Economic slump hits high school football teams

By MICHAEL CARVELL

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

They are waiting tables overtime at Riverwood, slashing staff at Northgate and slaughtering livestock at East Jackson.

The financial downturn has reached Georgia’s bedrock — high school football — and when the season officially opens across the state Friday night, it will only be done only through the sacrifices of many.

Like Malik Denkins, Riverwood’s running back, who is a waiter 16 to 20 hours each weekend to help pay the customary football fee (recommended booster donation: $375). Three other players on the team are doing the same thing but in Denkins’ single-parent family, his mother can use some help after her job as a personal trainer dried up, forcing her to find a second job.

“It’s tough balancing it all but it’s what I have to do to make ends meet,” Denkins said. “It pays for my football needs and I can help my mom with little things she needs, like groceries.”

The award for fiscal creativity is destined for the team at East Jackson, a third-year school in Commerce. His roster down from 100 to 75 with some players having quit to find part-time work — about a half dozen have left when their families moved away to take jobs elsewhere — coach Frank Caputo was looking for corners to cut. The nightly entree at summer camp was an issue.

Caputo reached out to Chris Jones, the father of one of his players who happens to be a cattle farmer.

“I said ‘Chris, you know it would be great to get a cow to help out with the cost of food,’ “ Caputo said. “And he said ‘Coach, that’s not a problem.’ ”

The farmer’s son, Trevor Jones, and a fellow offensive linemen, Tyler Yearwood, were responsible for feeding the cow from February to June. It ended up at 775 pounds of beef and valued at $700 when processed.

East Jackson’s players ate plenty of hamburgers and steak during the team’s four-day camp and then again during a retreat for the seniors. Caputo still had enough left over to feed the squad steak before last week’s scrimmage.

“My job, believe it or not, is not as much coaching as it is making sure we have things to keep the program going,” Caputo said. “We have some kids that are at an economic disadvantage and we’re doing things to help them out in these tough times.”

This problem hardly sneaked up on the Georgia High School Association, the state’s governing body for athletics. The GHSA, which has already had to slash its annual budget 12 percent, has not had to take any action to deal with football programs in jeopardy but with an anticipated drop in attendance this fall, the group is monitoring the situation.

“It’s sort of a ‘Catch-22’ situation,” Ralph Swearngin, the GHSA’s executive director, said. “ ... Some schools probably want to lower ticket prices to football games but they can’t do that because they need the revenue to help with possible budget shortfalls.”

Northgate High in Newnan had to cancel its annual golf tournament, one of the team’s biggest fund-raisers, partly due to a lack of participation. However, coach Bill Luckie and his booster club hatched another strategy, the “Raise the Bar” campaign, which had businesses and folks in the community sponsor specific players for camp. The team wound up raising around $7,000 — more than the golf function.

However, it wasn’t all good news. Three Northgate assistants left for other opportunities and the school was unable to fill the spots. But Luckie says he is fine with the remaining eight assistants.

“I got to thinking about that and at Mitchell-Baker in the early 1990s, we were as good as anyone in the state and we only had four coaches,” he said. “So we’ve got a couple of guys coaching both ways. I’m in charge of running backs and special teams. We’re going to do more with less.”

In Hampton, Lovejoy coach Al Hughes still worries about his program affording pre-game meals for the entire season. A couple of quick fund-raisers and a generous private donation saved the day for the team’s scrimmage last week and tonight’s opener against Mt. Zion.

“It is just a sign of the economic times,” Hughes said. “We had some of the same worries last season and somehow made it through. Although before one of those games, we had a couple of mommas making a bunch of ham sandwiches for the team.”

Some schools are actually thriving. At Milton in Alpharetta, payments for a new scoreboard and fieldhouse have driven the annual budget to $250,000 and the team worked with a marketing firm to sell coupon books the first two weeks of May to raise $80,000.

And with the Eagles’ roster swelling from 95 to 180 over the entire program in three years, parental donations are up.

“I was a little surprised with how well we’re doing in a recession,” coach Scott Walker said. “But it was like I told our parents at our annual meeting when they were worried about the economy. I said ‘We lost 37 seniors and you want me to tell you we are not going to be any good this year? We have to find a way to get it done.’ And we have.”

Hence, the season of 2009 is different before it ever starts and innovation is a lesson unto its own. The cow donation at East Jackson has already spawned other ideas. Caputo and another friend are talking about raising some hogs — talk about pigskins — and booster club president Robin Wilson has pledged to raise and donate a cow for next season.

“It’s not just us, it’s other schools all around,” Caputo said. “We’re just trying to do the best we can to help the kids we have here.”