A new booster club has formed at Susitna-Valley High School in an attempt to preserve competitive sports at the school. KTNA’s Colleen Love has this story.

Earlier this month, local resident, Ian Tassie, stood in front of a group of parents at Susitna-Valley High school and asked for volunteers to join the Board of Directors for a new 501(c)3. The organization is to be called The Susitna-Valley Booster Club and is being created to help fund student transportation for high school and middle school athletics.

For decades, the Mat-Su Borough has included transportation funding in its budget to support student athletics. Su-Valley is considered a small school and competes against other small schools. Su-Valley’s opponents often include schools such as Delta, Ninilchik, Valdez and Tok, places that require driving well over five hours to reach. Student athletes often play multiple days during those sports contests and sleep at the hosting school.

According to Su-Valley’s Athletic Director, Jimmy Sickler, Su-Valley struggled this year after the Borough made significant cuts to the transportation fund.

“We always hear about cuts but we weren’t expecting it. We’ve never experienced that before. We’ve had some smaller cuts. And so this year, we really struggled to fill our needs and we didn’t really meet the needs of our athletic teams. I can’t control what the district gives us as the Athletic Director at Su-Valley, but I can control to some degree our scheduling, so that we aren’t traveling very many places. And it’s limiting opportunities for our kids, but right now we don’t have another option.”

And as difficult as it was for Su-Valley this year, far larger cuts are expected next year. The Mat-Su School District’s proposed budget eliminates all transportation funds for athletics. Eliminating transportation funds for the larger, lower valley schools will not have the same impact as at Su-Valley. Larger schools mainly compete against other large schools, which tend to be located close together, in hubs like Anchorage, Palmer and Wasilla.

The upside for Su-Valley is that the smaller schools with which they compete, are predicted to have adequate transportation funds in their school budgets. This will allow them to travel to Su-Valley to play. Some of those smaller districts are either aided by local corporations or have school districts that have protected transportation funding for student athletics.

“We have some teams in our conferences, like Unalaska, who is very far away from us, that if they want us to come to them, they will pay for us and they have paid for our volleyball team to go down to them for the last decade.

Sickler explains why he thinks that sports at Su-Valley are important for students.

“You know, I think, as a coach too, that kids get so much out of being a member of a team. There’s so many trials and tribulations that they go through and it helps them deal with adversity and overcome that, even if it doesn’t mean they win every game, or even if it doesn’t mean they win any games. But they are able to deal with adversity and come together and be selfless and be a member of a team.”

Sickler also believes that for some students, participating in sports keeps them engaged in classroom learning.

“Our athletes have to be in class, and a lot of times, a lot of kids will say, the only reason why I even was in school this whole year was so that I could participate in athletics.”

The newly formed Booster Club is planning a multitude of fundraising activities in an effort to aid Su-Valley’s student athletes. For KTNA, I’m Colleen Love

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