By Dr. David Hoch

David Hoch, EdD, CMAA, is the Athletic Director at Loch Raven High School in Baltimore County, Md. He is a past President of the Maryland State Athletic Directors' Association and a frequent contributor to Athletic Management. He can be reached at: dhoch@bcps.org.

As much as we all like stability, we also have to recognize that change is part of an athletic department's landscape. And one change we should always be thinking about is whether to add more teams to our program offerings.

If we promote the fact that athletics has educational value, and I firmly believe it does, then we should want the broadest-based participation that we can possibly offer. We should want more and more youngsters to benefit from this exceptional opportunity to grow, learn, and develop. We should be looking to start new sports on a continual basis.

On the flip side, however, starting a new team takes a good deal of work. You have to assess interest, plan extensively, and communicate to many different parties. And, of course, additional funds will be needed.

SEVEN QUESTIONS
The impetus to start a sport may come from parents, the community, or the students themselves. The team may be an addition to an existing program, like starting a freshman boys' basketball team, or a nontraditional sport like bowling. Regardless, there are several questions you need to answer before embarking on such a project.

Is there student interest? Task number one is to figure out if you can attract enough students to field a team. Before you start the process of scheduling, purchasing equipment, and hiring a coach, it would be wise to survey the student body to determine their interest level. Some athletic directors distribute a questionnaire annually to gauge the drawing power of new sports.

If interest does seem sufficient, the next step is to schedule a meeting about the potential team. Invite both students and their parents, and explain all the details, from participation requirements to what it means to be on an interscholastic team. In addition, start a dialogue with the group to see how much genuine interest there is. If no one has any questions, interest is probably not very high. But if there are lots of questions and suggestions (and maybe even one parent offers to form a fundraising group for the sport), you've got a winner.

At this point, I wouldn't be too worried about the precise number of students on board. The key is that you have a committed core group to build on. If that core group totals enough to form at least half a full roster, more participants can be attracted as the team comes to fruition.

Can our facilities support this team? In many schools, regardless of the season, athletic facilities are maxed out. But don't use this as an excuse to not start a new team. Instead, try to think creatively about space.

Consider whether this new team, or one of the existing teams, can use space at your feeder middle school, a neighborhood recreation center, or a community park. Can you reconfigure a field, find an elementary school gym that is not being used, or move practice times around so one more team can use the gym? Sometimes, there is even an opportunity to purchase more land near your school to add new fields.

Is there support from others? As you start to think about adding a new sport, it's important to let others know about your idea and give it time to develop. There can be opposition from people who don't share your dream, and you'll need to listen to their concerns and address them.

For example, current coaches may fear that the new sport will hurt participation on their teams. Parents who were eager to start a different sport may put up a roadblock. Or your superintendent may dislike the idea based on some long-term strategies you don't know about. Be prepared to address any concerns, or put your plans on hold if now is not the right time.

Are there opponents in the area? For football, basketball, baseball, and soccer, this shouldn't be a problem anywhere. But before starting a sport like lacrosse, bowling, or ice hockey, you need to find out if you've got some competition nearby. If you would be the only school in reasonable driving distance with this particular sport, you may not be able to develop a competitive schedule for your potential athletes.

One alternative is to approach several neighboring schools to see if they plan on adding the sport in the near future. If the answer is yes, you may be able to join forces and plan together. If not, you might try to convince them the addition will also benefit their programs.

Can I find a coach? Even if you don't normally have trouble finding coaches for your teams, be aware that there can be a shortage of coaches for an untraditional sport. So it's important to start your search for a coach early in the process and think outside the box.

In addition, the coach you hire needs to have more than just knowledge of the sport. He or she must be an enthusiastic, charismatic individual who can reel in total novices and form them into a team. You need someone youngsters will gravitate toward and who can inspire and motivate them. Sometimes, this is far more important than their knowledge of technique and tactics.

This coach also needs to be willing to do things to attract interest, like giving clinics at feeder middle schools, scouring the hallways and cafeteria for potential candidates, and coming up with creative ways to boost participation. For example, coaches of new sports here have used the "bring a friend to practice" idea. It can also help to hand out brand new uniforms early in the season and have team members wear them to school. The new coach should post schedules and news clippings from early competition in many places around the school.

Do I need to consider Title IX compliance? Absolutely. If you want to start a new boys' sport, you need to carefully assess whether you have enough female participants on existing teams so that your school's athletic opportunities are substantially proportionate to the student enrollment. Any school that has a football team needs to offer enough girls' sports to balance out the large size of the football roster. If you do not have proportionate numbers, but start a new boys' sport anyway, you are asking for a lawsuit.

Starting a new girls' sport will usually help your Title IX compliance, but there is one caveat to consider. If this new sport will balance out the numbers, the experience for the girls must be comparable to that of the boys' teams. This decade has seen many high school softball teams file Title IX lawsuits because their playing fields were inferior to their schools' baseball fields. Putting a new softball team on a makeshift field and never working toward upgrading it can lead to a Title IX complaint once the team is established.

In fact, it's never a good idea to start a sport that cannot be given similar amenities to your other sports. The team will usually be okay with less to start, but may resent its inferior status as time goes on.

Can we afford to add another team? This pragmatic question is unfortunately also very important. Most of us do not operate with an unlimited source of funds in our athletic departments, and in most cases, we are stretched to our absolute limit already.

But, again, try to think creatively. Can fundraising efforts help? Can the booster club get involved? Are there grants from local or national organizations? Can you get parents to lobby your school board for new funds?

Here in Baltimore County, coaches' salaries are paid through a county budget, so that expense is never a problem for me. To start, I often use borrowed equipment and uniforms, then build in a budget line for the new sport the following year. Once the sport is started, most school boards will find the money to continue the team.

A CLOSER LOOK
I have had the pleasure of starting three different sports in the high schools I've worked at. In each case, there were different ways to answer the above seven questions.

Badminton: In Baltimore County, many schools offer interscholastic badminton in the fall season. However, Loch Raven High School never had a team. In keeping with my desire to provide as many opportunities for young people as possible, it was an easy, logical decision to explore adding a co-ed badminton team.

However, my enthusiasm was not universally shared at the school. Many of our fall sport coaches were worried about sharing athletes and space with this new offering. My first task was assuring our field hockey, volleyball, soccer, and football coaches that the youngsters who would try out for badminton typically are different than those who might play their sports.

Next, I had to talk with our (now former) volleyball coach about sharing gym space. She was against adding this new team and territorial about "her" gym. I explained that for competitive matches, it really wouldn't be a problem because when one sport was scheduled at home, the other would be away with the same school. For practice times, yes, she would need to share, but our basketball teams had been doing this in the winter for many years.

Not being a mainstream sport, I knew that finding a coach would be a challenge. However, it turned out to be easier than I anticipated. My first inquiry was to the community badminton club that used our gym three evenings a week to practice. A member of this club who had extensive competitive playing experience was eager to pass along his love of the sport. He turned out to be a great fit.

With several students responding to my initial announcement about the sport, we held a meeting. I made it clear that I needed a commitment from those interested to keep going with the idea, which they provided. I asked our physical education teachers to supply me with names of young people--particularly freshmen--who might be good candidates. I sent these students all of the paperwork through their homeroom teacher with a brief note asking them to consider joining.

After tryouts for other fall sports, I also collected the paperwork of those who were cut from these teams and gave it to the badminton coach so that he could contact them. A few ended up joining the team.

By dovetailing with our volleyball schedule, our competition dates were easily set. We only had to purchase team polo shirts, shorts, shuttlecocks, nets and standards, and a few rackets. The team has proven very successful in providing participation opportunities for some young people who otherwise might not be part of our program. Now, if I could only remember all of the rules!

Field hockey: In taking inventory of the sports we offered while I was Athletic Director at Eastern Technical High School, also in Baltimore County, I wondered if we could put together a field hockey team, which was a standard at many other schools in the county. In this case, I already had a teacher eager to coach in the building, so the big question was if there was sufficient interest from students. With the help of our coach-to-be, we discovered that we had roughly 14 young women who wanted to give the sport a try. We decided that was enough of a core to keep moving ahead.

But we did need to figure out if it would be best to first field a j.v. team, allowing the athletes to gain some experience, before introducing a varsity team. Only 9th and 10th grade students are permitted to participate on j.v. squads in the district, and since our core of 14 included two who would be seniors in the fall as well as a few juniors, we went with a varsity squad. The coach did a great job focusing on improvement and not wins or losses to build momentum in future years.

Since all of our fields were being used and we had no more available land, the bigger problem was where this team would practice and play. It took some creative thinking and walking around our existing fields, but we came up with a tentative solution: using the softball outfield.

There was, however, one small problem. We came up a few feet short of having enough space (as specified in the rule book) for the restraining line that delineates the area for team benches. A chain-link fence marking the boundary between our school and the neighboring property provided an insurmountable obstacle. So, we simply asked our potential opponents for help. They all agreed that the three feet would not be a problem.

With a coach, athletes, a field, and borrowed lacrosse uniforms, all we had to do was purchase goals, goalie equipment, and some balls. Varsity field hockey was a reality, and in two more years, enough interest had been generated to add a j.v. team.

Girls' j.v. lacrosse: At Eastern Tech, we had a varsity girls' lacrosse team, but no j.v. team. Logically, successful teams need a j.v. squad to serve as a feeder system and develop potential players. Baltimore is a lacrosse hotbed, so the coaching position wouldn't be a problem, we wouldn't have to create interest in a new sport, and even uniforms weren't a difficulty due to our uniform rotation system. All we needed was a field.

This was a major obstacle because we were a land-locked school and all of our fields were maxed out. Initially, we eyed a wooded parcel of land on one corner of our school property, but were quickly informed that it was a wetland area and could not be developed.

Our very supportive principal at the high school inquired about purchasing a vacant lot that was about a quarter mile down the road and owned by a church. Unfortunately, the church had no interest in selling. But there was an elementary school a half-mile in the other direction. Normally, cooperative ventures involving fields at an elementary school are nixed pretty quickly. However, the principal was extremely understanding and we developed a workable agreement.

The major concern was having our athletes running around, perhaps making noise, while the elementary students were still in class. To remedy this, we agreed to start practice sessions at 3:30, an hour later than normal. While waiting for the off-site bus, the athletes did homework, then changed into their practice gear and collected all of the equipment, water containers, and supplies that had to be transported daily. Our booster club paid for cell phones to be used by our coaches in an emergency.

While the team had some minor inconveniences, it also enjoyed bonding over homework and having a large field all to itself. And the varsity team benefited greatly by having a lower-level squad to train younger players.

The schools I've worked at do not have large budgets or expansive booster clubs. But, by rolling up our sleeves, asking for help, and thinking creatively, we were able to start a few new sports, providing new opportunities to many students who otherwise would not have been able to experience the joy of participating on a high school sports team.

Sidebar: GONE FISHING
Looking to reach out to a brand new group of potential student-athletes,
the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) Board of Directors voted in February to add bass fishing to its lineup of competitive sports. Beginning in spring 2009, Illinois high schools can field co-ed competitive teams, and the season will end with a state championship tournament.

"Bass fishing is a very different sort of sport," says Marty Hickman, Executive Director of the IHSA. "We'd been talking for years about how to attract the kids we don't typically reach through our traditional athletic and activity offerings. Bass fishing was one idea that we kind of chuckled about at first, but as time went on, we found there was a good deal of interest in it.

"In fact, since we've been spreading the word about it, we've been overwhelmed with support from schools and the fishing community at large," Hickman continues. "There are more fishing clubs at high schools than you would expect, and not just at rural schools. There are schools in Chicago and other urban areas excited about this."

It will be up to individual high schools to find coaches and figure out where and when to hold practices. A school can have as many boys and girls on a team as it likes, but when it comes to the state championships, each will likely be limited to one two-person team entry.

For funding, Hickman says fishing clubs and companies seem eager to offer support. "We're asking local bass fishing clubs to provide the boats and drivers," he says, "and there are a number of potential sponsors--boat companies, tackle companies, and folks who make poles and line."

The NCAA does not currently sponsor bass fishing, but almost 50 colleges fielded at least one two-man club team at the 2007 National Collegiate Bass Fishing Championships in Texas in September. The three-day event was covered by FOX and ESPN.

--Abigail Funk