MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Basketball and football postseasons couldn’t reach the finish line in West Virginia this year due to the pandemic and all spring sports seasons were completely wiped out. Most high school sports have been altered to some degree due to the pandemic in 2020. Seniors were denied chances to finish their high school careers on the fields or courts and 2020 will forever be remembered as the year when no state basketball champions were claimed. Those costs are clear.
Different but still significant costs have been incurred by high school athletic departments in the form of lost revenue. Only 11 of 113 football teams in West Virginia were able to play a complete 10-game regular season schedule this fall, leaving few teams with a full complement of home games. Football gate receipts make up a large percentage of annual revenue for high school programs, which supplement many non-revenue sports.
In the ultimate ‘rainy day’ year, some departments have had to dip into reserves to get through the fall sports season.
“We keep a dollar per [football] ticket. That is our athletics facility, rainy day, multi-purpose account. That helps to take care of our non-revenue sports. It helps take care of different issues that come up. That has definitely helped us a whole lot given the situation this year,” said Spring Valley athletic director Tim George.
“We are pretty fortunate that we have been able to keep some funds from year to year,” said Bridgeport athletic director Mark Jones. “With the cancellations, yes it has been a tough year financially as far as what we have brought in. But it has also been a year where you don’t have a whole lot going out in spending as well.”
By scheduling a game against Spring Valley on five days notice late in the regular season, Bridgeport was one of the few schools to host four home football games this season.
“We were fortunate enough to get four home games in, especially for our seniors and those who have been in the program, and for the community,” Jones said. “It was with limited spectators but at least we were able to get that for the players and their families.”
Spring Valley however was only able to host two football games in Huntington. With statewide attendance capacity limits in place, George estimates that total attendance for those two games was slightly over a thousand fans.
“Those two home games were definitely not enough to make up for the fact that we had to do a whole lot of extra traveling this year,” George said.
And travel they certainly did. Even though the Timberwolves were only able to play five games this season due to the COVID map, they logged perhaps as many miles as any team in Class AAA. The Wolves played a regularly-scheduled game at Fairmont Senior and added games at Martinsburg and Bridgeport.
“We had a lot of people in the community that stepped up and made donations, and we definitely couldn’t have done it without that,” George said. “That trip to Martinsburg when you take charter buses, it was over $10,000 just to travel there and back. It was definitely worth it. It was a great experience for our kids. We were able to go up there and be successful.”
In addition to lost ticket revenue, athletic departments have incurred more costs to be compliant with COVID regulations. County health departments assisted Spring Valley with funds and supplies.
“We had to put up signs all over the stadium with our county health department rules. There were reminders to use hand sanitizers, keep six feet apart. We had various signs all throughout the stadium. That doesn’t sound very expensive but when you have to buy signs for soccer, volleyball in the gym, and then the football stadium, we spent quite a bit of money to make sure we had the appropriate signage,” George said.
“When you have to have thermometers at every practice and do a health screening for each kid, it seems like all these thermometers we have to find batteries for them. People don’t see things like that but as an athletic director, it is my responsibility to make sure everything is organized and taken care of.”
Spring Valley has six home football games scheduled in 2021. Assuming that COVID mitigation measures and vaccines have the desired results, attendance restrictions can hopefully be lifted by then. For now, George is hopeful that some government funds can be obtained to offset losses.
“I have listened to Jim Justice three days a week now since the beginning of this thing and he has said over and over that he would really like to help our high schools,” George said. “But a couple weeks ago, he didn’t seem to think that the CARES Act monies could be used in that fashion directly. Maybe they can get creative. It sure would be nice if we can have some help to offset our losses and extra costs.”
“We are still trying to work through a possible way. It cannot be done just as a simple replacement of lost revenue,” said Governor Justice at a recent press briefing.
“I have not given up on this. I am still working to try to find a way. And at the end of the day, I will find a way. But right now, what would really help us to be able to move this needle very aggressively and be able to help our schools all across the state and help our athletic programs is just tweaking in the guidelines or the rules. Congress has to make that.”
Winter sports practices are paused until January 11 with basketball, swimming and wrestling seasons set to begin about two weeks after that date. It is likely that attendance restrictions will remain in place for the winter.
“We have managed our funds well. But we are also counting on a crowd. There are still questions with winter sports. What will our crowds look like? Are we going to be able to have twenty percent capacity?” George said.
“If we are at twenty percent capacity, we can probably get by. But that means we have to have a bare bones budget. And honestly, our kids deserve better than that.”
While the financial losses for high school programs have been significant, Jones says the toll taken on student-athletes is more difficult to calculate.
“I think you will hear this echoed from a lot of administrators around the state, there were lots of us that lost a lot of money, but the biggest thing is what the kids lost. That still continues to stick in my mind. There’s been nothing normal for those kids. Hopefully they are thankful for what they had, even though it may have been shortened,” Jones said.
“Our coaches are trying to be as optimistic as possible. They know that at any point it can change, just as it did last March. They are trying to stay optimistic and they are doing a good job of preparing what may come.”
Unless a change in policy is announced, the state COVID metrics map will remain in place as the calendar turns to 2021. Under that same system in the fall, schedule disruptions in soccer, volleyball, football and cheer were frequent. Six teams that qualified for the state volleyball tournament were ineligible to compete due to their map status on championship week. Only 22 of a scheduled 45 football playoff games were actually contested, none in the championship round.
“Being a slave to the map is beyond ridiculous. Everybody that is in this business is tired of having to look at the map everyday, giving up our Saturday nights with our families so that we can stop what we are doing and check out this all-important map that tells our future, and having to reschedule everything each weekend,” George said.
“If we have to use the education map for winter sports, the odds of us getting to play in Wayne County are going to be very, very slim. I think there has to be a better way for us to be able to move forward. We have to learn from our mistakes. If you can’t look at what happened this football season and see that the map did not work, then you are not looking at things objectively.”