VHSL Looking For New Ways To Increase Awareness And Financial Backing

Posted: October 30, 2013
By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI

WINCHESTER — The Virginia High School League takes a lot of pride in the things it has done for the state’s high school students over the last century.

But in order to succeed in the next century, the organization is going to need help. And the VHSL is using stops like the one they made at the Our Health building on Cameron Street Tuesday to get the backing they need, whether it’s financial or otherwise.

Tuesday’s event highlighted the VHSL Foundation, which describes itself as an entity that “stimulates ongoing statewide support for League activities and programs by securing, managing and allocating resources for the expansion and enrichment of League services to Virginia’s youth.”

Before a crowd of more than 50 people that included the principals and athletic directors at each of the four Winchester-Frederick County schools, other notable contributors to area athletics and area business leaders, VHSL executive director Ken Tilley stated that it truly does take a team effort to give the VHSL’S 313 member schools firm ground to stand on.

“We need involvement, we need support, we need grassroots participation in the League” Tilley said. “... We’re all about the students. We want to help them succeed, we believe we do help them succeed.

“We teach life lessons ... we are education-based, we are community-based. We are unique.”

Tilley also said high school sports and activities can provide a solid foundation of core values that some students might not be able to get from other places in their lives.

“A lot of times kids don’t have families like [older generations] had when we were fortunate enough to be growing up, two-parent families and so forth,” Tilley said. “They get [those values] from the coaches, high school activities and athletics. It’s important to preserve those [values]. Your participation will help us in that regard.”

Tuesday’s turnout was the largest the VHSL has had during its six stops thus far across the state.

Former Handley director of student activities and VHSL Hall of Famer Jimmy Omps; former state Sen. and Handley graduate Russ Potts; James Wood graduate and retired administrator Wendell Dick; and James Wood graduate and retired Judge John Prosser, a James Wood graduate and former Virginia Military Institute basketball player, were the most prominent figures as far as organizing Wednesday’s event and discussing the benefits of VHSL athletics.

In addition to the event host Our Health, also prominent in puting Tuesday’s luncheon together were National Fruit and Whitehouse Foods and Anthony’s Pizza.

As Tilley said in his speech and during a stretch where VHSL Foundation board member Chris Withers took feedback from the audience, there’s a sense that the general public doesn’t know about the VHSL beyond the fact that the organization primarily makes rules and regulations and holds state championship events.

As Tilley stated, the VHSL is not a state agency, but a private, non-profit corporation with member schools ranging in size from 67 to more than 3,000. They have more than 200,000 students, 20,000 coaches, 10,000 officials, 27 sports (14 for girls) and 11 academic activities, And with their rules, Tilley feels the VHSL plays an important role in maintaining structure while holding 150 championship events, similar to what the NCAA holds nationally.

After the event, Tilley said he was glad he could raise awareness, because he’s been told some people think the VHSL was a state agency, and didn’t know how the VHSL was funded.

Tilley said 50 percent of the VHSL’s funding comes from state events and the portion of revenue it receives from region events. Much like the NCAA, football and basketball dominate the revenue stream, though other teams sports like baseball, lacrosse and soccer help to a lesser degree.

About 20 percent is membership dues and insurance (Tilley said insurance is paid out in premiums for catastrophic insurance). Corporate sponsorship is 12 percent, and registration fees are about 10-12 percent.

“Predominantly, we depend on the crowds who show up at the big events,” said Tilley, who added that costs for these don’t go above $10 to keep prices manageable for families. “The [VHSL] Foundation is a separate entity, and the money that’s generated for the Foundation is invested, and we maintain the principal and we use the interest to reimburse the schools to provide for programs and stuff like that.

“[The money] goes to the schools. It does not come to the operating expense of the League, it doesn’t pay for the salaries or the building. The Foundation is important because it benefits the schools and the students.”

Tilley said the VHSL is trying to communicate more with its website, emails and social media to connect more with people and show how they can impact schools, and James Wood activities coordinator Craig Woshner said the VHSL needs to continue to find even more ways to make itself more visble.

For example, James Wood has resurfaced the floor of Casey Gymnasium with the logo of the VHSL on opposite sides of it, but things like banners and providing links to VHSL information that schools can put on their own websites will give people a better idea of the VHSL mission.

Woshner said the VHSL can have a difficult job in that in many situations, athletic boosters are mostly concerned with contributing to their local athletic communities as opposed to contributing statewide, so they have to compete for funds. That’s why it’s important to be more visible.

“You have to put yourself out there to get the support,” Woshner said.

Jim Stutzman, president and general manager of Jim Stutzman Chevrolet-Cadillac Co., said it’s important for the VHSL to show how supporting its organization can also benefit schools on a local level.

“Our Foundation just started returning money to the schools the last three years, and we do it in certain activities and sports that haven’t received reimbursements in the past,” Tilley said. “There could be some joint efforts that would directly benefit the schools and the league.”

Tilley said schools can work with the VHSL to hold benefit games that would not count toward the regular season that can be played any time, where schools would each receive a third of the proceeds and the VHSL would receive the other third. Tilley said $80,000 was raised through benefit games last year.

One thing that Tilley feels can help the VHSL and its schools thrive is the expanded playoff system, which now features six championships in most sports where previously there were three.

Golf is the only sport that has held state championships so far, but Tilley said there has been a lot of positive feedback from schools that said they never would have dreamed of competing for titles prior to this year because they were competing against schools that simply had too many more athletes to choose from.

Though football is the one sport that was already six state championships, more teams are now being let in by having two 16-team regions in each group for a total of 32 teams. Previously, there were six divisions, and each of the four regions could decide if they wanted to have anywhere from four to eight teams qualify for the playoffs.

The old Group A had been using a two-region, 32-team model for the past two year, and Tilley said it’s been a benefit to the finances of the Group A schools.

“They’ve said their revenue is way up because more schools had a shot at the playoffs,” Tilley said. “The fans continued to come out because their team was still in the running. Their teams weren’t eliminated [halfway] through the season. So [an expanded field] creates ongoing excitement and support for the schools.

“And schools were playing different people, not playing the same people we’ve always played. We’re playing new folks and fans are coming out to see — ‘How do we compare against someone we’ve never faced in the playoffs before.’ There’s a couple of little byproducts that we think are going to be positive in terms of revenue, attendance and increased following, and all that’s going to filter down and support the other programs.”

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