I recently attended an information meeting for parents of high school football players. The room was filled with parents eager to learn more about the upcoming football season. The coach reviewed the summer workout schedule and training camp, along with the team’s goals.
Then he explained the individual player costs. The coach was pleased to inform us the cost would be increasing by only $20 this year.
I was shocked, not because of the additional $20, but because the fees are already crazy high.
To play Eagle High football, the fees are as follows:
- School athletic pay-to-play fee (for all sports) — $110
- Season player registration fee — $660
- (optional) summer football camp — $235
The total — $1,005 or $770 without the summer camp. The coach said the $660 fee was considerably less than the original cost per player of $1,210 due to booster donations.
In addition to the fees, I will still need to buy my son football gear, including cleats, mouth guard, gloves and more. None of these fees cover any transportation to or from games. All transportation must be provided by the athletes or their parents.
Players have an option to lower their registration fees by selling dining cards outside Albertsons. If they sell 33 cards (at $20 each), it could cover those fees.
I wanted to know if this was normal, so I called a few other schools to ask about their football fees.
The Mountain View High School website lists some player fees:
- Pay-to-play fee — $110
- Activity card — $44.50
- Seven-on-seven uniform fee— ??? (I called several times and left several messages but no one called me back. No one seemed to know this cost in the high school office.)
- Spirit pack — $184.44
- Equipment fee — $70
- Summer Camp — $110
The total — roughly $474 (or $364 without summer camp). But I’m not exactly sure how much higher this number is, because I do not know what the seven-on-seven uniform fee costs are.
I tried contacting Boise, Twin Falls and Hillcrest in Idaho Falls to compare costs. I couldn’t find fee information on the school websites and most of the time the school secretary would tell me I needed to contact the football coach directly to find out about the fees. I tried that, too, but did not get any return phone calls.
What are the football fees at your high school? Do you feel like this number is too high?
