By Ward Peck
Editor
    At a recent Cape Elizabeth School Board budget workshop, as board members and administrators poured over a proposed $780,000 increase (4.28 percent) over the previous budget, knowing several of the town councilors who will ultimately decide the figure are looking for it to be substantially lower, Athletic Director Keith Weatherbie explained why his budget was proposed to grow nearly 10 percent and asked the board to consider adding to that proposal another  $15,000 to $25,000 in equipment and coaching positions.
Weatherbie’s explanation was at turns enlightening and provocative and consistently entertaining due to Weatherbie’s well-developed sense of comedic timing and his refusal to chose his words carefully.
    Several weeks later, Weatherbie said he received a couple emails critical of what he said at the workshop, but he related this information in a way that made clear he had lost little sleep over the matter. Perhaps that is because after 40 years of service to the school system, including 20 years as the Athletic Director, he is accustomed to criticism. Perhaps its because he won’t be enduring many more budget cycles– he expects to retire after the next school year. Perhaps it is because he believes he is right and his critics aren’t.
    Weatherbie pulled out a spreadsheet showing the calculated cost of the taxpayer-supported athletic program per athlete. At the high school, that figure is $358 per athlete. At the Middle School level the cost per athlete is $121.
    “I think if you did the same for the cost of [academic] education, it would be a couple thousand,” Weatherbie said. “Cost of athletics is quite small- 2.5 percent of the whole budget, but the benefits derived are huge.”
    Among the benefits Weatherbie sees are healthier children, a stronger sense of school and community identity, learning the value of self-sacrifice and learning the value of the team over the individual. For some students, Weatherbie said, athletics is the only effective form of motivation.
    “One of the things we have in athletics is kids are held to higher standards than normal students. They need to be eligible academically. This isn’t true in other activities,” he said. “One of the factors keeping kids coming to school is athletics. They know if they are not in school or are tardy more than 15 minutes, they can’t play or practice.”
     Weatherbie said these standards extend beyond the classroom.
    “Athletes on away trips…have dress codes. They have to dress properly and are expected to represent the school and community. That is not required of other students,” he said.
    And, those benefits extend beyond the students who actively participate on the teams to those within and outside the school community who rely on the local teams as a form of cheap and wholesome entertainment and community identity.
    “There are a number of people who come to sporting events that don’t have students just to watch the local team play, Weatherbie said. “For instance, at the Football playoff game…there were probably 2,000 people at that game. Two or three boy’s basketball games…I bet there were more than 1,000 people. This type of thing builds pride in school and pride in the community. I think back to my high school days and it’s what people remember.”
    As he makes this point, Weatherbie calls to his assistant, Susan Raye, in the next room who was an athlete at CEHS herself, back when her last name was Black. He asks her if she remembers specific athletics events. She begins to list events she participated in as well as those of her high school sweetheart, now her husband.
    “Do you remember any specific classes? He asks.
    “Uh-no.”
    “Do you remember winning the state championship in tennis?”
    She said of course she did and in fact, she remembers many of her matches, which took place more than 30 years ago.  But her academic classes? Not so much.
    And that is a problem for Weatherbie.
    “People put far too much emphasis on athletics,” he said “Academics should be more important.”
    And that is no surprise considering that for 30 of his 40 years at CEHS Weatherbie was a physics teacher. For the past 20 years he has occupied the office, the Athletic director has been a part time position. For the first 10 years Weatherbie split his time between teaching and heading the athletic department. Since then he has been working “part time” as the Athletic Director.  Although according to Weatherbie, part-time hardly describes the amount of his time he devotes to the job.
    Weatherbie himself is a CEHS graduate and lived in town for many years. These days he travels three hours round trip from his home in Monmouth, outside Augusta- a lakeside camp he converted into a year-round residence.
    Having been on both sides of the athletic/ academic divide, Weatherbie wishes parents scrutinized the teachers inside the classrooms as they do the coaches on the fields outside.
    “Parents, they come to the tests for the coaches- the games. They come and watch those tests and they evaluate how well the coaches are doing their jobs. None of them ever come to a test in a class room,” he said. “Athletics is out there in the public eye. It’s such a huge part of the kids’ and parents’ lives but the fact is such a minute number of those athletes will ever make a living playing sports. Athletics will not provide them with a livelihood once they are out of school.”
    “We don’t have anybody [who has graduated from CEHS] on a professional sports team right now. We’ve had some, but none in the major leagues,” he said. “Same idea of kids getting college scholarships. So small. [The chances] are better for girls than boys. Because of title IX there are more opportunities for girls.”
    One of the biggest changes he has seen in his 40 years as faculty, is the change in attitude about what kids can and can’t do, particularly female athletes. As an example he points to one of the exceptions to the rule that Cape Elizabeth students are unlikely to distinguish themselves as world-class athletes.
    “When Joanie Benoit started running, girls were only allowed to run a  mile. By the time she was a senior, they were allowed to run a mile.”
    Asked if the relative ease a fundraising effort to construct an artificial turf field came up with $650,000 was evidence of the importance placed on athletics, Weatherbie smiles.
    “You’re trying to get me in trouble,” he said then went on to say the turf field will provide a lot of benefits to the school. But he also acknowledged that several costs associated with the field have put a squeeze on his budget.
    “It has had an effect on my budget that affect other things that I need,” he said.
    Several requested new coaching positions were cut from the budget, following a directive from Supt. Alan Hawkins that no new positions would be part of the budget proposal.
    “If I didn’t have to put money in the turf field I might have had money for some coaching positions.”
    Weatherbie points out that these either/or decisions represent very small amounts of money compared to the overall school budget. Athletics is one of the areas most vulnerable to budget cuts even though it represents a disproportionately large degree of spirit and identity and a disproportionately small percentage of the budget.
    “It’s such a small percentage of the budget, but it’s an area they can look to cut,” he said. “Four years ago $50,000 was cut from the athletic budget. We could have cut a number of programs but after meeting with everyone involved it was decided to institute a participation fee.”
The participation fee requires every athlete to pay $125 per year to participate in the sports program at the high school and $45 at the middle school (there is a hardship waiver and Weatherbie said no student has ever had to sit out because they could not pay).
    The fee is only charged for athletes he said, adding that participants in non-athletic extracurricular activities don’t have to pay the fee. The fee is in addition to other costs borne by parents and athletes including contributions to booster clubs. Weatherbie estimated boosters subsidize sports teams to the tune of $150,000 per year in addition to the participation fee.
    “That’s $200,000 per year above what the school budget pays.”