user's fee," said Short.
Certainly some potential athletes - and their parents - are frightened away by the costs passed on to the participants. If administrators or coaches come across individuals unable to meet such financial obligations, funds are found through boosters, private sponsors or auxillary funds. "I'm sure that we weed some out, but somehow we try to cover those kids," said Short.
Meanwhile, many school activities have a symbiotic existence with football - more football revenue means more money available for non-revenue activities, ranging from cross country and tennis to drill and debate.
The challenge of the sport is not only trying to keep costs down but interest up as well. Student attendance is down at most schools, with teenagers' attention being attracted by competiting sports, other activities or employment. Coaches and administrators also bemoan a decrease in community interest as well, especially in the metropolitan areas.
Costs are up, attendance is down, interest is wavering - but the pressure for success is just as great as ever. "It's big business," said Short. "Football is high-profile."
Not to mention a price tag that might put the sport in a high-rent district.
*****
Prep football: The cost per player
Note: List does not include socks, athletic supporter, mouthpiece, T-shirt or "extras" such as knee braces, elbow pads, gloves, hand towels, lycra leggings, etc.
Helmet: $105
Shoulder pads: $55
20-day clinic fee: $25
Practice jersey: $11
2 game jerseys ($25 each): $50
2 pairs of game pants ($35 each): $70
Helmet reconditioning fee: $35
Participation fee: $30
Hip and tail pads: $10
Thigh pads: $8
Knee pads: $3
Game shoes: $35
TOTAL: $451
COST TO EACH PLAYER: $136