Niskayuna’s Sports Funding Practices Need to be Publicized

Among other things, last year’s Capital Improvement Project kicked off a series of upgrades for the district’s athletic department. With $10-11 million (which is separate from the $80 million budget) being spent on what seems to be a new football field has incited continued anger among the student body about athletic funding. However, the problem is not that the athletics department—as a whole—lacks funding, but rather that these funds are seen as not being allocated fairly.

It is well known that our football program is provided with a bulk of booster club funds. The football team has been under fire from many sides, including classmates and athletes of other teams, for their position that seems to be most favored by the Nisky Booster Club and the town as a whole. It is important, however, to note that the student body’s anger and distaste are truly directed towards the unclear funding system and not the football team.

It is important to note the opinions of the student body on this matter, and the student body as a whole does not have favorable opinions of the distribution of funding—especially the athletes. John Moskov, director of counseling and athletic programming, states that part of the reason for this unfavorable opinion is that students might mix up private donations by parents with booster club expenditures. The booster club should therefore be more transparent about their individual expenditures by publishing them on their website or the district’s website so that misunderstandings won’t occur.

In an interview with head captain of the varsity boys volleyball team, Giancarlo Stabler, he mentioned that a few years ago, both volleyball teams (girls and boys) were in need of more and new equipment. Not only did the school lack nets for both teams, but the ones they had were also in terrible condition. Yet the school refused to purchase the new equipment. Desperate for a solution, Stabler said that “one of the boys volleyball parents [essentially] bought new nets for the school.” Varsity volleyball player, Zach Apkarian—whose parents contributed the funds necessary for the new apparatus—spoke of the whole story and voiced his opinions about the situation. When the school rejected their request for necessary equipment, the team took it upon themselves to fundraise by selling cookies. The Apkarian family’s company decided to donate the same amount of money raised, and his coach purchased a serving machine. The investment benefited both the volleyball team and the softball team which Apkarian claims are “two sports with low funding.” Speaking from personal experience, Apkarian added that the newly purchased poles are now breaking and many of their nets or balls don’t function properly. “I completely understand some sports make more money than others, but the fact that the school can spend millions on a new football field and other sports but can’t buy us new equipment because ours is broken is insane to me.” Just recently, varsity volleyball player, Elicia Esmeris, and her teammate revealed that all of the money raised from a popcorn fundraiser at the beginning of the season went to the booster club, which results in a shared treasury for all sports teams, “...and basically football uses all of it.” said the anonymous teammate. Essentially, this not only enables unequal distribution of money, but it’s also severely unjust to every athlete on a team who may have raised more money than those on another team. 

Many of the other teams in the high school voiced similar complaints. For instance, an anonymous varsity soccer player  “We don’t get new jerseys or new balls and our fields aren’t maintained, [whereas the football team] gets new equipment every year despite it being in a lower division.” The crew team is also in a dire situation, being funded solely by membership fees of $1,300 per returning rower and $750 per new athlete. In addition to crew, soccer, and both volleyball teams, other teams, such as the girls swimming team, are forced to rely heavily on private fundraisers and even hefty donations from teammates’ parents. This should not be the case for any sports team here in Niskayuna, especially when we clearly have sufficient funds to be evenly distributed.

Now, one could argue that funds are distributed based on the needs of certain teams. It is obvious that a football team would have more needs than, say, a cross country team that would essentially only need a coach and uniforms. However our point is not that the unequal distribution of money itself is the problem, it's that the football team seems to have an abundance of resources while other teams tend to barely have enough equipment to function. If funds were distributed accordingly, we would be allocating enough funds for the crew team to not need to charge ridiculous membership fees for each athlete and for the soccer team to have enough equipment. Unequal does not have to mean unjust. The football team having an abundance of funding is perfectly fine, but only under the condition that other teams also have enough resources as well. 

It seems that these resurfacing feelings of unfairness between other Silver Warriors all goes back to the new $10 million field. Mr. Moskov stressed that the new field is a multi-sport field, with field hockey and soccer using it 50% and 30% of the time respectively. He also stressed that, “Football has the most lines on the field, so when you look at the field, it’s easily recognizable [as a football field].” As informed by Mr. Moskov, each year, there is a specific budget set aside for sports (not including physical education classes). Within that budget, there are equipment allocations to fulfill the basic needs of every team. Since the basic needs of each sport varies depending on the uniform or equipment required, some teams will receive more funds than others. However, Mr. Moskov states that “the budget is taxpayer dollars… so the $10-11 million dollars is not taxpayer dollars—it’s borrowed money that specifically has to go to renovation projects.” In other words, the $10 million budget had no impact on the funds for equipment. But it begs the question of whether the students see it that way. When a field hockey or soccer player looks at that new field, do they see it as their new field, or just a new football field that they are merely allowed to play on? 

Another issue is that the booster club only doles out funds when specifically requested, since it only provides things that the school doesn’t, according to Mr. Moskov. As Esmeris accurately said, the booster club funds are shared by all sports teams, which results in inevitable conflict. For example, most teams that raise a lot of money also ask for more funds—like the football team. “... Is the football team constantly asking for things?" said Moscov.  Of course, they’re always asking for stuff. Is the cross country team asking for anything from the booster club? No, they’re not asking for a thing. So that’s how [the booster club] works.” Although the fault could partially be on coaches who don’t attend meetings to lobby funds for their team, do we really want a system where blatantly neglected needs of certain teams are ignored just because certain coaches don’t partake in a small-scale political campaign with administration? At first glance, this system appears to be fair; but with no limit to demands from certain teams, how can students ever find relief and justice in the system? Not only does this not help, but it also worsens unrest amongst students as they cannot directly control these decisions. It is also heavily implied by student statements that they don’t think they have the power to change the funding policies of the booster club. Perhaps it would help to have captains of teams or specifically elected student representatives be present at booster club meetings to allow more student engagement with the fund distributing process. If students are allowed to have a say in these proceedings, the student body will feel more at ease. 

Niskayuna would benefit from being more transparent about athletic funding and encouraging students to be able to have a say in athletic funding. With football ranked as the most popular sport in the United States, and football’s status as the flagship sport of American high schools, it creates bias in most school systems. Niskayuna High School, a school where most students agree is allegedly affected by this bias, seems to indulge in the fact that football is part of the popular American culture, and overfunds the team while neglecting other Silver Warriors. Although the school refutes such allegations, the student body cannot trust the administration without consistent and apparent evidence. If the booster club is all request-based and keeps track of their spending, then publicizing a list of spendings should be no issue. Niskayuna should be mindful of this situation and address this as these practices can dramatically decrease school spirit as it inherently pits other athletes against each other. As a school, every student, athlete or supporter, comes together under the name of the Silver Warriors and therefore deserves equal treatment. Hopefully, the school can employ the necessary modifications to create a more unified student body under fair and just funds for all teams.