By Kellen Olshefski
Correspondent
The Whitewater Unified School District voted in favor of reinstating funding for the Whitewater High School boys tennis program at its Sept. 24 meeting.
The topic was brought to the board after it was determined funds were still available in the budget to fund the program.
Funding was cut in the spring of 2011 by the district do to a budget shortfall.
The school board said it opted to cut funding for a program that would impact the least number of students and with only nine members, boys tennis was chosen.
According to district administrator Eric Runez, parents have fundraised over the past year and a half to keep the program going. He said participation has reached a point where the Whippets are able to field a varsity team.
“As an administration we’ve talked about giving the tennis program really an opportunity to sustain participation,” he said. “To give it the best chance to have continued success would be for us to reinstate funding.”
In response to concerns from board members Brian Brunner and Kurt Harkness about participation numbers, athletic director Jeff Behrens said other sports do not require a minimum number of students for funding.
“There are a lot of sports programs around the state, for example wrestling, there are a lot of schools where wrestling teams don’t fill an entire varsity lineup but they still fund the sport,” he said.
“We just feel that if the opportunity’s there for us to grow this program and still provide this opportunity it’s going to be in our best interest to not rely on parent fundraising to do so.”
Behrens said the program, costing approximately $4,000 to run, plans to focus on sustainability and finding a coach.
Until Oct. 1, the position will be posted internally at which time it will be available to potential applicants outside of the school district.
Behrens said there is one possibility internally, however, the applicant doesn’t have the “strongest tennis background” and the district will wait to see what “pans out” externally.
Sandra Stone, whose son Ian participated in the program until he graduated in 2011, spoke to the board about the importance of maintaining the program before the board made its decision.
“I think everyone agrees that tennis is an inexpensive, lifetime sport,” she said.
Stone said with various local opportunities and facilities it’s a bad time to not reinstate funding.
Stone said it might take a year or two to get the numbers back up; however, it’s well worthwhile.
“If it weren’t we wouldn’t have worked so hard fundraising for two years,” she said.
As of last season, the program had risen to a total of 14 participants.
Brunner clarified his concerns were only to be fair to all students interested in sports.
“I really love tennis, I play with the kids, it’s not that I’m anti-tennis at all,” he said. “I like to know that we’re being fair to all of our individuals that want to take sports and also our budget process.”
The vote to reinstate funding for the boys tennis program was unanimous.
