Why do some teams acquire new equipment, while others are left with decades-old gear?  We tried to find the answer to this question by discussing a variety of topics with Mr. Nick Schratwieser, Director of Health, Physical Education, and Athletics at Schreiber High School.  

The logistics that the Athletics Department has to navigate are sometimes taken for granted or misunderstood.  One of the major debates related to Schreiber’s athletic programs is how money is spent and divided between teams.  When money is spent, the correct procedures must be followed, and it must be ensured that the money is spread fairly between sports.  The interview with Mr. Schratweiser began by asking him what the steps were for approving projects to spend money on and he was able to provide a unique insight on the subject.

“A lot of times, I reach out to our coaches and ask them what their wants and needs are.  A need would be what a team needs for next season and a want is ‘it would be really nice if we could have this’…We look at all of our needs and try to make sure we essentially purchase every single one for each season.  As for wants, we would budget a certain amount for each team to get at least some of their wants,” said Mr. Schratwieser.  

It was made clear that each team gets the same amount of money to spend on their wants, and they would be able to choose which are most important prior to the start of the season. After all, there is a strict budget on the amount of money that can be spent for each season.  If a team had more needs, the tradeoff is that they would have less money to spend on their wants. We then asked him how much money is spent in total.

“It’s one of the bigger budgets in the district.  One of the reasons for this is transportation, which costs a lot and gets students to their practices and games.  Also, money is needed for coaches’ salaries, and renting facilities such as a swimming pool, which we don’t have at Schreiber.  Overall, it’s a very large budget,” said Mr. Schratwieser.  

Mr. Schratwieser is constantly searching for affordable options and ways to keep the Athletics Department within its budget, while still providing for Schreiber’s teams and athletes.  Spectators and athletes alike admired the fresh looking football team’s helmets this season.  “So football helmets, along with baseball helmets, field hockey helmets, and lacrosse helmets go through reconditioning every year.  After every season, we send our helmets to a company called Riddell that helps make sure they’re safe to use.  Sometimes in that process the company will point out the helmets are too old and aren’t safe to wear anymore, in which we then buy new helmets to replace the old ones.  We also take a look at how many students are playing – if there are a large number of students playing a sport, then we have to ensure that we have enough for every athlete.  This year in our reconditioning process, we had each helmet painted white so they look new and fresh for the next year,” said Mr. Schratwieser.  

Despite not being brand-new, which would have cost significantly more money, the reconditioned and repainted helmets were made to appear pristine and ready for the fall season.  Lastly, we asked how the leftover money is spent after the needs are met for each team.

“We analyze the things that would be nice for every team.  At the end of the day, while we want to purchase every single thing that a team wants, we have to be conscious of our budget and be realistic.  If one team gets new equipment this year, then the next team will get new equipment next year, so we try to look at it from a yearly standpoint.  Sometimes, some teams have bigger needs than others based on the team’s size, but we try to be as equitable as we can,” said Mr. Schratwieser.  

Mr. Schratweiser’s insight highlights the hard work of Schreiber’s Athletics Department to ensure that all student athletes have the equipment and resources necessary to compete at a high level and win championships.  They also do their best to guarantee that money is split relatively evenly between teams and sports.  The Schreiber Times would like to thank Mr. Schratwieser for taking time out of his day to give detailed and thoughtful responses that help outline Schreiber’s athletics spending.