I have two children, a 7 and a 9 year old, both boys. Both play organized baseball in the town in which we live. After each game, one child's parents provide snacks, a drink from a team cooler (which looks like a big Pepsi can) and something to eat, for the rest of the team. After the snacks are passed out, the cooler is handed to the next parents and the cycle continues until the end of the year.
In a twist on Little League moms lining up after-game treats, New Mexico
State’s budget-conscious football staff distributed an e-mail this week asking
fans to donate after-practice or late-night snacks for hungry players.
It’s a consequence of the national economy, of course.
“It’s a decision we had to make with regard to our meals,” first-year
coach DeWayne Walker said Thursday. “There are a lot of other areas where we
have to make tough choices with how we’re going to spend our money.”
And this:
He expressed concern that people outside New Mexico might see the team’s
request for snacks as juvenile.
The reality, Walker said, is that the Aggies are in the same position as
many schools, forced to make tough choices this season.
“Everyone’s taking cuts,” he said. “I don’t want anybody to read into it
that we’re the poorest program in the country. We’re not. And we’re not the only
midlevel school that has to go through these kinds of issues.”
We can poke fun at it like I did in the opening paragraph and like Tim Kortke, the AP reporter who wrote the story, did. But it's a sad state of affairs when an athletic team has to resort to "will play for food" - type requests to feed its players.
