Playing sports at Wayland High School comes with a price tag, particularly for higher-cost programs like ice hockey, sailing, and crew.
For most student athletes, the standard Wayland fee to participate in a school-funded sport such as soccer, track, tennis, or baseball is $300. This fee helps the school cover coaching stipends, transportation, game officials, equipment and other services. This is not unusual; many towns around the country charge athletic fees ranging from $150 to $660 per student per sport. Most districts also have family caps. In Massachusetts, public school athletic fees range from $200 to $400 with some schools having tiered costs for the more expensive sports such as hockey.
To help families with multiple athletes, Wayland has set a $1,200-per-family cap on these $300 fees. However, the cap does not apply to hockey, crew, or sailing. These sports are considered “unfunded” and must cover their operational costs through fundraising and direct fees.
Historically, hockey parents at Wayland have paid as much as $1,200 per season. With the additional town allocation of $15,000, cost was reduced to $600 in the current school year, and with additional fundraising it was $350 for the season.
Wayland’s Annual Town Meeting approved an initial allocation of $15,000 in the 2024-2025 school budget to help fund both the boys’ and girls’ ice hockey programs. This allocation is the first step in a four-year plan to gradually increase funding for ice hockey. The plan aims to add $15,000 annually, with the budget eventually reaching $60,000. The goal is to set the hockey athletic fee at $600 per player.
Before getting this funding, the Wayland High School hockey teams were classified as unfunded varsity sports, with the financial burden falling on parents and the Wayland Hockey Association. That group had been supporting the teams for over 30 years and played a key role in advocating for school funding. Per-player costs for a high school hockey peaked at $1,750 four years ago — a number that would have reached nearly $3,000 per player without fundraising efforts. With fundraising, the fee was set at $1,200 per player.
Financial aid is also available. According to Wayland’s Athletic Director Heath Rollins, students can apply for fee waivers through the district’s business office. Typically, 10 to 15 fees are waived per year based on need.
Beyond school funding, additional support comes from the Wayland Boosters, a nonprofit run by parent and community volunteers. The Boosters help fund what the Athletic Department budget and team funds can’t cover. They support high school and middle school varsity sports programs by paying for coach training and membership fees. They also help cover special team requests. Last winter, the Boosters organized the purchase of the brand-new score table used in the high school field house.
Crew and sailing cost about $1,200 per season because they require access to boats and additional coaching. Families are also required to pay for travel to regattas happening up and down the East Coast. However, though not required, many Wayland parents voluntarily fund club sports outside of school, particularly in the offseason. In Wayland, several athletes reportedly spend over $10,000 annually to compete at the club level in sports like hockey, soccer, lacrosse, and rowing.
This growing participation in club sports often raises questions of equity. The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) tries to address this with its Bona Fide Team Member Rule, which prohibits high school athletes from missing school practices or games to participate in non-school competitions in the same sport. The goal of this rule is to protect high school teams’ participation as well as students who do not have the means for club sports.
Depending on their competing interests, families, schools and taxpayers have questions about which sports to offer, equity, costs and fees:
Schools: As towns like Wayland continue to value the life lessons that high school sports bring, the question remains: how can schools ensure that participation is accessible and equitable as the landscape of youth athletics continues to shift?
Parents: What is an equitable athletic fee?
Taxpayers: When residents are looking at an override and tough budget choices need to be made, is it the taxpayer’s responsibility to fund the expensive sports?
Write a letter to the editor and let us know what you think about funding expensive sports.
